Yesterday, I woke up at 7:00am (so really 6:00am to my body – thanks Daylight Savings Time) with the most terrible toothache of my life. It was like the kind of sharp excruciating pain that makes you want to scream, except you can’t scream because your tooth is killing you. I quickly took a Darvocet that I had leftover from something or the other and sprayed the tooth with some Chloraseptic to numb it. The Chloraseptic gave me about 20 seconds of relief before the pain came back and I wanted to smash my head into the wall.

I was trying not to wake Jim up, but finaly I woke him up and asked him to call the dentist. All this happened between sprays of Chloraseptic – it was starting to make me sick but it was the only way I could handle the pain. Seriously, I told Jim that I’d rather be having a baby than suffering that toothache. The dentist called me in some Vicodin and some antibiotics and Jim got me a shot of Vodka to hold in my mouth.

Vodka at 8:00am, when you’re feeling sick to begin with, is not very enjoyable. I finally couldn’t handle it any more and tried just holding some water in my mouth. Surprisingly it helped. And it’s what I did for the next 4 hours. I took another Darvocet around 9:00am, and just sat there watching the clock, with a mouthful of water, waiting for 45 minutes to pass so I could get some relief. It didn’t help. And I just started to cry, which was really hard with a mouthful of water. I was so frustrated by the pain and the lack of relief, I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep and that I’d be up all night, holding water in my mouth. I just couldn’t take it. Honor was sitting on the couch, and he kept asking, “Mommy are you crying?” And he started to cry. I felt so bad, he was worried about me. And he was being so sweet, giving me hugs and touching my cheek.

Finally, after two Vicodin and some antibiotics, I threw up. And for some reason, my tooth started to feel better. (I think the antibiotics started to help.) I was finally able to sleep. Since then it’s gotten better and better. Although, I’m still taking Vicodin every 4 hours, I’m scared for the pain to come back.

I went to the dentist this morning, and I have to have a root canal. A SIXTEEN HUNDRED DOLLAR root canal. Either that or have my tooth pulled. So I went ahead and scheduled it for Wednesday, but I’m sitting here thinking, is my tooth worth $1600? That’s like a down payment on a car. I think I’m going to go ahead and do it, but geeze this sucks. I’m just glad I’m not dying from pain anymore.