Saturday night I'm lying there in bed, happily tired after my Cleesian excursion, and I thought that I felt something as my face pressed into the pillow. Digging a finger inside my cheek, running it along the gum, suddenly I really did feel something: a lump, right below the tooth that got worked on two weeks ago, and when I pressed on said lump it made me go "Yikes!" There was a metallic taste in my mouth, and I had noticed that the tooth seemed a little extra-sensitive to temperature. Plus, all along I had been feeling a stab of pressure any time I bit down on that tooth. I got out of bed, went to the computer, navigated to WebMD and looked at the list of symptoms for an abscess.
Then cursed and growled and went back to bed, but did not sleep.
As I turned it and turned it in my head, one thought gave me mild comfort: the location of that painful lump on the gum. When I got the fillings done, as you'll recall, I told Doc Gordon to "numb me the hell up," and he did. And after the novocaine wore off, the only spot that still hurt was where he had injected me with the needle that last time. For several days, that particular spot remained sore; and now there was a lump there. So maybe the needle had done something? Maybe some of the bacteria that live in the mouth had seen this lovely little tunnel and gone spelunking, causing an infection?
I went to see Dr. Gordon today, and here's the value of telling a doctor every symptom, no matter how weird: after describing everything else, I then said "And I could swear the tooth is up higher than it used to be." That turned out to be important.
He took a look, and as I tried to point out where the lump was, I realized it wasn't there anymore. There was a bit of mild tenderness, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly where. He poked me with a sharp instrument and it was no big deal; he took an x-ray and could no see abscess of any kind.
Our best guess? That two things were happening at once: (1) yes, something happened with the needle, but my immune system was already dealing with the infection, well enough that he didn't even see a need to prescribe antibiotics; and (2) my impression that the tooth was higher than it used to be indicated that in fact it was, so that every time I bit down it was getting compressed and, therefore, hurting. So he took his little drill, smoothed out the high spot, and the difference was much more dramatic than I would ever have expected. Go in peace, the doc said, and I did.
There's another lesson in all of this, though--eventually I will need a root canal. It's just one of those things that happen. Pain, it happens. And as you get older, it happens more. Muscle pain lingers longer (I got my first professional massage last week, and felt great for about a day, then it was back to normal). Your shoulder starts to hurt when you move it, and never stops. One day a simple fall will break something that had always been solid before. A hip will need replacing. A cold won't go away like it used to. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This stuff just happens. So at a certain point you have to just learn how to live with pain, to accept that it happens, and the longer you resist the harder it becomes to resist.
But enough with the life lessons. Let's just mention that I saw V For Vendetta last night and liked it a lot, and that now I'm going to get back to Beaudry and do some touch-up work before doing a reading/critique session with Marc and Buffie on Friday.
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