Week 10 - My Hell Tooth

What a week! It had way too much pain but hopefully it’s looking up now.

Randy, the super data guy, started on Monday. We all went out for Mexican at lunch and while I was eating my tamales, I noticed that my hell tooth, which has a crown, was beginning to hurt. Well, it was a good thing I’d had a big lunch because by the time I left work, I couldn’t bite down at all. I stopped at Tuesday Morning for yarn (a great haul of gorgeous stuff) and so didn’t have time for dinner before knitting, which wasn’t a problem because I couldn’t have eaten it anyway. Crap! There was definitely something going on.

I called my dentist first thing Tuesday and went right in at 8:00. He took an x-ray and said I had an abscess and needed a root canal. Damn! But at least this gave me hope that there’d be nothing left to do on this tooth that’s been bothering me for decades. He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and offered me one for pain killers, which I didn’t take. BIG mistake. I filled the antibiotic and went to work. I grabbed soft food (soup and mac & cheese) for lunch but was in lots of pain by the end of the day. I had the root canal scheduled for the next morning (the endodontist had a cancellation) but I wasn’t going to sleep a wink without those pills. I had planned to swim but instead had to rush back to Wahoo for my second trip of the day to the pharmacy. Sheesh! I took 2 pills and went to bed early.

I had planned to feed the cats and meet Nora (she’d made me tomato soup) before my root canal but they called just as I was leaving the house and asked me to come early. The root canal wasn’t that bad. I was only in the chair ~45 minutes and after 4 shots, I didn’t feel a thing. After picking up the soup, I was home by noon. Not bad. I took the only 2 Tylenol I had in the house when the novocaine started wearing off and sat in the sun knitting all afternoon. Then the mail came and I got my swap package, which included a beautiful shawl (notice the droop in the pic from the novocaine), and a box from Amazon. It was a nice afternoon, until the Tylenol wore off. I was in some pain and so popped a hydrocodone with dinner. It made me a bit tired but I stayed up until 10:00. I did wake up at midnight and took another pill but all in all was doing OK. I still had to go to the dentist for a permanent filling in my crown but could this be the final act of my hell tooth pain? I live in hope.

I stopped for more Tylenol on the way to work Thursday but was in very little pain and was actually able to eat a steak salad at lunch with Dodie. I was supposed to be not eating on that side and the injection site was sore enough to be a reminder not too. The tooth itself felt fine. It was time to get back to normal. I swam and then rushed home for a quick dinner (nuked tortilla bake) before heading to the library for book club. Only 3 of us showed up and there were no questions so we just chatted – total waste of time! And after the book was such a chore to get through. The final straw was the new book wasn’t there and Denise hadn’t even requested one yet. On the way out, Lori and I decided to stage a coup and take over book club. Since her sister works at the Library Commission, we had a connection to get the book packs and it was close enough so I could pick them up from work. Decision made.

Friday was Nora’s last day before being off for a week so we had some planning to do. Between that and lunch with Layton and a staff meeting, the day went by pretty quickly. Darla and I met at our thrift shop but I didn’t get a thing. I went home, took a shower and settled in for the weekend. It was my only weekend without plans all month but of course I had a to do list.

I started Saturday knitting but then got busy. I clipped my coupons and headed downtown. I had to drop the books at the library (Jennifer had picked them up for me on Friday), recycle and hit Dollar General, where I had a $5 off $25 coupon and a big list. When I got home, I got busy with chores. I was hoping to get most of them done so I’d have Sunday free for the crafting side of my list. I got most of the chores done and felt good about things when I went to bed. Since I was losing an hour of sleep, that was a good thing.

It was snowing on Sunday and it was time to craft. I only had Gina’s spinning wheel for 1 more week and hadn’t touched it so that was on the list, as well as making a bag with the woven thingie from the woman at spinning, which I needed to deliver next weekend. I wasn’t excited about either of those things but was about dyeing some wool. Guess what I did? I had dyeing fun in the afternoon and then sat down to spin.

After only 5 minutes, I came to the realization that I don’t want to spin. I’d rather be knitting and I already have more yarn than I can knit in my lifetime. Why would I need to make my own? Spinning is one of those things I like the idea of but not so much the actual doing. Another decision made! I was crossing spinning off my list. Maybe I’ll explore it again when I retire and have the time to do it but not now. Done! And I felt good about the decision. Maybe it’s time to evaluate a few other things in my life. Hmmm…..

I wish I felt as good about the rest of the day. I managed to get a few more things on my list done but I was antsy all day. I couldn’t settle on anything and didn’t even feel like cooking. I tried to make Rice Krispie Treats but the marshmallows were stale so they ended up in the trash. At the end of the day, all I had to show for my Sunday was some pretty yarn and 3 loads of laundry. And the snow they predicted as 1-3” was blowing all day and was more like 8-10” by dark. I would be facing an hour of shoveling first thing before work and on the first work morning of daylight savings time. Not an auspicious way to start the week. Oh well. Spring is coming soon.