Losing It

[liralen]

We've been having a rough time the last couple of days with schedules and other things, and my newly crowned tooth isn't showing any appreciation for it's new brand of royalty. At all. It's been hurting a lot the last couple of days. Not a lot more than when I first got it, but enough that I'm having to really use a lot of coping skills with it that I would rather not have.



I had used a lot of ibuprofen for the first couple of days after the dental work, but tried to cut back lately, severely, perhaps a bit too much, as whenever I eat the whole jaw line feels like it's on fire and throbbing carefully. A while after eating, it starts to calm down again, on the most part, but then on Tuesday morning we went on a bike ride...

It was actually a great bike ride. We took all our bikes on the back of the Eurovan and went to Marymoore Park. Four adult bikes fit on the rack along with Jet's little third wheel in the van body itself. The five of us got on our bikes and rode up the Sammamish Slough trail and cheerfully pedaled on up to 60 Acres, where we happened upon some water access and a young four-year-old boy and his grandfather playing with "boats" and trying to sink them with rocks. The boats were all sizes of sticks in the water, and boys being boys, George, John, and Jet joined them happily throwing lots of stones, rocks, and even BIGGER rocks at all the sticks to sink them. We stayed out there for a good thirty minutes, took a quick look at the fields that looked exactly as we'd played on them nearly a decade ago, and then rode back.

There's a steep bit with lots of tight curves around one of the bridges, and I may have gritted my teeth through that and, perhaps, a bit more, and it lit my whole jaw on fire. I did something that really ignited the nerves in there, and I was nearly sick with pain by the time we got back to Isabel and George's house. I took two extra strength tylenol before lunch and the cessation of pain was like a miracle. It just went away and with it that odd tightness around my whole head that sometimes signifies a migraine coming on, and the halo affect went away.

I carefully sat down and ate something with everyone and it got better.

I'm not at all sure what I did... but it scared me a lot.

I took a hot shower and that loosed up my shoulders a bit, but John greeted me when I came out and said that at 1:40, the receptionist at Dr. Snyder's had called to ask if I was coming to my 1:30 appointment! The card we had in my purse and my phone entry had said that the appointment was at 3, and we'd planned our day around that time. John told the receptionist that and she was very apologetic, but they didn't have a slot for me at 3 and they would have to work real hard to see if they could get me in tomorrow. Maybe. Since we were leaving Thursday morning for the Oregon coast, my heart just fell. John said that they'd try and figure it out...

It knocked me for a loop in some ways. We'd been planning for this for days, and there was a chance it wasn't going to happen?

John got me to go out with him, and we stopped by the Credit Union to do some banking things, and there was an art supply shop next door, so we stopped there for a bit. I found double Shuan paper, and being able to get it without having to pay for shipping was cool. Chinese paints were there along with a Happy Dot brush, so I just bought all that. From there we hit Victor's in Redmond, as the Tylenol was making me sleepy. I got a Java Jane, because I could, and it was very, very good.

We meandered about some, and at 3, I called the office, and they said that, indeed, I should not come in at the original time, they would call me in the morning if they could make a slot for me. One of the assistants was out sick, which is why the tightness of the scheduling, but they might have another in the morning.

When we got home, I had a little time with Dead Beat, one of the Dresden File books, and then we all went to Yeh's Wok for dinner. It was excellent. Jet even tried the jellyfish. Hee. We had Jellyfish with chicken, salt and pepper prawns, and Chinese broccoli after a very nice sizzling rice soup. So it was good. I was a little grumpy about my jaw aching after the meal, but within half an hour, the pain faded again. So it's not like it hurts ALL the time. A ray of light after all that morning pain.

I went to sleep kind of early, and was upset that my jaw hurt later that night. But I was tired... so... I went to sleep with just one ibuprofen, and it cut the pain but didn't take it all away. But by morning, things felt achy but not *painful*.

So it's better today, which was good. Then, while I was in the bathroom, my celphone rang and John got it and they had an opening for me at 9:30!! Woohoo!! We got there in plenty of time, and the fitting went great, and I'm really happy with the new guard. Whew.

I had only eaten a little at breakfast, but things didn't hurt much. Just that slow, low ache which wasn't breaking my head the way it was yesterday, so I'm much happier. I still took two ibuprofen for lunch, just to be safe, and I haven't felt a thing.

Jet's been doing great things while I was so distracted with my teeth. Today and yesterday, he made scrambled eggs for anyone that wanted an egg! I was very impressed, as he really wanted to do the hot work and he was very careful with the hot stove. He also picked two pounds of raspberries for Isabel and another pound of sugar snap peas for her as well. She paid him a good price for his work, and he wanted to go buy something at Target for the money. But nearly everything he wanted to get was a bit too expensive for his wallet, so he has decided he'll just save it until he gets his allowance! Yay! Saving money! :-) Whatever will he do next?

It's impressive to watch him work when he has a goal in mind.

John and I did a lot of running around this afternoon to get dinner together for tomorrow evening and to do our last bit of Trader Joe raiding that we could do. He even got a whole case of two buck Chuck in six varietals. I'm not sure if it's for the Oceanside party or to take home, but it's an impressive amount of wine. :-) It's also a good way to figure out if it's any good or not, and we'll see if we want to get more when we go here or to San Diego.

We managed to hit Costco, PCC, Trader Joe's, and QFC for everything we needed and a few things we didn't. It was a good trip.

I'm finally starting to feel mildly human again. I think that the real painful thing is that I know that I love to eat, and being unable to eat without it being a real pain has been really hard. *sigh*

I am also not too sorry that I haven't been able to contact Little Knits while I'm here. We did stop by Hilltop Yarn in Bellevue and got a few gadgets I've been peering at for a while. Jet loves the needle coils. I like them on the dp needles that were just running around my knitting bag. Now I can actually find them all. I also got the dps for making the sleeves of the Phoenix sweater, as my six inches are just too short to go all the way around a sleeve. And I finally got the needle tube for all my darning and sewing up needles. It's nice to see them all in one easy to pack container.

So I've done a little retail therapy as compensation. I asked the dental assistant about how long it takes for a newly crowned tooth to recuperate and she was very clear that a week is not nearly enough, really. So I'm not worried that I need a root canal or something, now, and that's a bit load off my mind. Whew...

Today, I did most of the morning without painkillers just because I could, and because the pain wasn't as bad as it as yesterday, so it's definitely better. I just took some insurance with lunch to keep my stomach from being unhappy and I think it should be good through dinner. I'll hope. :-)