Ouch!! It hurts....

It has never occurred to me that I would have to go through this but I did. It began with me thinking I was having this heat in me that would never go away which was causing my gums to feel sore all the time. Finally I picked up the phone and got myself a dental appointment at the first slot I could get. "Wow! How lucky," I thought to myself. An appointment the very next day.....

After dropping K at mum's, hubby and I went for our breakfast date. We arrived at the dental place pretty early and I still brought along my favourite kopi-o, sipping happily as I await my turn. Ok, I felt nervous...never liked someone prying into my mouth with some metal instruments which definitely hurt in some way or another. I told myself that I needed the check to assure me everything was ok in there.

Nervous...nervous....I walked into that fateful room with a look that said "Hey, I'm cool!". Hey! I was greeted by a very friendly dentist..Phew, at least that made me feel young and alive. Well, he said..you have some swollen gums in there....but you must have a strong pain threshold bearing with all that pain..best thing is to get rid of it. Hmmmm..totally agree! But that would mean "SURGERY!" Yucks, who likes that??? First of all, they had to get the skeleton profile of my mouth and I was made to wear this heavy apron and stand with my chin rested on a stand, bit a slanted stick while the hi-tech machine moved around my head...feels like being in some outer space capsule. When that was done, we had some discussions about what's gonna be done.

Ok, when? I asked. He told me to get it done next door if they had a slot for me. Too soon....not mentally prepared and with all the hectic schedule I have to make fast arrangements. He told me 5 days MC. Oh dear, who's going to cover me? I made a few fast calls while he was writing me a ref letter.

I walked next door to get the appt...10am next morning. Sounds like some doomsday for me. The counter staff told me to confirm it before she blocked the appointment. She could sense that I might get cold feet. "Fine!" I said and shot a look at my hubby.

Next morning, I had to drop K off at mum's again but last minute he had to follow her to send my precious nephew to his 'glam' playschool after she was mobilised with one day's notice. So much so for pre-arranging everything the night before.

Initially I thought it would be good to go for the surgery on my own and have mum pick me up after that but thought against it since hubby managed to get half day off to accompany me. Thank goodness he sensed my apprehension. I was feeling pretty depressed when I heard that he had a VIP in town that day. Mum suggested I called my good friend J but she was nursing a bad throat and I had rejected her offer when she texted me to ask if I needed her (guess that she too, knew how I felt).

By 10am, I was at the clinic getting into the dental chair which I had to stay put for the next 90 mins. After some discussion with the D-in charge, I settled down for them to begin. They put a bib around my neck and covered my eyes ..Hey! I was like going for a spa treatment. The dentist actually laughed at that comment. Anyway, the horror began when he injected 3 pricks into the wall for the mouth..slowly I was engulfed by the feeling of numbness. He pressed around the area to make sure I had lost total control of it and had to do one more jab. Ok...the more the merrier....as long as I didn't feel anything through the process. How wrong I was.....

I squirmed when I heard all the sounds of drilling and sawing...I had my nails pressed so tightly against my flesh and maybe the LA worked so well that I didn't feel any pain on my hands at all. Towards the end, I was actually yelling out as they pressed so hard against my jaw that I thought I had to walk out of there with a broken one. Why did I get myself into this??? I almost threw in the towel when he finally said..your tooth's out! That didn't bring tears of joy but more like I survived the ordeal.

I got some painkillers swallowed immediately knowing that the pain would be unbearable after what I had been through. Hubby drove me to mum's before heading back to attend to his VIP. After two hours of napping, I felt this tremendous throbbing. I knew I needed something to ease the pain but I had already taken one dose of the painkillers so I picked up the phone and called the clinic again. Due to my allergy, he could only prescribe a certain range of drug so I had to rely on P again. Took two before mum drove me to school to pick N up and head home. However it took some time for the medicine to work. I couldn't bear the pain and snapped at mum when she told me to cook porridge for dinner. Food was the last thing on my mind then !! (My apologies for that..but she'll understand).

Somehow, despite hubby returning home late and having to see to the kids dinner...I survived ! The experience left me to appreciate having a daughter who is capable of picking her bro up from the school bus and getting dinner for themselves. Thank god for her......and M fastfood and a son whose first words the minute he got home were...."Your cheek look swollen." But, I knew what he meant......