Killing me softly #AtoZChallenge

I'm participating in the Blogging from A-Z Challenge again this year. Today's post is brought to you by the letter K.

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I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today, but then by either really good luck or really bad luck, a topic fell into my lap.  As I sit here with a pounding head and throbbing gums, the song "Killing Me Softly" starting running through my brain.  And so, I'll whine a little about the pain that is currently killing me.  (Okay, "killing me" might be a bit of an exaggeration.)

I had a bit of tooth pain when Presley was first born and until yesterday, it had pretty much subsided.  I noticed yesterday morning that when I brushed my teeth, one of my upper right molars hurt pretty bad.  It was certainly a new and unwelcome sensation, but manageable.  In fact, I made it through the day without thinking twice about it.   This morning, there was no ignoring it.  The pain was intense, like an electric shock through my body.  The aching mouth that followed was hard to work through.  I hadn't been to the dentist since I was 8 or 9, but I was able to find a local dentist that accepted my insurance and could fit me in right away.

After x-rays and pictures, the dentist let me know that although my teeth were in really good shape considering the lack of professional dental care, my wisdom teeth and one molar needed to be extracted.  Typically they prefer doing root canals to save the teeth, but mine were in too bad of shape and the cost associated with saving them was way higher than it was worth.  The dentist said he could do the extraction today, too, so we agreed to just get it done.

After a good cleaning, my mouth was numbed.  Being my first time getting any kind of real dental work done, I wasn't sure what to expect.  The numbing shots left me with the oddest sensation.  Thankfully it kept me from feeling him rip my 4 wisdom teeth and that decayed molar out of my face.  The extraction itself actually went really fast.  I was at the dentist's office for exactly 2 hours, from start to finish.  I had planned to go back to work but the dentist put the kibosh on that right away.  

Until the shots wore off, I felt like I had a huge sagging lip, but no pain whatsoever.  The pain sort of crept in slowly at first, and then began to crescendo about 5 hours after the extraction.  Being pregnant, Tylenol is the only pain medication I can take safely.  I was worried it wouldn't be strong enough, but I can now tell you that it does take the edge off the headache, which is better than nothing.  I can eat soft foods today, real food tomorrow, and was given strict instructions to take it easy until Sunday.

This is now how I envisioned the day going, but even if I'm not feeling the greatest, I'm happy with the care I received and how quickly it all happened.  And I can tell you with all the confidence in the world that I will definitely not be waiting another 3 decades before my next dental visit.