From Photo a Day 2010 – January

Well I may as well start by describing the good part. That was that I fell asleep last night at about 11 pm, I hadn’t taken any pain meds so my stomach was feeling good, and I was just so tired. I slept through (waking up to pee at about 6 am but barely waking up), until about 2 pm this afternoon. I was like… wtf… but I felt really rested like I had really, really needed that.

I went to the dentist’s shortly afterwards, and it was another horror show. Seriously. Well, it started out OK. They put the dental dam on and that didn’t hurt. Even when she flossed, it didn’t hurt too bad. I was feeling like hey, I can do this, the bad part is over. But then while the dentist was starting to fill in the emptied out tooth, I kept getting little shoots of pain whenever he hit a certain place. I kept wincing so he decided to freeze me (why he didn’t do that in the first place I do not know). But then, even with the freezing, he all of a sudden hit a spot that felt like he was jamming a hot dagger right into the sorest part of where the pain had ever come from. And I was like ‘ARGGGH’ under the dental dam (which came out pretty muffled). He says “a little pinch there?” and I said “NO PAIN” (not like he could understand me very well). He asked if it was dissipating, I said no. He waited a minute or two and it was still hurting like hell. Then he decided to take another x-ray to see what was going on. It turns out that some of the stuff that they fill the tooth with had broken through my root and right into the sensitive tissue. This is apparantly not a very common complication, but fairly normal at the same time. So the rest of the job hurt like a fucking bitch, including when the packed the second root. Just searing pain, the worst yet.

I was still frozen so it started to dissipate a bit at least, but when I got to work the freezing was wearing off and the pain just increased continually for the next few hours, in spite of me taking advil. It finally got a bit better by about 10 pm. Meanwhile I was icing my face, and having serious difficulty focusing on work. I did manage to eat my dinner (I had gotten some takeout on the way to work), but it took me about 2 hours of working at it in little bites to do so. It hurt but it was worth it, it was my very favorite dinner, spanikopita with rice from the greek place at the mall and the only thing I’d had to eat today (excepting a yop I had for breakfast). I really needed the food in me. Yesterday I ate quite well because I didn’t have pain, but today it is harder again.

So since I had this little complication, he couldn’t put the final crown on the tooth, because if there are any more problems (which I really really hope I am not having, being as I am still having so much pain again), he can get back into the tooth easier this way. I am going back on Sat to hopefully finish things off, finally. At this point though, I really don’t even know if I want to hope that it will be over with by then. This whole thing has been a fucking nightmare.

I started working at my stats homework tonight at work. Back into that. I am feeling better about school this term than I expected to, though, so that is a good thing.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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From Photo a Day 2010 – January

Well yesterday was a really weird day. It’s sort of gotten to the point where all I’ve been doing is trying to decrease the pain to the point where I can sleep, and squeezing in a few hours of rest until the pain comes back.

So last night I slept very weird hours through the night, in little bits here and there. I was anxious about the dental appointment too but like I said before, so eager to get it over with. When I got there, I explained to the (new) dentist (the other one is still out sick I presume) that I have been having quite a lot of pain still. So he had a look. He said it’s a possibility that there is a buildup of puss and blood inside the canals, and that it’s basically stuck in there due to the temp filling, and it’s putting pressure on the gum/bone from the inside. That sounded about like what I’ve been feeling. The shitty part is, the way to find out if this is the case, is to take the temp filling out without freezing me, and see if the pain goes away.

It was basically another horror show. The tooth and the area around it was so sensitive and painful already. It hurt so fucking much when they put the dental dam on, and then the hygienist starts FLOSSING around the painful tooth. I guess there was probably lots of crud in there and they needed it out of the way, but this was excruciating for me. I have sensitive gums at the best of times. Then the drilling, which was mostly not too bad except for the odd moment when it hit in the wrong spot. I felt like such a wuss, cringing away and crying out muffled cries underneath the dental dam, I felt like screaming though so I think I did pretty good as far as not freaking out. I was listening to my iPod again with nice soothing relaxation music on. It felt almost ridiculous to have that lovely spa type music on while they were drilling and poking me and causing me so much pain.

I really don’t think I was being that much of wuss. It sounds like I was. The dentist kept saying things like “oh you’re a little tender there I see.” More than a little. Maybe I have a low pain threshold or something, I don’t know, but this stuff HURT like a bitch.

Once he got the tooth open he asked if there was any relief, but I was feeling so much pain from everything else that actually it felt much worse, not better. So I couldn’t really tell. He said there was blood and puss draining out. He was going to try to see if it would stop and then put the crown on, but it didn’t, so now I have to wait until tomorrow for the crown. I am to expect “a bit of a funny taste in my mouth.” Yeah. It’s fucking gross. It’s blood and puss from an abscessed tooth that is now a big wide open hole in my mouth.

Actually I have to say, that now the gum is settling down and the area in general is calmer from all the poking and prodding, I definitely do feel a relief of pressure. I haven’t taken any painkillers today and the pain is totally manageable now. So this is a big relief. My stomach just can’t take anymore advil. I’m having enough of a hard time with the penicillin. Did I mention it’s making my pee smell REALLY weird? And it’s making me nauseous too.

So now I am saying, one more day, I still feel like total crap overall but at least the pain is getting better. My house is a mess, the Christmas tree needs very badly to be taken down, and all I want to do is sleep.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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From Photo a Day 2010 – January

Today the pain has been slightly more bearable, except for a few periods of time. The worst thing today though is how sick I am feeling to my stomach. When I first woke up, I came so close to vomiting, and I didn’t know if I should take more advil & tylenol or not. I have been taking high doses of both, on the orders of the dentist, but I had been warned that they could be hard on my stomach. And of course I have a very sensitive stomach. I felt so nauseous, couldn’t eat for the pain, and couldn’t decide whether to take the pills or not. Plus, I had a phone call on the machine from the dentist that they needed to reschedule my appointment since he was sick today.

OK so I had a few crackers and a yop and took a smaller dose of the advil/tylenol (more like the normal dose than the doctor-recommended-only dose), and the penicillin, and I managed to keep it down but it was a close thing. I went to school and went to my first class, but came home before going to stats. I hate stats so much anyway and I still haven’t really come to terms with the fact that I am actually taking more of it now. As far as biochem went, I actually am sort of liking the idea of taking it again, which is weird considering how difficult I have found it in the past! However, I did take Biochem 200 twice in order to get the grade that was required to take 300 (even though now they have removed that requirement, I probably am better off for having taken it twice). It would be a real shame not to get it done, and once I have it, I will officially have all the requirements to apply to medical school should I decide I want to in future. And if not, I will have taken an interesting and challenging course. I was going to take a women’s psychology course as an elective but after reading the course outline, I wanted to hurl almost as bad as I did from all the pills this morning. So wishy washy and full of all that feminist crap that drives me nuts. I believe that women should be equal to men, sure, but I have a real problem with feminism in that it takes the whole gender issue to a really angry extreme where men seem to become the enemy and/or a lower life form to women.

Anyway, I came home. I don’t think I mentioned that, when I called the dentist’s office this morning to reschedule, they said he wouldn’t be able to see me until NEXT tuesday. I just about had a fit. I said “I don’t think I can wait that long, I am in so much pain.” So they said they could put me in with a different dentist at their clinic tomorrow morning. On the way home I was thinking about the fact that they were going to try to put me off a week and I just about started crying. I know the receptionist doesn’t really know anything about me and probably even the dentist doesn’t realize what I’ve been going through this past week, but really, how could they possibly think I could go through another week of this? It was irrational but I felt really misunderstood and I was upset about that. Still, I am getting seen tomorrow so I guess that I can make it through one more night. Even that much seems like too much to deal with.

After another round of pills and about an hour of icing my face, I managed to get to sleep. Last night I didn’t get to sleep until about 4 am, and then was up at 8, then had to get up for school at 10. So I was pretty exhausted. I slept for a few hours in the afternoon before the pain came back. It’s still high enough that it’s hard to sleep more, but not so high that I can’t stand it. That’s what I mean about better. I guess what is worse about today is that now I have to wait until tomorrow. I am scared about the procedure, anxious to get it over, and worried that it won’t end up fixing the problem. I feel like I’m at my wits’ end.

Today I have managed to eat some pasta and with a bit of discomfort, another cheese stick. And crackers. So I am not completely starving to death. It’s still not the same as eating properly and enjoying it. Every bite, even of squishy pasta, hurts. And no matter how much I brush my teeth they feel all gross. I can’t handle my electric toothbrush right now so I’m back to the old fashioned kind, and it just doesn’t do a good job. I can’t really brush The Tooth at all either so that area is feeling really nasty.

Ugh I just can’t wait for this all to be over. I know I sound like a complete whiner but I don’t even care.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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From Photo a Day 2010 – January

Last night was pretty rough but I did get some sleep. I fell asleep on the couch at about 1 am watching Tyler playing a video game. Then I dragged myself to bed. At about 5 am I woke up badly in pain, I got up for about an hour or so, icing my face, swishing salt water, and brilliantly stacking some tylenol on top of the advil because I wasn’t ready for another dose of advil again. This actually helped quite a bit, and I got back to sleep until about 8:45am, at which point I called the dentist for an appointment. There was no time to do my full procedure today but at least I could go in for a quick checkup. I took more advil, iced my face a bit more, then fell back asleep from about 10-12. At this point, I was actually having some pain relief, and just wanted to sleep rather than go back to the dentist, but I knew I had to go or I’d regret it later, so I got myself out of bed and went. I was still wearing my clothes from last night, which is an indicator to me of how uncomfortable I am with my mouth, because I hadn’t even noticed. Usually I would never sleep in a bra or anything except jammies, because I just can’t get comfortable.

Anyway at the dentist’s I unfortunately had to wait for ages, during which time the pain started coming back anyway. Just at the point about an hour into waiting when I remembered I had a paperback in my purse to read, and pulled it out, the dentist finally came in. He had a look at the tooth, it looks like I am probably grinding on it in the night. Wtf? Like seriously, why in the hell would I do that? I guess it’s not like it’s intentional, but still. So, maybe because he was in a hurry or because I was already hurting so much, I don’t know, he takes out his little dentist bone grinder tool and grinds part of the tooth down without freezing me or anything. It fucking hurt so much. Like it felt like something out of a horror movie. Let’s take a sore place and introduce a grinder to that nerve that’s already screaming. He apologized to me at least although he didn’t really give much explanation. This is one of the reasons I so dislike dentists. They just do shit like that to you without really asking permission first or even letting you know what to expect. I guess it probably makes more sense to them to not tell you, so you don’t tense up or something. I don’t know. There wasn’t even a dental hygienist there to rinse my mouth out with the nice suction and all that. He gave me a little cup of water to rinse with but it didn’t get the taste of bone dust out of my mouth.

And he didn’t give me anymore drugs. I didn’t ask though. I can’t handle much in the way of good painkillers, so probably anything that would help, I wouldn’t be able to take anyway. He said to keep taking the antibiotics and the advil and yes I can take tylenol too and to just try to make it through one more day until he can finish the root canal tomorrow.

On the way home I stopped at McDonalds to get a milkshake, because I needed some calories and I also really needed to get the awful taste of bone out of my mouth. I hadn’t had a milkshake from McDonalds in probably a decade or more, and it was absolutely sickeningly sweet and really grossed me out. So much for that idea. I drank a bit of it just because it tasted better than what was currently in my mouth, but threw the rest out. The sugar in it probably would have just been worse for the tooth anyway. I think it was about 90% sugar. I may try some pasta later today. Or, I have some scalloped potato mix, that awful Betty Crocker stuff that tastes really yummy. I am so hungry right now. But, I did eat a cheese stick successfully this morning, when the pain was at its lowest today. It was delicious but it did bring the pain back. Since the pain was probably coming back anyway, I think it was worth it.

Now I’m back in bed and I’m going to try to have a nap until the painkillers wear off again. I thought it would be hard to take pills 4x a day, but since they seem to wear off in about 3-4 hours it’s actually not hard to remember at all.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

From Photo a Day 2010 – January

So much pain. Today I cannot eat. And my stomach feels like shit. I am starving and I feel weak. I went to work and was feeling so nauseous that I bought one of those soft cereal bars from the vending machine, just to get something in there. All the advil and antibiotics have been making me feel a bit nauseated anyway, so add an empty stomach to that… well it just makes it worse. The cereal bar was soft and OK to get down, but obviously not enough. On my dinner break I went and got a smoothie from Starbucks. Then we went and I bought a bunch of yop. Yop goes down well too. However I am getting sick of the liquid diet very quickly, and it’s just not enough. Tonight when I was leaving work, my stomach felt so gross and acidic, like I really needed some bread or something nice like that in there. So I went back to the grocery store, picked up more advil and some cheese bread sticks. Well I seriously couldn’t eat it. I had a little mini breakdown and threw the breadstick at the floor.

The pain is just excruciating again. If anything it’s just getting worse. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced before. When it’s bad like this, it’s all I can think about. I feel like it’s going to drive me crazy. Last night I did not sleep hardly a wink. I even took my last tramocet (drugs I got given for after my knee surgery). It barely touched this pain. After my knee surgery, when the pain was at its worst, those pills just took it away like magic. I doubt I will sleep tonight. Tomorrow I am calling the dentist first thing, and I just hope he can fix this. If he wants to just pull the fucking thing out I won’t even care if there’s an ugly gap in my mouth. I’m close to ripping it out myself. I do hope there’s a way to save the tooth though. It would suck to lose a tooth at 25.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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A very happy new year to all of you. I've been terribly quiet this past year - caught up with life and work.

With 2009 over, it's that time of the year to reflect on what my 2009 has been like. Previous reviews have included:

• 2008 in review
• 2007
• highlights of 2006
• 2005 in retrospect
• reviewed 2004.

In summary, 2009 was (mostly) another good year. Filled with lots of interesting things and events. I spoke at a number of events, including the Girl Geek Dinners, BarCamp Canberra and the Edge of the Web conference. It was sad news about my friend Sharon having a stroke. In other news, 2009 seems to be the year for babies. Lots of friends got pregnant in 2009 or had babies in 2009.

My 2010 resolutions? Live a simpler life, declutter and do good.

January 1st: My good friends penicillin, orajel, and toothpaste for sensitive teeth

Well, we’re into 2010. I am still having trouble every time I do referrals at work, entering the right year (I have to type the date out quite a lot at work so you’d think I’d get used to it fast). I guess after a few more days I will be used to it. I don’t know how many times I have typed 2009 when I should have typed 2010.

January 2: Tiger barbs in our aquarium

I finally got a good night’s sleep last night, but I was still tired when I woke up. My tooth is barely hurting at all now, but I still have a cold. It’s just been a crappy week. I am glad it’s almost over. Kind of anxious about going back to the dentist but I will be glad when the crown is put on and it’s all done with.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

IMG_9144, originally uploaded by adelerium.

My favorite photo from Christmas.

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So, thank you penicillin. Today I woke up to find that… while my tooth still hurts in any of my previous to this week’s definitions of pain… it feels blissfully more serene than it did yesterday. It is no longer screaming at me. Now it is simply whining quietly every now and again. I think the infection is beaten down. In fact, now that I have taken advil, I am feeling almost nothing. I am almost unaware that the tooth exists once again. This is extremely relieving. Last night I put together another video clip from all my photos of 2009. Well not all of them, just the highlights. I have almost 1000 photos in my collection from last year alone! I know I take a lot of pictures, but really that is kind of insane. And about 900 of them are of my cats and/or dog. Not sure what this year’s project will be. I think I might do another photo a day, like the one I did two years ago (ie, not just my own ugly mug every day). I can’t imagine NOT doing a photo each day at this point since I have been doing it for two years now. Anyway, here’s my little tribute to 2009.

Originally published at Amy's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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