How I Became a Giant Tooth
It started tentatively Friday night in bed. A bit of tenderness, a slight ache easily ignored. No problem doing my first reading to the live audience in over two years. I got a standing ovation and they wanted an encore.
That night, pain woke me @ 2 a,m, I took a couple of Aleves, but couldn’t get back to sleep. All that day it got worse and worse. I cooked supper but couldn’t chew – it was too blindlngly painful. I called the dentist as soon as she opened on Monday and she got me in during her lunch hour. My assistant Dale took me and got kefir milk while I was in the dentist chair. I could drink that. She took X-rays and probed. She said it was two of 2 possibilities, the first of which, infected gum, could be fixed by antibiotics. She prescribed a powerful antibioltic and a powerful painkiller. The painkiller diminished the pain t although it still hurt. I have a low pain threshold. She also put salve on the surrounding area to numb it till I could fill the prescriptions. The other possibility was that a root canal tooth had an infected root that had been missed. That would be difficult, as there is a recent crown on that tooth. It would be lengthy and expensive.
The new painkiller diminished the pain to much less and sometimes no pain at all, but had many side effects I hate. I don’t like painkillers. They turn my bowels to cement and keep me from sleeping and turn my brain to slime. But the antibiotics seemed to be working. I saw the dentist Thursday. She prescribed more antibiotics. the swelling has gone down and I can eat more things, but she still is not sure of the cause. It’s still sore on the gum above the crown, the original spot of soreness.
We’re going to Stephanie and Tasha’s house for supper with Dale, Stephen and my friend Karen. It’s Stephanie’s birthday this coming week as well as mine and Karen’s this past week. Will there be a cake? (Frankly, I’d prefer pie.)
Woody planted spinach. I’m a little worried about that, as we have two nights of very cold weather coming. He wanted me to plant lettuce, but I said, not till after Tuesday night as it’s supposed to go down to 24 degrees Monday night. I worry about all the daffodils already blooming. The crocuses will be fine.
The ongoing saga of trying to get a gas powered fireplace insert installed is going on and on and on. Installation complete, we are now at the mercy of the plumbing inspector.
Back to writing poems after a hiatus caused by all the pain and drugs. It’s feeling so much better to have a clean head that feels attached to my body instead of a balloon floating several feet above.
I won’t watch the Oscars [I find them boring] but Woody might unless there’s a good basketball game on. I long to get out in the garden, but with the two cold nights coming, I don’t think I should even uncover any more beds. We let the leaves stay on and rot over the winter as they offer some protection to the roots of perennials. Today I am starting two kinds of pumpkin – New England pie and blue prince. Also zinnias and cosmos for the pollinator garden.