Toothache

If you’ve ever had a deep, invasive toothache, then you know how bad it feels. It pulses with pain every time your heart dares to take a beat. Then it shocks you silly in the middle of nowhere with a random sharp electric pain that you weren’t expecting. But the in between – Oh my God – when it stops hurting it’s the most ecstatic feeling that is possible to feel here on earth! The lack of pain after an onslaught is better than any drug, or any amount of alcohol, or any kind of medicine that you could imagine.
That good feeling only lasts long enough to keep you from yanking out your own tooth. Very soon it goes right back to being an incessant, insistent part of your life. The kind of thing that makes it impossible to chew food properly, or even smile, because your face has become a hard and swollen mess. Now there really is only one option....The dentist.
If it were one of my children, I’d tell him how gentle the dentist is likely to be. I’d tell him how they now have a numbing cream so that even if you do have to get a shot, it isn’t going to hurt. Much. I’d tell him how it’s going to make him feel so much better once the cavity is dealt with. And then I would stand stoically next to him while he was treated…. By the Dentist… That I am mortally terrified by.
The above scenario has actually occurred. With my kids. But now it’s supposed to be me. And I would very very much like to pass on this experience. Yes, my tooth is hurting me to the point that I’m nearly sick. Yes, I take way more ibuprofen than is recommended. However – the thought of laying back in a chair and letting a stranger come at my face – never mind my actual mouth – with a ridiculously long needle… Yep. Nope. Can you all just chalk me off as too much of a coward and have that be done with?
With every new wave of pain I know that I’m wrong but I also know that I can’t face that needle. If I have to yank out my own tooth, I think that I might. Every time it hurts to the point that I almost can’t take it, I just take it a little bit more.
But let’s pretend for a little while more…