Update

I went to the dentist yesterday and was told that some cement that was used to place my temporary crown had not been cleaned off so that was why my gums and tongue and mouth hurt so bad. The assistant cleaned out the cement and got some pretty big pieces out of there. Then she filed down the edges of the temporary crown so it wouldn't rub against my tongue anymore. I think I was there for all about ten minutes, but the relief was almost immediate. The swelling has gone down 90% and my mouth and ear doesn't hurt anymore. There is a blister on the back of my tongue where it was rubbing on the crown, but now that will be able to heal. I feel so much better now. I told her she was "a miracle worker amongst dental people". I don't know what exactly I was saying other than THANK YOU!! Such relief!

My Recent Adventure

I've been quite busy these past few weeks. I've had a lot of things to do, and a good amount of energy in which to do them, thankfully. A little while ago I broke my tooth whilst sampling the new Fiesta Starbursts. They were yummy. While we were trying them I bit down on one and heard this very faint click. I pulled out the Starburst to find a perfectly preserved portion of my tooth embedded right in the Starburst. The good thing is that I had a root canal done on the tooth over 18 years ago, so there wasn't any pain. The bad news was that I was going to have to go to the dentist and get it repaired. I don't do so well with dentists.

So, I went and had a dentist look at it and he said that he could save the tooth, but that it definitely needed to have a crown put on it. I went in on Thursday of last week to have my tooth prepped for the crown. They told me it would be about an hour and a half in the chair. I was there for two and a half hours. I don't know if it was because they were busy or because my tooth was pretty bad. They pulled out the old filling, cleaned out the decay that was in there, refilled it with a new filling, and then fit me for a temporary crown. I had a few shots of the numbing liquid so I wouldn't feel anything, but then about half way through the procedure I needed to get another shot since I could start to feel things a little. I told him I didn't need it, but he said that he had to do it. Bummer. I think the shots are the worst part.

After I left the office I was shaking all over, like I was really cold deep down and just couldn't get warm. That lasted for a couple of days and I really think it was just my body trying to defend itself from the terror that was the dentists office. The dentist and the assistants were extremely nice and I felt very comfortable around them. I just don't like people poking around in my mouth with sharp objects and painful procedures that I know are going to hurt later. And on top of that I've noticed lately that it takes me almost twice as long to recover from things that would normally take less. That's actually something new I've noticed this year.

Anyway, my mouth hurt pretty bad once I got home and it became especially painful for me to talk or swallow or move my mouth at all, so I ended up taking Tylenol a couple of times that evening and calling it a day. The next day I took some when I woke up, but the pain seemed significantly better, so I thought things were healing nicely. However, a couple of days after my appointment my mouth hurt really bad and I tried to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. Was it the tooth? Was it my cheek? Was it the gums or my tongue? Where? I figured out that I had a blister under my tongue where the suction tube was resting for lengthy periods of time while they worked on my tooth. I figured that would just take time to go away, but the outside edge of my tongue was extremely sensitive and the gums along my tooth line next to my cheek were really swollen. I thought maybe it was a delayed reaction to the work on my tooth so I took some more Tylenol and just tried to rest my mouth to see if that made it better.

Let's just skip forward to today where I am putting Oral Gel on my gums and cheek and tongue every four hours and trying not to move my mouth at all. It is so painful, and so swollen, and now the gums, tongue, and cheek all have little white spots on them around that area, and my right ear hurts as well. I don't know if the white spots are little blisters or infection or something, but I called my dentist's office today to ask him about it. I normally would try and give it some more time, but the swelling has spread to the whole lower half of my jaw and is starting to affect my bottom front teeth. Not only that, but it is still incredibly painful. I haven't eaten on that side of my mouth since I first broke my tooth, I brush my teeth every day and rinse with the Crest Pro Health rinse. I drink water to keep my mouth hydrated, and I am really trying to create a healing environment in my mouth. The blister under my tongue is getting better, but this other stuff just keeps getting worse. The secretary at the dentists office said it was something she wanted me to come in and have the dentist look at, but he wasn't in the office today so I have an appointment tomorrow at noon. I hope it's nothing serious, though I don't think I would be surprised if it turned out to be. That's just the way things are going for me, so I'm not going to freak myself out or worry about it until I know. I really don't think it's a root canal since I already had that done on my tooth, and it doesn't hurt like pain from a nerve. It's this swelling and irritation and white spots and ear pain that have me concerned. We'll see tomorrow. I hate the thought of going back in, but something must be done to relieve this swelling and irritation.

Driving

Today I had to take an unexpected trip to Boulder, Colorado. Have you ever been there? Some of you have, but others may not have. I personally do not like Boulder. It is incredibly difficult to get anywhere, to park anywhere, or to find anything...at least for me it is. They have cross walks in the middle of the road that flash when someone is crossing the street, and then 25 feet further down the road they have a stoplight. Why people can't cross the street at the stoplight is beyond me. I think I stopped five separate times for people to cross the street and another five times a few seconds after those at stoplights. The word that comes to my mind is "excessive".

Driving through Boulder gave me plenty of time to think and people watch. There are so many people in Boulder, and the variety of people is so broad that you never know quite what to expect. I saw a homeless man on the corner of one of the main streets who looked tired, holding up a used cardboard sign, and appeared to have been wearing the same clothes for days. My heart always goes out to homeless people. If we all only knew how close to being homeless each of us were than maybe we wouldn't look down on them in disgust, or try to ignore them while we are waiting for the light to change. Believe me, I am not preaching by any means. I do my best to help the homeless in my own way, I'm just trying to get us thinking about how we treat those less fortunate than us. At any rate, this homeless man saw a car that was broken down, and he didn't hesitate to run over and help the driver push his car to the side of the road. Before the light changed and I drove away I saw him signal for the guy to pop the hood so he could take a look at the engine.

I saw another lady saunter across the road while at a stoplight. That's something else I noticed about Boulder. There aren't a lot of people in a hurry. Pedestrians know they have the right away and they are confident that nothing will happen to them. This lady was wearing a long sleeved sweater with the shortest running shorts I have ever seen. She had on a backpack with a ragged stuffed animal on the end of a small key chain attached to the side. It looked like it had seen better days, but I wondered how many memories she associated with that little animal. She had on a pair of running shoes and another pair tied to the backpack. She looked like she had all the time in the world as she causally made her way across the street.

Two blocks further I reached the business district where suits and ties were almost required attire. Men with blue shirts and white cuffs, red ties and black slacks casually conversed while walking to or from a building. Women in knee length skirts, pastel blouses and high heels happily chatted away with each other, and I stopped for all of them. In the middle of all the business people was a little family with two strollers and wearing sweats. It looked like they were coming from the park right across the street. I couldn't see any children but I could tell by the way they protected the strollers that they contained precious cargo. The woman looked tired, but happy; the man the same.

It was almost overload for me. I had to constantly keep my eye out for people and make sure I stopped at the cross walks when the light flashed. I had to constantly check for cars to make sure I didn't hit anyone and no one hit me, and I had to make sure I was in the right lane so I wouldn't miss my turns and have to travel back through the streets before I could catch the one I wanted again. Like I said before, it's not very easy getting around Boulder...at least not for me. I had music on in the car that I hadn't heard in such a long time and brought back so many memories. I wanted to sing along with it, but I didn't dare give it my full attention. I tried to sing a little, but I decided it was best for me to be the silent observer. I noticed that I was tense as I drove through the city, which is kind of unlike me. Driving relaxes me and calms me down. Once I hit the highway out of Boulder, though, I began to loosen my grip on the steering wheel and relax more.

I enjoy people watching, both in and out of the car, and it was a little trip that took me out of my own little world and helped me to peek into another. I wasn't in Boulder for very long, less than an hour really, but it was interesting what I saw and what I noticed while driving.