I do. Right where it was a week and a day ago. But this time I have a weapon — a prescription pain killer & and a better cognizance of what’s causing the pain. Part of the issue last week was the unknown; was it just me, grinding/clenching my teeth that was the root cause of the pain, or was it something else? At least now I know that what I do or have done probably didn’t bring this on; I don’t know what the cure will bring, but I have some hope that there will be a cure. Even though I haven’t yet identified the enemy, just knowing that there is an enemy to be battled is strangely comforting.
The funny part of this is that I was just commenting to Yvonne about seven hours ago how I’d made it through most of the day with so little pain that I’d only taken two ibuprofen. But two hours after going to bed I’m wide awake again feeling like there’s a hot poker against the gums on my lower jaw, and that’s after taking a hydrocodone tablet and three ibuprofen at 10pm. Yvonne was rightfully thankful that I hadn’t had much pain, but it caused me to worry that perhaps the two teeth in question had in fact died, and the lack of pain wasn’t a good thing at all.
When thinking about the earlier bouts of pain, I wondered if anything I had done might have triggered the episodes; on at least two of those nights I had had something hot to drink before it came on and had eaten some pistachios. Tonight though the only similar food I had was a single almond. Nothing else crunchy at all, and nothing hot since about 6pm. And I went to bed with the night guard in place, so I know my teeth weren’t banging up against each other; this bout is about as spontaneous as it could be.
Not much has happened since my last post on this subject; the endodontist had promised me a call back on Thursday, but after waiting most of the day, I ended up calling his office at about 3pm. I didn’t speak with him, but was told by his assistant that he had got the software to work properly, but was still not able to determine from the micro-CT scan image what was going on. Like much that happens in the medical field, when confronted with anything outside a given specialist’s field of expertise, they are more than ready to hand you off to the next guy. And the next guy in this case is the oral surgeon, but the soonest I can get in is 3:30pm next Tuesday. Bother.
Now it’s been about 50 minutes since taking two more hydrocodone tablets, and the pain is still there, but dulled. I’m feeling sleepy as all get-out, so maybe the drowsiness will overcome the pain and allow me some sleep… I think I’ll give that a go.
13 hours later, and the pain is spooling up again. Doing so at midday is a new trick though; wouldn’t mind if there was some promise it would leave me alone & let me sleep tonight, but I doubt there’s much hope of that after last night.
Prescription pain meds FTW.