texas trials

Well here's a little update on what's happening in Cookeland. Things took a bad turn for the worse on Tuesday night, as far as my whole crazy head pain ordeal went. I saw the ENT on Tuesday and he said, "Yep, just TMJ. Good luck to you!" I was still not convinced. I called my OB, whose office is turning out to be a complete waste of my time. They seemed fine with me staying on Vicodin until I delivered the little addict, so I decided to just go to bed and come at it all with a fresh start on Wednesday.

Around 2am on Weds morning, I woke up in the worst pain of my life. I could tell right away that it was a tooth issue. I emailed my dentist around 4 and took more pain meds, to get through the rest of the night. My dentist called by 7 and told me to come in right away. Let me just take a moment to express my undying love to Dr. B and her amazing staff. They have been calling me every 12 hours, available any time for anything, and are truly the most caring dental practice I've ever been to. I called my friend Raquel at the crack of dawn, and she told me to bring the girls right over. I would have left them with Andrew, but the poor guy was already in a meeting with his Dubai team to make up for one he'd missed the night before. Let's just say the performance of the entire family was a bit under par this week.

I got in to the dentist by 8:45 and we all already knew it was an abscess. I'd been in on Monday to look for just that, but they didn't do a full mouth xray because all of the pain was at the back of my head and we wanted to keep the xrays to a minimum because of the baby. The tooth that was having the problem was at the front of my mouth on top, and it had been filled twice and had been a problem for a long time. It really hadn't felt any different lately, though, so we were all surprised when it turned out to be the culprit.

Because of my pregnancy, the root canal was far more complicated than it should have been. Because I couldn't have laughing gas or epinephrine, they were stuck trying to use a simple local anesthetic that was wearing off faster than they could work. They tried to numb me well over 10 times and it just wasn't taking. The pain was truly like nothing I've ever felt in my life. I was screaming, the baby was going bonkers, the dentist was in agony over how to handle the pain, the poor assistant looked green, it was just a mess. When I finally got to my car, I just sobbed and sobbed. There is nothing worse than expecting pain over and over and over again and knowing that you just have to deal with it. I'm not usually an emotional pregnant woman, or really an emotional woman at all, butthat was far beyond what I was prepared for.

Andrew came home right away to switch cars with me, and he let me cry on him for awhile. Once I was past the emotional part of it, I took my pain meds just in case the recovery was going to be as bad as the procedure. BY the time he got back with the girls, I was much better and we all had lunch. The pain meds wore off by about 3 and I've been feeling awesome for over 24 hours now. I'll go back for the crown after the baby is born and they can use the right stuff. In the meantime, I'm REALLY hoping that that's the only medical emergency I face. I have never dealt with pain like that before, and I'd be really happy to put it behind me for awhile. I was so lucky that we found the problem as soon as we did. I'd much rather have a painful root canal than undetected sepsis and a premature baby!

Lucy and Mo have had a pretty rough week, just trying to wrap their heads around all of the ups and downs. They were really shuttled around a LOT this week, and seeing Mommy in pain totally throws Lucy. And when Lucy ain't right, Mo ain't right either. We did a short playdate this morning, and both girls were just tired and cranky and I'm pretty sure they thought I was going to leave them again. We cut it short and went to Walmart to buy toys, sand for the sandbox, and a new birdfeeder for our tree. They're napping now and may very well be completely knocked out until dinnertime...

We're going to try to have a quiet weekend and just spend some time the four of us. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend in the 80's, so we'll be playing in the kiddie pool, making frozen drinks, lying in the hammock and maybe doing a little house hunting. If the mood strikes. :-) The one thing I won't be doing? Taking Vicodin.