Being Momma G: Day 85

For the first time in over 25 years, the Tooth Fairy would be paying me a visit today.

Just after we found out we were pregnant with Sean, my teeth started to play up. At around 15 weeks, I paid my first visit to a dentist after feeling pain in my upper left molar. The dentist at the time found I had a small fracture across the top of the tooth, but at the time, she didn't want to do anything that could jeopardise the pregnancy. She gave me a filling and asked me to return to her once Sean was born.

That trip to the dentist was the first of many more. Another molar, this time it was the bottom right molar, started hurting around our wedding. There were nights when I could only sleep if I took Panadol before bed time. I put up with the pain, but it got worse, and during our honeymoon, I decided I needed to see the dentist again when we got back.

Of course, my tooth had other ideas. One night around mid-August, over dinner, my right molar all of a sudden decided to hurt so much I couldn't talk nor open my mouth. The only way to ease the pain was to bathe my tooth in water, and my increased consumption of water was playing havoc on my poor pregnancy affected shrunken bladder. We paid an emergency visit to Dr Marcel Lee, and he found a crack in the right molar, and started to treat the crack in a conservative manner. He prescribed salt rinses for my mouth in an effort to help ease the pain, as Dr Lee was reluctant to give me antibiotics that could affect Sean. The following night, I decided to do the salt rinse before dinner, and it hurt so much I was in tears and sent Jonathan into panic mode. Jonathan called Dr Lee, who asked us to return to his surgery, when he was slightly more aggressive with the treatment and prescribed me some mild antibiotics. Dr Lee had hoped that he had done enough for the tooth to hold out until after Sean was born.

The bottom right molar held for some time, but over lunch one day during my 35th week of pregnancy, the hot noodles I was eating sent shock waves through the nerves in my tooth, and I ended up in Dr Lee's surgery again. Again, Dr Lee continued the root canal treatment, with plans to see me again after the baby was born.

I'd been back to Dr Lee to continue the root canal treatments over the past weeks, and everything was going well. Today's appointment was another follow up, and as my upper left molar was also hurting a little, I asked Dr Lee to have a look at it.

It was all bad news from there on in. The upper left molar was cracked, and there was no chance of saving it. The tooth would have to be extracted.

Dr Lee gave me a quick root canal treatment, before looking at the cracked tooth. Jonathan was parking the car when I was first given the bad news, and he was understandably worried for me when he came up to the surgery with Sean. No one was happy about the tooth extraction, but Dr Lee forged ahead, and gave me some shots to numb my mouth.

It took around 10 minutes in total, from the first needle to seeing my tooth on the tray, but it felt like a lifetime. I felt some of the pain, and I certainly felt the tool gripping my tooth and Dr Lee doing his best to pull out the whole tooth, which was very unstable. Verbally, I was quite upset, moaning in pain as the procedure took place. Finally, the tooth was out, and the hole was packed with gauze.

At first, I didn't want to look at my tooth, but Dr Lee convinced me to have a look. He picked up the bloodied tooth and was just about to show me the crack when, lo and behold, the tooth fell apart and split in two in his hand.

Dr Lee put the tooth in a sealed pouch for me to take home and keep forever, or at least for the Tooth Fairy to see what a brave girl I was. Still, I was quite traumatised by the whole thing and felt quite numb all over when we left the surgery. I was given strict instructions to look after the hole where the tooth once was, with salt rinses for my mouth after every meal. Eventually, much further down the track, Dr Lee would like to explore the option of putting an implant into the hole, so that I may have a full set a teeth again.

That was the major event of my day. In fact, it was pretty much the major event of the week. Nothing else would or could top this.

Thankfully, Sean was quite well behaved all day long, sticking to a pattern that I was able to cope with. The morning run was quite good - after his late dinner last night, the little man slept until 3.30am before wanting a feed. Sean only fed on one side, but that was enough to keep him happy until just after 6.30am.

While Sean slept after the 6.30am feed, Jonathan and I potted around the house and did a bit of cleaning and tidying up, in readiness for Mum and Nana's impending visit. With the Council pick up due on Monday next week, we wanted to toss a whole lot of big stuff which was taking up our valuable space. The massive Tweety Bird armchair beanbag that I had owned for nearly 15 years was one of the things to go - there really wasn't any room in the house to keep it, and I wasn't willing to buy another 6 bags of beans to fill it up again.

We also tossed a print that I had owned since I first properly moved out of home. The print came with the package of furniture I had purchased to furnish my first apartment in North Ryde, and it was quite possible one of the most kitschy looking thing ever. The print was a parody of the famous photograph taken in 1932 by Charles C. Ebbets (click here to see the Charles C. Ebbets photo, and here for the parody print that I owned). Jonathan had always hated the print, but to me, it symbolised my first taste of independence. Jonathan actually wanted to see the print ditched back at St Leonards, but I insisted it came with us to Denistone. It had lived in the garage since the move, and after much persuasion, I finally agreed to get rid of the print.

It was a bit sad to see it go, and Jonathan couldn't walk fast enough down to the kerb to add the print to the big pile of rubbish that the others in the complex had also thrown out.

Sean woke just after 10am, and after a feed, we headed out to Not Bread Alone for lunch. It was nice to visit our favourite café and enjoy a bite to eat. Even as I ate my gorgeous lunch, my bottom right molar was hurting, and I couldn't chew on my left side because my upper left molar was also hurting. I ate as quickly as I could, chewing through the pain, as I was determined to enjoy our rare trip to Not Bread Alone.

After lunch, we headed to Chatswood Chase to get a few things from the chemist. Jonathan wanted to buy a set of scales, as he was about to embark on the Slow Carb Diet and wanted to track his progress. Sean needed a feed, so we went to the Parents Room and had a feed. Afterwards, we went to the chemist and picked up some Lucas' Papaw Ointment, Daktozin and Ego Dermaid Soft Cream 0.5% for Sean's skin. Along with the Sudocream and Sorbolene Cream, something's got to work, soon!!!

We visited the dentist after our little shopping expedition. I honestly did not feel like doing anything else after my traumatic visit, so we came home. We fed Sean again at 4.30pm and put him down for a sleep, and I too had a sleep. My body went into survival mode and decided I needed to sleep to recover from the trauma, and Jonathan left me to snooze for a few hours.

I woke to Sean crying to be fed just after 7.30pm, and we had a pretty poor feed. My body was still in shock, and Sean felt every ounce of it, and struggled against the feed. I wasn't in the mood to try and coax him to feed better, so after a short feed, Jonathan took Sean from me and gave him a bath. Sean had some trouble settling to sleep afterwards, but thankfully, he did eventually sleep. It wasn't fun making the shushing noise when there was a gaping hole in my mouth.

Even though I slept for 2 hours this afternoon, I feel utterly wasted after my ordeal this afternoon. It might be early, but I need to go to bed. I hope the hole hurts less tomorrow.