Day +57: I Can't Handle The Tooth!

Just when I thought things were looking up, there goes the tooth.

I have had so many problems with my teeth in the past couple of years. Prior to becoming pregnant with Sean, my teeth gave me the odd, occasional problem, which would go away just as quickly as the problem arose. I had always had sensitive gums, which would cause some issues for me, but as far as my teeth were concerned, aside from accidentally chipping my front tooth in 1995, they were strong and I could eat and chew anything.

After I became pregnant with Sean, my teeth started to play up. I was 15 weeks pregnant when my upper left molar started hurting, and it became so bad I had to go and see a dentist. Dr Wong was reluctant to do anything invasive, but did her best to patch things up for me. She took an X-ray which showed a crack in the molar, and she asked me to be a bit more careful about the foods I was eating, and to try my best not to crunch down on hard things using that tooth.

I was 22 weeks pregnant when my bottom right molar sent us to Dr Marcel Lee, twice, one night after another, as an emergency patient. Dr Lee said at the time that I was the only emergency patient to return as an emergency within 24 hours of the first treatment, but he did the trick, and the tooth held until a few weeks before Sean was born. At 35 weeks, I had to return to Dr Lee for more treatment after hot noodles had me screaming in pain.

In March last year, I returned to Dr Lee for more treatments on my bottom right molar, and ended up having my upper left molar removed after Dr Lee discovered there was no way to save the tooth. Since then, I'd been living with a gap in my teeth and using only the right side of my mouth to chew. Dr Lee put a crown on my bottom right molar and it was working well. Up until Monday night.

I had eaten some crackers with poppy seeds for lunch on Monday, and the tooth had started hurting on Monday night. I didn't think too much of it, and took some Panadol as a precaution. The pain increased throughout the day yesterday, so I kept taking Panadol and hoped it would get better. By last night, it was so sore that I didn't want to eat anything that required chewing. I had to take some Panadol before going to bed last night, hoping the pain would have subsided this morning when I woke.

The pain was still there. If anything, the pain was worse. And the right side of my face was now swollen. Yay.

I was in so much pain that I had to call Dr Lee's surgery to make an emergency appointment. Thankfully, Karla was working and she remembered me as soon as I gave my name. I told her how much pain I was in, and she was upset for me as she remembered how much work Dr Lee had done to that tooth to make it stable for me. Karla booked me in for an appointment on Saturday at 8.30am, and I hoped I would last that long.

After making the appointment with Dr Lee, I texted Jonathan to let him know the situation, and asked him to tell the Evil Witch that M would have to miss out on German school this weekend as I needed the car to get to and from the dentist. I was in pain, and in no mood to hear Jonathan try to keep the Dark Side happy with the sudden (and one-off) change of plans for the weekend. When Jonathan tried to anticipate what the Dark Side would say to us not being able to take M to German school on Saturday, I lost it at him, telling him that it wasn't going to kill M to skip one lesson for a language she barely spoke, a lesson which was more glorified play session / babysitting service than education, and that he should just tell the Dark Side that M would live without German school for one weekend.

Sometimes, Jonathan could be so frustrating. The pain in my tooth was unexpected, and it certainly wasn't premeditated, and I needed to get it fixed. When asked, M could never tell us what she learned at German school, but she could always tell us who she played with and what games she played. Plus M was enrolled in these lessons without any consultation with us, forcing us to take her to these lessons every second weekend at our expense, which irked me to no end. The lessons were held at a location that was a 40-minute (20km) drive from our house, and because the lesson was 3 hours long, Jonathan would drive her out there, come home, wait for a bit, drive back out to collect her and then come home again. 4 extra trips totalling 80km that chewed through expensive petrol and wore and tore at our car, for what? I'd never been happy with these lessons, and when it seemed Jonathan was going to tip toe around the Dark Side, I told him to shut it and just tell the Evil Witch in no uncertain terms that M was missing a lesson. It was either missing a lesson, or the Dark Side was more than welcome to come and collect M and take her to the lesson, and Jonathan to collect her at the end of the lesson as I should be home from the dentist by then.

In the end, Jonathan saw my point and told the Evil Witch that M would miss German school. She was not entirely happy, but was understanding enough, after Jonathan convinced her that this was very much a one-off and would not become a regular occurrence. Her idiot mother, on the other hand, was not so complimentary. She sent an awful rant of a message to Jonathan, basically telling him that he was being a bad father for not being able to take M to ONE German lesson. If only I could punch her.

Sean must have sensed the tension in the house, for he became very fussy with his food. It took forever for him to eat his meals, and with me being in so much pain, I was rapidly losing my patience with him.

We had planned to head out to the shops today, but after Sean returned his morning bolus of milk, I was in no mood to go anywhere by the time I had cleaned up the baby, the chair and the floor, and changed both of us into clean clothes. The whole house smelled like vomit, and no matter how much I scrubbed the floor, I couldn't get the smell out of the wooden floor boards. While Sean had his nap, I put on a load of laundry and waited for it to finish. I really wanted to comfort eat, but I couldn't even do that as this activity involved putting food into my mouth and chewing the food. Which I couldn't without being in pain - my face hurt every time I opened my mouth, and I resorted to drinking out of a straw.

I've taken 6 Panadols so far today. I'll need to take a couple more before going to bed tonight. In fact, I might go and take them now, and hope the pain does not get worse. I don't know if I can stomach this pain until Saturday!