Random Review: Root canal

Sunday night, i awoke in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. Or, toothache, rather. I couldn’t tell which tooth, or even top or bottom, just that the left side of my face hurt. I took some advil, it went away, and I went back to sleep. Monday and Tuesday the toothache kindof came and went but there was no sensitivity to hot or cold or pressure, and i still couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Wednesday was more of the same until dinner time. During dinner, it got to the point that i couldn’t even chew on the left side, but at least i could tell which tooth it was. Wednesday night i barely slept. I probably got about 2 hours of total sleep in 5 minute chunks. Thursday morning i went to the dentist, they took xrays and said that i had an infection in that tooth, and that i’d need a root canal. I was given prescriptions for antibiotics and painkillers and had to come back the next day for the root canal, as they want the antibiotics in your system for at least 24 hours.

I picked up the scrips and started taking them thursday morning. By thursday afternoon, i could tell when the painkillers were wearing off. It was horrible. The painkillers also made me dizzy and sleepy. I ended up napping thursday away, and watching Pee-wee’s Big Adventure over and over on Netflix over Xbox360. Friday i went in for the root canal. The first hour of setup/etc for the root canal was the first time in days that i wasn’t in pain. Nitrous and Novocaine for the win! The root canal itself wasn’t bad at all, aside from the time it took. Start to finish it was around 4 hours. I listened to my iphone and just laid there following directions. The dentist would do stuff, they’d stop and do xrays, repeat. My jaws are a little sore from being pried open for that long, my lips are sore from the dental dam thing rubbing against my face. The day after i feel a little better, but the left side of my face is still sore. I’m going a little longer between painkillers, but that tooth is a little sore from all the work they did on/in it.

I still can’t really do much, as the Vicodin induced dizziness really sucks. It also gives me like a 5 minute attention span. Laura will say something to me, i’ll hear it, but i just don’t comprehend. I’ll ask her to repeat what she said and then i’ll understand. Its annoying to me, i’m sure its annoying to her as well.

I also don’t understand how people get hooked on vicodin. For me it doesn’t make the pain go completely away, it just takes the “edge” off the pain. But I hate being dizzy, but the dizziness is better than the pain. Maybe you have to take like 5 at a time to get high or something? But i’d be afraid it would just make me dizzier and dizzier which would really suck.