ungghh... again

I feel crummy. Long story short: I didn't have a root canal yesterday because the tooth wouldn't go numb.

My appointment was at 9, so I got out of bed at 7:15 to leave the house at 8:30. (Rewinding time, I first got out of bed at 4AM to take a painkiller since my throbbing jaw woke me up. Then I tossed, turned and lay there hurting until the thing kicked in 25 minutes later.) I got to the dentist's office at 9, and sat there waiting for almost half an hour while my dentist was doing something for someone else on the other side of a low wall. I will never understand why you make an appointment and are left to wait. They could have made the appointment for 9:30. Anyway- first off the dental assistant does another x-ray. That involves biting down on a huge (seeming) plastic wand. Note: biting down is what I haven't been able to do for 3 months. It hurt, a lot. Then I sat there longer, eventually getting poked with the anesthetic, then waiting for that to kick in. The dental assistant pulled off my temporary crown, which felt really weird. The dentist tried to get started, but the blast of air made me squirm in pain, so I got shot with more anesthetic, followed by more waiting. After that it still hurt like hell, so the dentist prescribed an antibiotic and a painkiller and rescheduled me for next Friday. Fuck. The dental assistant stuck my temporary crown back on. They said the tooth is probably in the process of dying, so thats why it's super sensitive. I spent most of the afternoon sleeping on the couch as the useless numbness wore off.

I really really just wanted to have the root canal and get this done with. I've been assured that with no root, the tooth can't hurt any more. That sounds good to me. Now I've got another week to wait, and a week's worth of penicillin to take. I also have generic vicodin. I took one last night before going to bed, and it sure made me feel odd. Kinda itchy and my head felt swimmy. But the tooth didn't hurt. Much.