I always think about being woozley in terms of feeling like I am about to wind up UNDER the bed.
Faithful friends know that for years I have struggled with jaw pain and seemingly endless dental procedures. Sometimes I would wonder if the cure was worth the pain. There was always more that needed to be done.
Lest you think I have an unscrupulous dentist, I must assure you that everything I have endured was necessary.
In my early teens, a very heavy, old fashioned wooden baseball bat went end over end up and over a 20 foot backstop, winged by an excited school mate, and connected with my head.
A 1/2 inch in any direction and I would have died. Instead I just endured a million tiny deaths.
My traumatic brain injury was largely ignored although I did end up taking my entire highschooling through correspondence.
The blow was severe enough to cause jaw problems on through the prevailing years. I never thought about it much if at all until my 30s when a series of happenstances brought it back to my attention.
Tournament baseball was one of my great love affairs. I liked to play 2nd base. Sometimes I would pitch. During a warm-up in a big money tournament, after the whistle blew, a hung-over team mate of mine whipped a 60mph ball at me. My peripheral vision caught the blur and my instincts got my mitt ALMOST up in time. The ball deflected off my mitt into (you guessed it) my mouth. I can still remember just wandering around in shock with ice to my face for hours. I remember it because at the time I thought about the single other time in my life I had experienced that level of pain. I could walk. I could breathe. But think? no. Talk? no.
The other time of course being the bat to the head.
Those events were just two things in a long checkered life.
I always loved living and lived pretty large.
I did not dwell on those two things until the dental/jaw problems started interferring with my everyday life. Gradually, back teeth broke off from grinding. The front teeth which had needed bleaching then crowns fell out. A bridge was inserted. On and on and on. Root canals on all my side teeth were done to try to diminish the throbbing and popping. My ears were sore 80% of my waking life. I wakened to teeth on the pillow or a jaw that was locked. On and on and on.
Last year I told my sister I was ready to get my jaw broken and reset. She had the same operation ten years ago to correct a genetic predisposition which I share. Small mouth, big teeth, crowding. She told me that it cured 75% of her pain. I was ready to settle for a cure of 25%, hell even 10%. I know this surgery would be about 26 thousand dollars and mean months of recovery. I went to my dentist and told him: I am ready.
My dentist sent me to an orthodontist who told me that neither the dentist nor himself felt that extreme operation would be worth it for me. They felt they could accomplish better results with extractions and braces. ---whew---
Nothing in my mouth ever goes easily.
Whether it is from the severe early traumas and the ongoing smaller ones or just plain old life: NOTHING ever goes easy in my mouth.
The extraction was perfect. A little extra pain from the root being dug out but not bad.
The pain, however, increased daily so yesterday found me back in the chair asking *why*
The dentist told me some bone was exposed. (ouch)
He ground it down and dressed it. Last night was hellish and I went to bed a little discouraged.
Praise God. Praise the Dentist! This morning I woke up and found that my mouth hurts very little. It does hurt. But you know: compared to yesterday it is nothing.
Today I get the spacers for the braces that will go on next week.
I am excited now that the hell pain is gone.
Hurrah hurrah.
I am content with progress. SO much for the woozles.
On to the heffalumps.
| And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be nor more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. [Revelation]" | |
| -- Bible | |
