Agony of the toothache

I was fighting with the toothache and headache since last Thursday.  The ordeal is the most painful experience I ever had in my life. It's a "good" experience and lesson to me.

The pain started from a small crack in one tooth.  I wasn't aware of the crack maybe a month ago.
The slight pain caused by the crack was classified by me to the sensitivity problem of the teeth, which was a known problem to me. Until the teeth hygiene procedure was done on last Friday morning, the dentist had noticed the crack and asked me whether it was painful or not.  I wasn't 100% sure about the pain and had ignored it.  So, I stupidly answered no.  It wasn't painful at that moment actually. I won't realize the revenge of the ignorance will come that soon.

I had since made an appointment with my dentist to fill the crack on Monday morning.  Thus, I thought I am settled and the treatment wasn't too far from Friday. I got a cold in the meantime. The toothache was getting worse since Friday night.  I had to take Advil to help the sleep.  Daytime in Saturday wasn't that bad.  I felt the pain a little bit, but the night after the party is really the climax and nightmare.  I went to TK's X'mas party with Linda. We had great food and I drank a glass of red wine, which is the best catalyst of the toothache.  The party was filled with fun and it was the best company X'mas party I ever had. During the trip back home, the toothache and the following headache finally strike me down in the cab and the whole night was ruined. I can't help moaning in the cab because of the sharp and lasting pain in my left face.  I held a tight fist and the whole body to resist crying out of the pain.

The pain was originated from the deep bottom of the tooth with crack and it spread to the upper part till the top of the ear.  I felt like someone was pulling my nerve relentlessly, the pain come and went like tide.  Sometimes strong and sometimes weak.  When I got home, I had tried all kinds of methods to help resist the pain, like massage the head, ice the face, or play dead. I had only a few minutes for a short recover and I had to prepare the next wave of pain.  I can hardly sleep on Saturday night.  The urge of calling 911 to get immediate treatment popped up from my head couple of times in the night.  Only till the dawn of Sunday, I fell asleep eventually with the help of Advil and Tylenol, or the exhaustion helped it. Oh, my God.  I will convert myself into a devout Christan if God had helped me that night.

I didn't go out on Sunday and just stayed home watching TV.  The daytime was somehow not too bad. The pain attacked me several times.  After the dinner, the pain was coming precisely every hour, lasting 5-10 minutes. I had to sit idle and withstand the pain until it receded.  The better part was I knew that it will last 10 minutes and come again one hour latter.  That gave me a small hope of one hour's painless life.  The next hour, the pain come back again and the life was suffering again.

When I laid down on the bed that night, the pain was coming sooner than ever.  Almost every 10-15 minutes, I had to hold my hand tightly, grab my arm or leg, moan a little bit to relief the pain.  I had cursed why the night was so long.  I had to sit up and the pain was slightly better when my body was up. The whole left face was numb and hot. Man, I sympathize now why some patients had to seek for solace from pot.  The marijuana may temporarily relief the unbeatable pain of those patients. I took Advil and it didn't help at all.  I finally fell asleep again for a few hour early this morning.

The dentist told me that I had to do the root canal treatment to get rid of the bad tooth nerves on that cracked tooth.  The pain was caused totally by the dying tooth nerves.  My tooth nerve, it punished me as I had abandoned it at first without proper treatment of them in the first place.  After sitting on the operation chair in a stationary pose uncomfortably for two hours, the root canal treatment was finally finished. During the treatment, I had made my mind that I have to be very careful with my teeth afterward, be very gentle to them, to take good care of them, to cure them for any small problems.  They will treat you they way you treat them.

I don't want to endure the agony of the toothache anymore.  It's unforgettable in my whole life. I just need to "enjoy" it once and that's more than enough.