My January is full of medical appointments and I thrive on quiet days at home on the farm. I am also someone who loves her old school paper planner so I purposefully scheduled one No Plan Day each week this month. The first one was utterly amazing. The second one was yesterday and let’s say there were complications. It started well with a trip to town with Madi to run the car through the car wash because it was finally above freezing here. The sun was shining for a change. I spent time in my Llama Lounge (formerly my office when I was a working human). It used to be my mom’s hair salon so there are more windows than walls. I write, draw, practice calligraphy, check emails, work on my photo projects, and enjoy life there. I started proofing a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls.
I was enjoying a late lunch (which we call lupper in our family) when I heard a crack and felt INTENSE pain in a lower molar that I now know is Tooth 18. I cannot describe the intensity of the pain in words. Just picture me screaming. I have birthed 3 children sans epidural. I have stage 4 cancer. I had an emergency surgical procedure in a doctor’s office with only local shots because there was no time to rush me to the hospital due to the bleeding. I am well known for my pain tolerance. Heck, I had stage four cancer likely for many months and just dismissed the pain in my liver and bones. But this tooth pain was bad. I couldn’t sit still. I called my dental office and then called the on-call dentist’s cell phone as instructed per voicemail. Crickets. I was desperate.
Then I called the Calvary. I’ve known an endodontist in Champaign since kindergarten and he is married to one of my besties. Dave rushed me down to his office right as it closed at 5. Turns out I cracked that molar in half diagonally. Think of slicing a hunk off at a diagonal, clear to the bone, through the middle, exposing the nerve. It was a dangling flap of pain. Because I take a biophosphate for my bone mets, I cannot have tooth extractions. (Cancer – the gift that keeps on giving.) Since the simplest solution was off the table, I had an emergency root canal yesterday evening with his wife (my bestie) called in from home to assist. Dave sat in the corner of the room. It was like a fun evening out with friends except for the root canal part. Once I was finally numbed, I didn’t care about anything else. I left hours later with a lovely root canal, a temporary filling and a weird sorta half tooth in the back of my mouth that hopefully my dentist can crown. I left with an amazing heart of gratefulness for my amazing tribe. I still cannot imagine what I would have done without the Calvary last night.
If you are in my area and need an endodontist, I will tell you who to see. He is known as the best anyway, but happens to also be an amazing person.
I am mentally wiped out today and going to try for another No Plan Day. I did finish rolling out and baking those cinnamon rolls while I waited for a callback yesterday. I had to keep moving due to the pain. I may make some local deliveries today with Madi.
Just this week my therapist said we all need 3 friends in our lives we can count on for absolutely anything, can express absolutely anything to, and will just always be there. I have several but to Dave, MJ and KRP – I simply couldn’t do life without you.
I am not in control. 