Most Recent set-back

If I may, I think I'll start with an attempt at a haiku... ahem.

Screaming, throbbing, pain
Tooth, why now? why today? what?
I have to go back?

Mid-week, last week I started experiencing a tooth ache. The pain mostly came and went during the day, but it was excruciating at night. By the second night, when I could not sleep for the pain was so bad, I decided I had to see my dentist. After sitting in the chair for over an hour, it was determined that I needed a root canal. I'm told that normally it does not take over an hour to diagnose a root canal, but it turns out that my teeth are impervious to hot and cold sensation. My dentist was surprised to learn that I've never experienced the sensation of "brain freeze." My teeth were also impervious to being banged upon with a metal object.

We were pretty sure we knew which tooth was the source of my pain, but I was not responding "normally" as my dentist expected, and she didn't want to perform the root canal on the wrong tooth, and frankly, neither did I.

She ended up sending me to a specialist who performed a root canal.

Let me tell you that I have experienced pregnancies, labor, and two c-sections, but for me, there is nothing worse than mouth pain. I do not handle it well, I do not respond to it well, and I certainly do not enjoy the mouth gymnastics that one must endure while having a root canal performed.

I did my best to workout through the pain; I saw my trainer on Thursday in the middle of most of that pain, but I was not a very good patient before, during or after the experience on Friday and never got around to working out that day. I was feeling really sorry for myself due to the pain and the expense, oh the expense when you have terrible dental coverage... I'm crying just thinking about how much this tooth is costing me.

My mouth is fine right now. There is very little, if any residual pain, but the worst part is, it's not over. I have to go back for the "rest" of the root canal on Friday once the swelling has gone down and the infection has gone away, so I get to do it all over again! Yay!