So, this morning I called my dental insurance company. They gave me the names of four offices to call, since my dentist's office is closed on Fridays. I spoke to a very nice woman at the first place who said they could see me in two hours just a couple of miles from here. I figured I wouldn't do any better than that, and I took the appoinment.
The office was in a strip mall, and I tried to keep reminding myself that this is Phoenix and everything is in a strip mall. I filled out my paperwork and headed on back.
They were such nice people, these two dentists and all of their staff. They really were. I was examined by two doctors and then they discussed. Then they took some x-rays and then some more. After I told them what hurt once, the banging stopped.
Then I ended up with the very nice young man dentist. He announced that the problem was probably an infection, and what I needed was to have this all cleaned out as much as possible. Then he broke out the novacaine.
As soon as my mouth was numb, I started crying. The poor guy brought me tissues and sat with me and listened to me talk about how I was fine, really, now that my face was numb. He kept asking if he'd hurt me, and promising to do whatever he could to make it better.
After he cleaned out my sore tooth, he asked a few more questions about the pain. He wanted to know why I was carrying around an ice pack. I explained that it helped. He noticed that the roof of my mouth was swollen...
Several x-rays later... I have a pretty serious infection in my mouth and head and also a teeny tiny little fracture in my face. That's today's diagnosis.
I told him about how the other pain pills didn't really help and seemed to provoke psychotic episodes in me. So, I left with a script for antibiotics and one for pain pills. And I was assured that if I was still in crazy crazy pain tomorrow, their clinic southeast of here would be open and he would come in and give me a root canal on that tooth himself.
And I left feeling a thousand times better. My face was still numb, I had an answer, I had a plan for fixing this (which, sure, mostly amounted to "wait and see", but still...). I called work and said I would be there in an hour or so. Then I found a pharmacy and got my scripts filled.
The antibiotic made me throw up. I was stuck in construction traffic and I opened the car door and puked. Several times. Fortunately, I had only consumed the full glass of water the directions told me to use to take the pill, so it wasn't especially gross puke.
Then I called around until I found someone in front of a computer with internet access to read up on this drug and tell me if I was having an allergic reaction (thanks, DGT!).
"I don't know how to ask you this; I'm in an office environment... How did you get the medicine into you?" "By mouth. As per the instructions on the bottle. Why?"
Apparently, it can also be dispensed as a vaginal suppository. The version I got, for taking by mouth, lists vomitting as a normal side effect. Nothing to worry about so long as it doesn't persist or become severe. Awesome.
So, then I called work and explained that best case scenario, I was going to have to run home and change. I was granted the rest of the day off.
(I was writing this while sitting by the pool at the apartment complex because there's wireless there. I was drinking some water at the time. Apparently, too much water. I made it most of the way inside the main building before I threw up in the bushes, and all over my leg. This day could just not get any better. I'm going to go lay down now.)
