Ignored problems WILL come back to bite you on the ass!

Things have been a little quiet here over the last few days.  Mainly because I have been so doped up on painkillers that if I knew how to drive I wouldn’t actually be ‘fit’ to drive.

Here is what my diet mainly consisted of over the last week or so…

That’s not so bad…really? Try a week of it!

and…

There are never enough drugs when toothache is involved

Yup, you guessed it, because I didn’t get it sorted out last time, my bad teeth have come back to haunt me 2 weeks before my big run.  Training has stopped because my feet landing on the ground send a shockwave into my mouth…not good.

I am very annoyed with myself for not getting this dealt with back in March, mainly because this time when the pain is bad it is enough to have me up at 5am rocking and sobbing and yes it was pretty pathetic.

However, this time it got so bad that even I could not ignore it.  Now, I have no idea why or when my phobia of the dentist started, all I can say is that I am terrified.  The last time I went to the dentist was when I was 16, am now 38 so I should imagine it looks pretty scary in there.  Back then I had 4 fillings done and then never went back into a dental surgery until two years later when I became a Dental Nurse…Uh huh, you did just read that right, I was a dental nurse.  I have some dental stories that belong in a horror film.  They all consist of blood, gore and puss and me sitting the with my trusty aspirator, sucking up all the evidence 🙂 This is the only thing I can think of that gave me fear and complete mental block when it comes to sitting in that chair myself.  I. Just. Can. Not. Do. It.

So, let’s rewind a little to last Wednesday when one of the teeth that has been giving me so much grief fell apart.  A large chunk of it just fell off…great!  Now I had two teeth that were giving me serious pain and one of them was now as sharp as a razor.  The next day I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I finally made an appointment to see a dentist the following day.

On Friday, Steve drove me to Buckingham, to my appointment.  All the way there I thought I might throw up but I was trying not to freak out because the children were in the car.  I walked in to the surgery and was greeted by Patricia.  She said hello and I think I just smiled like a mad woman because the act of smiling pulled my face tight and stopped my chin wobbling.  Believe me, the tears were pretty close to the surface by then.  I think she could tell so she got me to sit down and just said she would have a little look.  Unfortunately for me, the langauge that is spoken between a dentist and the nurse during an examination has not changed in the 20 years since I worked in Dentistry so I could understand everything that was going on and was slightly dismayed when Patricia stated that ‘top right 8 was present’. Damn it I had a suspicion that I had a wisdom tooth starting to come down there 😦

Patricia was very gentle and had a soothing voice, she actually managed to put me a little more at ease.  She then told me that initially to stop the incredible pain I am in I am going to need a tooth extracted (the broken one) and a filling (on the other side)  Once this was done, we would then look at what else needs to be sorted out to get me to the yearly check-up position.  The wisdom tooth would need dealing with in the future as there is no room in my mouth for it (who would have though my mouth would not be big enough?!) but that does not need dealing with yet.

So there you go,  I finally got so sick of pain, no solid food and a very real worry that it would stop me from running Billie’s 5k on Sept 2nd, that I am booked in for an extraction and a filling on 28th Aug.  Unfortunately it means I am still on baby food for another week but at least it will be sorted before the run.

I was getting worried that the lack of training was going to cause me problems with the run but I sat and though about it and decided I was being silly.  My last training run saw me cover just short of 4k.  I am sure that the atmosphere, sheer determination and the support of my friends and family will get through the last 1k.  I am starting to get really excited now and my only worry is that Patricia will accidentally bodge it up and leave me in more pain.  I am sure it will be fine 🙂