I’m sure I’m not alone with my fear / dislike of the dentist. I’ve had some unpleasant experiences, which have made me very untrusting of them in general. To be fair, the dentist and hygienists I see currently have always been great, and I don’t suffer as much anxiety over my regular appointments. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a major fear over having my wisdom teeth pulled… You know where this is going.

This fear is not totally unfounded. I had my tonsils removed when I was 26, which was an awful experience. If you have kids, get their tonsils removed when they’re young and spare them this month-long pain! After this, the thought of having further oral surgery was off-limits in my mind.

But, two days ago, I woke up in a lot of pain around my upper left molar and wisdom tooth. So much pain that I actually made an elective dental appointment, with the sinking fear it was my wisdom tooth. The following day, prior to seeing him, my face started to swell and the pain only got worse.

Sure enough, one x-ray showed it was an impacted tooth which was suddenly infected, causing all the pain and swelling. My dentist tells me every year that I should have these teeth removed, and I was always putting it off because they didn’t bother me…. well, now they’ve decided to REALLY bother me!

Evil wisdom teeth. In my opinion, they’re a biological mistake – no extra wisdom is gained, they just cause problems.

Antibiotics and Tylenol Ones, ice packs and salt water are my best friends right now. Eating is the biggest challenge, but not how you think. The swelling makes it hard to open my mouth wide enough to eat, but chewing is fine. All I want is soft foods – shakes, ice cream, and yogurt… but with only a handful of days left on our stomach repair protocol, that’s not an option. There’s also no way I’m starting this program from the beginning again, either! My current strategy is to rely on ground meat, mashed vegetables, and a few extra protein shakes – my meals aren’t pretty, but at this point, whatever works!

My unattractive meals – five times a day. Joe doesn’t care, he still wants it.

Have I learned a lesson… probably not. But, I will have all four teeth pulled in one go – might as well avoid this problem in the future! Fingers crossed the pain and swelling start to decrease over the next few days, and nothing flares up again before I can have them pulled. Now, I’m going to enjoy a nap with the puppies.

As soon as they see the pink blanket, they know it’s nap time – even if it makes it hard for me to work. Lulu snores pretty loud.