Excuses, Excuses

So I haven't blogged for a while. There are lots of reasons for that. Mostly, I've lost momentum and need to get it back. Worlds is this week, so I intend to write up some reports about that. It should be a very exciting competition.

My technical difficulties with TiVo, my computer, YouTube, and Blogger continue. Plus, I'm still figuring out the best way to do this blogger thing. To be honest, the motivation is low when I have almost no readers. Perhaps that situation will change by next season.

My health has also not been the greatest. I fought off a cold (congestion, cough, sore throat) for a couple of weeks. Then there was the worse tooth pain I've ever experienced in my life.

Back in January, I had a bunch of dental work done--a deep cleaning, a few fillings. One filling in the front of my mouth continued to be hot-and-cold sensitive until the beginning of March when it became somewhat more sensitive, on the pain scale of about a 3, enough to disturb my sleep. So I went back into the dentist and he told me that some of the filling had fallen out and repaired it.

At first, the tooth was sensitive but seemed to be on the mend. Two days later, though, the pain had moved up to a 5-6 and my face had swollen up with infection. My dentist called in a prescription for antibiotics, but with the infection, it did very little good. I would take Tylenol and ibuprofen, go to sleep, wake up in pain, take some more, wait a couple of hours for the meds to kick in, and then go back to sleep. By last Sunday, the infection had reached my right eyeball. (I couldn't take anything more powerful than that because I'm sensitive to pain medications.)

This was a situation that you didn't know how bad it was until after it was over. While I was going through it, all I could think about was decreasing the pain so I could sleep. I went into my long-suffering Irish mode and downplayed it for myself and those around me. I was in so much pain and so sleep-deprived, I found myself unable to make any decisions about what to do about it. It took my husband to make the decision to go to the ER, since my dentist wasn't calling me back. So we left the kids with my mother-in-law and he drove me there.

Putting it simply, the ER doc lanced the boil in my mouth. He said that a teaspoon of puss came out, and it felt pretty shocking to me. I went home, medicated myself again, and slept for over three hours. The infection had already started going down, and by the evening, I felt 100% better.

Later on in the week, my dentist gave me a root canal, and in a couple of weeks, he'll give me a crown. I told someone I worked with about it, and she said, "Tooth pain is worst than childbirth." Now that I've gone through both, I'm not so sure I agree. But it was a pretty intense experience.

Up until a week ago, I spent almost an entire month in constant pain, from the tooth and a strong sore throat two weeks beforehand. It wasn't fun, and it gave me a taste of what it must be like for people who suffer from chronic pain. I found myself getting really tired of it, and actually prayed that God would take it away. (Which he did, I suppose.) I also told God, "I'm no John Paul II." I found no comfort in it, and wanted nothing to do with suffering alongside Christ. I suppose if it was really chronic, I'd eventually change my attitude.

I did learn something about myself, though. When I'm in serious pain, I stop thinking clearly. I'm unable to make decisions about my own medical care and well-being. I suppose that's why God gives us our loved ones--to help us make good decisions when we're in this situation. I'm thankful he's given me people who love and care for me and want the best for me. People who will take care of me when I need them.