caitinmountain

New Years Day. Had TWO upper abscessed teeth. My face swelled so much that my right eye was swollen shut. Emergency room IV'd me and gave me steroids, pain meds and antibiotics but it was on me to actually follow thru with dentist.

Face was still swollen when I got to dentist and they said they had to drain my cheek.

Guess what? NO NOVOCAINE! Doctor drilled my eye tooth and pressed my cheek and the pus poured out the hole in my tooth!!! OMG I was crying and panting and squeezing that dentist chair so hard!

I almost ran out the door of the place but I'm glad I didn't, immediately after he pressed the pus out, the swelling went down and I felt much better!!

If you told me that I'd be happy about that I'd have said you're crazy but looking back I'm glad I sucked it up and powered through.

They told me that due to the severe swelling novacaine would be ineffective and would just pump more liquid into my already swollen face. So I told the guy "let's do it then" and powered through. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't really being brave but my thought process was "get it over with" and the dentist did it as fast as he could. Oh and then they charged me $40!!! Whaat

I grew up in West Virginia breathing coal dust. I have asthma and use a rescue inhaler. You think those billionaire coal magnates care about what they spew into the air and waterways? I'm a casualty, the coal miners are a casualty, an afterthought. We played in creeks that ran orange from runoff. In the 1970s we thought we could make corporations stop polluting. But this "administration" is undoing all the progress with the stroke of a pen. It's unconscionable.

I did get some pain meds later but only after they drilled and the swelling went down. They said pain meds wouldn't work due to swelling. Or maybe I'm just dumb and gullible!?