My office moved last weekend, I was in charge, so it was a long couple of weeks for me. I took some time off this week to make it up. While I did, my new computer arrived. It’s FAST. And QUIET. Playing games is extra fun now. 🙂

On the ‘down’ side, I had a root canal on Thursday. My first.

(‘squick’ warning under the cut)

I’d had a crown put on a back upper molar in Dec. ’10. No fun, but no big deal. Since then, that tooth has bothered me on and off again. We tried ‘sensitive’ toothpaste, no help. Just after Thanksgiving it turned into a constant ache, and I couldn’t put any pressure on that side, and anything more than lukewarm (hot or cold) sent spikes of pain into my head.

Ow.

Since I know myself very well by now, I warned the dentist that I’m unusually sensitive to pain. He thanked me, and gave me an extra round of Novocaine. Then started to drill. All was well — I was breathing calmly and trying to  relax — when WHAM! he hit the nerve. I stopped him and he was sad. Because the pre-numbing hadn’t worked, the only thing they could do was put the Novocaine directly onto the nerve. That hurt . . . a LOT.  They gave me a second to realize the pain was, in fact, gone, then started again. One nerve cleaned out. Second nerve cleaned out. Third nerve  . . . WHAM! Turns out I needed yet another shot of Novocaine to deaden the last nerve. (This is, apparently, quite rare.) The dentist felt terrible, but it’s not like it’s his fault I’m super sensitive.

It worked, and otherwise all went well.

My face was D-E-A-D, however. My eyelid was drooping, and I couldn’t swallow very well. The numbness lasted all day, finally ceasing sometime after I went to sleep.

Not fun.