The beast is released... or... Whiny Wednesday

It was just a little root tip... left behind from an extraction four years ago in Jacksonville. I could feel it... but in the midst of my back drama last year I put it on the back burner.

We found a great dentist... right in town... took both my insurance and Austin's... we talked about the large amount of dental work that I still need... and it was decided that because there was an infection in that little root tip, the tip had to go.

No big deal. I set the appointment for a Thursday *just in case* it caused a problem so that I would only have to struggle through one day of work if it ended up being painful.

The co-pay was manageable. I mean, for every dime I end up with after my budget is met... there's a dollar that needs to go some place or another... things we've put off... but I since this was impacting my health and had the potential to cause more trouble...it was time.

Just like with the surgery before Christmas... it wasn't the PERFECT time to deal with it but it was something I needed to do.

Then the appointment got moved to Tuesday. Dentist had a family situation he needed to take care of on Thursday. No problem. No conflicts on my calendar. I was slightly apprehensive because *if it went wrong* I had the potential to miss time from work which is a huge problem.

I was nervous yesterday. Apprehensive is the best word. I hate going to the dentist. I have had some major dental trauma over the past ten years or so. I don't like it and wouldn't do it if it wasn't necessary. And this was, as it turned out, more necessary than we thought.

The tiny little root tip was surrounded by a cyst. What the dentist thought, based on xrays, was a little pocket of infection was actually a cyst. And for the root tip to come out, the cyst had to come out. And because it was a cyst, it wasn't as easy to access as the little tiny root tip would have been. So I ended up with a nice incision in my gum to completely expose the cyst.

When the dentist says, "check this out!" to his assistant it's not good news for the person laid back in the chair. He offered to show me but I was on the verge of passing out already. I was numbed but the sounds of the drill and the cutting open of flesh... which I could hear... *shiver*.... left me shaky. Hearing the sutures go in... I'm still dizzy thinking about it.

The cyst, most likely, is another symptom of the granulomatic disorder that gave me the scar tissue in my lungs and the cyst in my sinuses and so on and so forth. I'm lumpy. My body apparently forms cysts around foreign bodies in my body. Sort of like... an oyster making pearls. Or something less valuable.

It doesn't appear to be cancerous cyst or carry any long term implications. I have this antibiotic rinse I have to use and I have to go back in a week to have the stitches out and make sure it's healing properly and I'll find out more about the makeup of the cyst then.

Incidentally, if you're on three different meds for high blood pressure... you might just bleed more than usual. It looked like a war zone by the time we were finished. I had this little page of information in my lap and it was splattered with blood by the time they were finished. The sweet dental assistant had to mop up my face before they let me out of the chair.

The pain hasn't been anything greater than what vicodin can handle (or in my case vico-profen)... I'm sore from the aggressive digging and drilling and so on... and I'm so horribly sick to my stomach... and I'm so weak I can barely walk from bedroom to bathroom. Weak enough that Austin volunteered to stay home with me today but I sent him on to school. I think the dentist unleashed a beast when he freed that cyst. Fever, chills, shakes... it's not pretty. Having to postpone my appointment with the pain doctor.

Anyways... so that's the story... it's always something. But, let me add this - God is faithful. I thought that there was no way I would get any more support for Austin short of a court battle but his dad paid yesterday.  That was a HUGE blessing.

Ok... back to bed. Love and hugs, y'all.