Life is Better on the Farm

Wiser than I thought.....

My plan for today was to get away from the office, have lunch with my students, go to the accountant to take care of my taxes, and come home early in the afternoon to enjoy the sun and get a couple of things done around the house....

HOWEVER.....

While waiting for my turn with the accountant, I decided to have a piece of chewing gum- the soft kind that isn't hard to chew, of course. About five or six chomps after I put the gum in my mouth, I felt an EXCRUCIATING pain shoot up my right jaw. Although I didn't sense any tooth parts in my mouth, obviously something had happened to one of my back teeth on the right side.

To make a long story short, I sat in the accountant's office with a wad of Kleenex packed up against the tooth to lessen the pain as I tried to convince myself that it would go away. When the sweet woman behind the desk asked me if I needed help, I realized the my efforts to make it appear that I wasn't in pain were failing miserably.

As soon as I got to the car, I called my dentist, only to find out that he and his staff don't work on Fridays. His nice office message provided an emergency number, and it took very little time for me to call it! When Dr. L. heard the explanation of what had occurred, he ordered me to come meet him at the office immediately. (Then I began to worry that I was REALLY up the creek!)

So, two hours later, I am out of pain (except for a dull throb in the area) , have a prescription for mega-Motrin if I need it, and have found out that I might have to have some extensive dental work in the near future.

BUT, here's the real surprise of the afternoon....An X-ray of my upper back teeth show that I have an impacted wisdom tooth!!! I thought this was a rather strange thing since I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed about 25 years ago, but Dr. L. says one can have up to three sets of wisdom teeth over the course of a lifetime. Great! Now I have to wait and see if there are others of these suckers embedded in my gums ..EERGH!

Despite the unexpected events of the day, I do have some high thoughts....

1) I am grateful to have a dentist who will drop what he's doing (he was in the process of moving to a new house) to come to my rescue.

2) I am grateful for novacaine and immediate pain relief.

3) I am grateful that I will get money back from the state and federal governments (a meager sum, but hey, it's better than paying).

4) The discovery of this heretofore undiscovered impacted tooth confirms the fact that I am a wiser person. After all, it is a WISDOM tooth.....(groan) :0) :0)

Off to start the chores I had hoped to have completed by now....Wishing all a pleasant weekend!