Infected!

OH my recent dental drama! Remember a while ago when I was complaining about my face hurting? Well that went away and from what I gather it was a bacterial infection... cause it happened again. About two days ago it started hurting the same way only worse. Yesterday at work it was so painful that I couldn't concentrate and I went home. I called the dentist and I think they stayed late just to see me. My mom drove me over there because she wanted to help and she knew where their new offices are. I had slight swelling in my upper lip and my gums and teeth were hurting like hell. They took a couple of x-rays and poked around. The dentist perscribed some antibiotic and a pain killer and gave me refferals to some Endodontics because he believed my root canal (in tooth 8) had failed, allowing bacteria to fester. It wasn't my fault or anybody else's but I feel dirty being all full of bacteria.

Well last night my upper lip swelled up more than I thought a lip could swell and mom bought soft foods and made me jello. Later, I called the dentist to ask what I should do about it and they said that they meant for me to try to get into the endodontist (if that's the right term) today. I didn't understand that. I thought I was supposed to try to get rid of the infection first and that fixing the tooth could come later. well no. Justin drove me to the endodontist who was able to fit me in. Justin was really patient and learned about day-time tv ... guiding light. I get really nervous and scared when my teeth are worked on and I really freaked out today. The shots were the worst part but they numbed me so much that I really didn't feel much when they were working on my tooth. I was really shakey and nervous after the shots and he explained to me that one of the anesthetic shots he gave me got partially into my body's blood stream and the shot right after that closed up my blood vessels so not much more of the first shot got into the rest of my body. The shakeyness and my heart flutters were a result of the anesthetics. But it felt like it could have just as easily been my own reaction because I was pretty scared. While I was numbing up Justin came back and kept me company. To keep a long gross story short they drilled out my old filler for the root canal and left it open to drain and they cut my gums up by my lip to let that drain too. They gave me some ibuprophen to take with the hydrocodon and I am staying on the antibiotic until it's gone. I am supposed to be icing it and pushing as much of the fluid out through the cut as I can without hurting myself. On Tuesday I go back to fill up the hole.

I am still very swollen but am feeling much better. Relieving the pressure did a lot for the pain. The vicodin and ibuprophen are also certainly helping. Here's a couple of pictures of me when I woke up today:



and here are some pictures of me, more swollen, after the procedure today: