yes i'm from eastern kentucky, but that does not mean i am toothless....yet.

in the last week i have finally had to give in to an 8 year hiatus from the dentist. after my last visit to my dentist/orthodontist when i was in college, she nearly killed me and i swore i would never go back again. tuesday as i was sitting in the hospital waiting room having bloodwork done, i came to the conclusion that i was going to have to actually go. i had made the appointment the day before with my old childhood dentist but i don't think it sunk in until the next morning. the odd thing is, i could not wait to go. i thought anything was better than the horrible pain i was constantly experiencing.

as i sat and listened to my audiobook, sTori Telling, during my bloodwork, (I know, the book was a guilty pleasure but it was very interesting), the throbbing continued to get worse and worse. i went to the hospital pharmacy and bought yet another bottle of tylenol. i'd already taken a bottle of advil since last thursday when the pain began to get unbearable but i couldn't help it, i was a little out of my head i think. it's a wonder i didn't just turn the bottle up and down a bunch. i really considered ripping the red wax off my bottle of jim beam (that i proudly made at the distillery) and taking a few advil with that but thought better of it. anyway, i went to the dentist, they took and x-ray and wonderful dr. hill said, "oh yeah, that's a dead nerve in that tooth with a lot of infection at the root." oh.

my next question was "what are you going to do to me?" he laughed in his slightly maniacal way (that i love) and then became very serious saying, "you do want to keep the tooth, right?"

in my head i was screaming I DON'T CARE! pull the flippin' thing right now if you want, just make it stop hurting!

i go back for a root canal during spring break. what's really bad is that i scheduled a root canal around my running schedule. i've got 5 miles to do that morning before i go.....

after driving from home to waco and back to richmond that morning, i had gone to irvine to dr. hill's then from irvine all the way to the pharmacy in richmond, back out to get drew in waco, then back to the pharmacy. i think i ran out a tank of gas that day but it was worth it because at the end of the day i picked up some wonderful pills and headed on home. thank goodness tim's mom called and wanted to take drew home for a little bit because i was completely done. i went to bed at 6:00 tuesday evening and did not get back up until friday morning at 10:00. tim had to bring drew down to say good morning and good night. i cried because i couldn't get up and take care of him....what a horrible feeling.

i was swelled worse than when i had my surgery on my mouth because all the infection was drawn out into my face. i knew it was bad but i didn't think it was that bad until jeanne and jennifer let out their ohhhh's today when i showed them the pictures. yes, i documented. nice, huh? i don't even remember taking the picture the first day. wonder what else i don't remember from last week?

i'm much better now and thank you to all my buds that called, texted (because you know i'm not answering a phone, ha!) and brought me a frosty. :) you guys are such good friends....and true friends. how do i know? because you give me your honest opinion about what my face really looked like, thanks.

and because i have no vanity left, here are the pictures documenting my face explosion.

a little perspective -- this is what my face normally looks like.

day 1

day 2

day 3

day 4

i kept drew with me on friday (day 4) and i think i swelled back up a little because i was up much more than i had been all week.