Confessions of a NOT very Adulty Adult

So confession time...

I am not a very adulty adult when it comes to my own health. I don't like making my own appointments or going to the doctors, especially.

I prefer to just connect with nature and try to care for my body as best I can so I can avoid the doctors. I care for my teeth and have avoided the dentist my whole life. I went one time while I was pregnant with my first child, simply because I had dental insurance and was curious.

Nothing happened, but the dentist said I had pretty teeth and that, when I had given birth, I could come back and get x-rays and address the retained baby tooth I had. I never went back.

The retained baby tooth was pulled out by my husband, with some fishing line after I gave birth to my son and it loosened on its own. The dentist did tell me that would happen, so I was pleased to avoid another appointment.

This was in 2006. 17 years ago.

Halloween of 2022 I crunched down on a hard piece of candy. I was already having some pain in my lower back left molar. It ached from time to time and had a black spot. I knew it was bad.

That candy proved how bad it was; the crunch sounded worse in my head.

Literally.

I felt sharp pain and when I checked on my tooth a huge chunk had broken off. I was horrified. One thing that makes me most anxious is problems with my teeth. I have nightmares about my teeth crumbling in my mouth.

Wake up in a panic, type nightmares.

It was terrible, but I am a cash pay only type of girl. The patient that has no insurance and asks for the bare minimum. We were in one of the roughest seasons of our lives as well and I knew we couldn't afford dental bills for me. My husband's teeth require way more attention than my little broken molar.

Besides, as long as I was keeping it clean, it didn't hurt much. Just a little ache from time to time. I could hold out.

Then, came the summer from hell. The summer of 2023.

To say we have had a tough time lately is an understatement. This summer has been one stress after another. And on top of all the other things going on in our lives, my tooth decided to hurt all the time.

No matter how clean I kept it, my best friend became clove oil.

But let me tell you the problem with clove oil. No matter how antiseptic or numbing it is, for hours and hours after applying it, every single thing that you eat...

Every breath that you take...

Even the saliva in your mouth will taste like Hobby Lobby at Christmas time!!

This was every day and still the pain was persisting. I was having to take pain relievers at night just to sleep and I don't like taking anything to relieve pain. I believe sleep is the best medicine.

But sleep wouldn't help.

So I had to break down and go to the dentist. I whined and complained. My hands shook and I was near tears in the waiting room. But I went.

And thank goodness I did. Turns out I had an abscess on my gum and tooth.

No wonder I was feeling awful. I had an infection.

I was prescribed what I kept joking were my life saving antibiotics and I have been taking them for a week now. I feel a little adultier every time I remember to take them.

Even though they make me feel like crap.

I am awaiting my next appointment to have the tooth removed surgically in a week as I type this.

And I still feel like a baby about it. I don't want to go but the pain in my jaw is overwhelming.

So that combined with a few other adultier adults in my life I am sure I will be dragged (maybe kicking and screaming, I can't promise anything), to the dentist.

They are going to dig this awful thing out of my mouth one way or another.

But that still doesn't make me an adulty adult in these matters.

So there!

:-P