Hello friends! Welcome back to the blog. I went MIA there for a hot minute. Back on the 25th of August, I celebrated my 37th birthday. I was pretty pumped to make this year a time spent focusing on growth, both personal and business. But, as I’m sure you’ve guessed from the title of this post, things took a bit of a detour. So, today I’m going to talk a bit about what the hell happened and what I’ve got coming up and in the works for the blog and my shop!
The Drama
Let me preface ALL of this by saying, I’m not a fan of going to the dentist. I go, but it’s not on my list of favorite things to do, and I’ll put it off for as long as possible. That being said, don’t be like me! Anyways, back in March, I started having some tooth pain on the left side of my mouth. I’d been dealing with some issues on the right side since last fall, but per my usual M.O., if it doesn’t hurt why mess with it? I made an appointment and went on my merry way. The dentist that I saw wasn’t my usual dentist, who I really like, but another one in the practice. She did some x-rays and drilled into the tooth only to announce that I was going to have to go to a specialist for a root canal. Oh and by the way, I also need to see an oral surgeon and get this wisdom tooth out. And since I’m getting one I should just get them ALL out.
Ha ha.
The general consensus was that I need to have the root canals done prior to having the wisdom tooth taken out. Things rolled along fine until mid-June, when my temporary filling fell out and I went back to the dentist. I was able to get in with my regular dentist, who told me that yes I needed the wisdom tooth out, but I didn’t need a root canal on the tooth in front of it. But, I was constantly told that I needed to get the root canal taken care of before the wisdom tooth because it was more important. So I made an appointment with the same specialist who refused to treat me back in December because I was five minutes late. Because they failed to mention that the road to their office was closed with construction.
Now we have arrived in August, and I am beginning to notice a tiny bit of swelling on the left side of my face. Barely noticeable, but there was some tenderness to the area. So after my root canal, which by the way didn’t even happen on the tooth, I scheduled it for but the one behind it because it was “more important”, I made an appointment to have the wisdom tooth taken out on the second of September. Which was mildly terrifying and definitely anxiety-producing because this would be my first actual surgery where I would be knocked out.
A week after my root canal and the day after my birthday, I snapped a selfie in the morning.
So that was Thursday the 26th of August. Friday, the 27th looked a little different.
I promise I didn’t have a bunch of food stuffed in my cheek. That’s all swelling right there. We went out of town and on a float trip over the weekend. My face and teeth didn’t actually hurt, but it was very difficult to open my mouth more than half an inch. I basically had to either eating tiny things or shove food past my teeth with my fingers. Sunday evening, I started to experience mild pain in my face and teeth. Matt suggested that I should try a video call with a doctor because the thought was they might not proceed with the surgery since I clearly had an infection. So through my insurance company’s app, I was able to tele-visit with a doctor and she prescribed me some antibiotics. I started those on Monday and continued to try and ice my jaw to help with the swelling.
By Tuesday morning, I was in pretty bad shape. I hadn’t slept much the night before, and my face hurt so much so, that if my hair brushed it, it was excruciating. Matt asked if I want to go to the hospital, but everything I had read said that they really couldn’t do anything. So I told him no, that I probably just needed to give the antibiotics a little more time to work. I took some more painkillers and was able to sleep a little longer. Once I woke up again, the pain was substantially less and more easily managed with Aleve and Tylenol. I headed to work and continued to try and ice my face even though it was painful to have anything touch it.
I ordered some soup for my lunch, and as I was sitting there struggling to fit a noodle into my mouth, which now only opened about a quarter of an inch, I could feel my face getting bigger. I tried to go to the urgent care near my work but they had a five hour wait, so I decided to stop by an ER or another urgent care on my way home. I stopped at St. Luke’s Urgent Care in Winghaven, waited about an hour and a half, the whole time in tears because of this mask pressing on my face. The doctor came in, took one look at my face, and said, “You need to go to the ER.” So they transferred all my info to St. John’s Mercy, because they are the only ones that have an oral surgeon on staff. So I hopped back in my car and drove back down to the ER, where I waited for about three hours. And this was the sight that greeted the ER doctor.
He reacted with an audible “Ohhh!” At this point, I would say the mass was a little bigger than tennis ball size. They ordered IV antibiotics, a CT scan, and I got to spend my first night in the hospital since I had been born 37 years ago! This was five days after the 26th. That’s how fast shit went sideways on me. After spending the night, I got to have my first major surgery, complete with an IV, being knocked out (which I did not wake up well from!), stitches, the whole nine yards. He wound up taking out not only the wisdom tooth but also two other teeth that were trending in the same direction. The entire abscess measured 9cm x 11cm x 11cm. The day after surgery, I think I looked much better (although these are some rough AF photos of myself, but I think I get a pass).
So yeah, I got to spend the four days of September in the hospital. Fun times, I know! And so I have spent the last few weeks trying to catch up on all the things that I fell behind on while I was out of commission. But now we are back!
What’s Coming Up
Now on to the future! We are heading to New Mexico next month. We are going to the Alburquerque Balloon Festival and also we are heading up to the San Juan river to do some fly fishing. We are going to stay at the Soaring Eagle Lodge in Navajo Dam. I can’t wait! I’ve been looking forward to this trip all year. Tomorrow kicks off my Last 90 Days challenge. I will post a more in-depth write-up on that tomorrow, but it’s basically a challenge to help finish the year off strong and set yourself up for success in the new year. Leave me a comment below if you want to join me!
I’m working on some YouTube content! As with the blog, my channel will be a mix of lifestyle content. I hope you all enjoy it. I will also be launching a newsletter, so make sure you sign up below to be placed on our mailing list for that.
As always, thank you for reading! I know sometimes it feels like I might have abandoned this space, but I promise I haven’t and I typically have a reason as to why I’m not posting. Make sure you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and soon Youtube. Much love!
