I've been sitting here thinking, "I really should post something on here. But what? I have nothing to write about." HA. How about this: yesterday I had to have a root canal and then a hospital visit.

I guess I've been telling everybody here, so I just don't think, "Oh yeah, I have a whole other audience on Diaryland that doesn't know yet." This is going to be the long version, because I kind of like telling the story. :)

I've been having a LOT of mouth problems lately. First it was just my jaw, and I got that dealt with, but starting Wednesday my mouth started hurting in a very different way. I couldn't close my back teeth or else there would just be PAIN. And it ached and ached and ached. The sensitivity of my teeth felt like an absess tooth and, since I was in SO much pain, I called up the dentist on Thursday and arranged for an appointment Friday to see what was going on. Well, I went in there and the dentist took an x-ray of my back teeth and said yes, he did think I had an infection in my tooth. Fortunately for me, one of the patients with an appointment after me didn't show up, so the dentist started a root canal on me. He had to drill through a CROWN. Good grief. I would get an infection underneath a crowned tooth! (Crowns are made of porcelain and metal.) But it didn't kill his drills. :)

I was numbed up plenty and didn't feel anything while he was drilling. (It stunk, though. Always does.) And then he got to the infected root with a little pokey thing (not a drill, thank God) and I would have SCREAMED in pain had I been able to. It. Hurt. So. Bad. It only hurt for two seconds, but those two seconds were the WORST two seconds of my entire life.

Once he opened up the root and found the infection, he just poured antiseptic into it. The antiseptic didn't hurt at all. It made the infection come out though. And it kept coming and coming and coming... I guess it was like pus or something (DISGUSTING!!!)... "Like a volcano," said the dentist. He told me that this was one of the worst infections he had seen in a long time. :( They just kept dumping in the antiseptic and got all that infection out of there. I was so glad I had come in and gotten it dealt with. Gosh.

They got a LOT of the infection out, but at the end, he was poking and prodding the root with these little wire things and he hit one sensitive spot and I felt like screaming again. :Z He used some more antiseptic but couldn't do much more than that. He said I'd have to give my teeth a rest--let the antibiotics work and stuff, and then they would finish cleaning it up later. So I'll be going back next week sometime.

After I got back from the dentist, I skipped chapel and showered. My appointment was at 8 A.M. so I didn't shower beforehand (for the sake of sleeping in more :) ). Then I had a class at 11:10. I felt all right, so I went. I didn't get lunch... I figured I'd eat after class. But then I had to go pick up my medications from Wal-Mart and that took an entire hour thanks to the line. :S When I got back I didn't really feel like eating anyway, even though I was hungry. So I talked to my roommate for a bit and then laid down and rested for an hour. At 3:00 I went to the PRAXIS practice/preparation meeting. I felt fine. A little out of it, because I had just woken up. The hydrocodone probably had to do with it too. Anyway, I was just sitting there for 45 minutes, listening very closely to the lecturer and taking notes, and all of a sudden--I mean, it was really sudden--I felt all the blood rush out of my face, and I got really really lightheaded and nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up. I started to stand up, turning partly around to say to one of the advisors who was sitting in on the meeting, "Dr. B--I don't feel good." She asked me, "Are you okay?" and I shook my head. She stood up and came around the table. My head was swimming by now. I felt her hand on my elbow and that's the last thing I remember. I guess I walked pretty far before blacking out because when I woke up I was right near the exit door I had been heading for.

The waking up part of fainting is SO WEIRD. 'Cause you don't remember falling at all. When you wake up, you're really not sure if you're dreaming or what. Dr. B and a security guy's and another guy's face were just drifting and swirling around above me as I woke up. And if you've never fainted before, you really do wonder why you're on the floor. I fainted once before, after I had my wisdom teeth pulled. Same reasons: not eating enough, being on strong medication, not resting enough, and sitting up for long amounts of time. You think I'd learn! :)

I was really sweaty when I woke up. Dr. B kept pushing my bangs up off my forehead. I thought, I must look a sight. And then I wondered, Is everybody staring at me? But I didn't look over; I just held still. "We've called 911," said Dr. B and I saw that one of the guys was holding a cell phone to his ear.

911! Whoa! There were actually paramedics going to come in and take me away in an ambulance? Cool!!

I didn't think it was necessary... But cool? Definitely. :D What a story to tell!

I just laid very still while we waited for the 'meds. I still felt a little queasy, but otherwise I was fine. They came, like 5 of them, with a real stretcher and everything. They had me walk to the bed myself. That was okay, because I felt okay enough to walk at least that short distance, but I was a tad disappointed.

My roommate asked me if I wanted her to come. "If you want," I said. I knew this PRAXIS practice wasn't, like, critical to miss, so I hoped she'd say yes. I kinda wanted her to come, to at least have somebody to talk to. The 'meds were only interested in my name, age, allergies, family doctor, blah blah blah. LOL.

They stuck an IV in me. Ew. I decided I don't like IVs very much. I didn't like the initial stab and I didn't like the not being able to move my hand and I didn't like how cold it made my arm and hand. They put an oxygen thingy in my nose, too, but I was okay soon and they took it out. It made my nose itch.

They ran a bunch of tests at the hospital. It took FOR EVER. They did an EKG and a blood test and tested my blood pressure quite a bit. I think it might've dropped when I fainted, which is why they kept testing it.

::sigh:: Anyway. I was there for way too long. But it was still exciting. :) My aunt came by to pick us up because both Becca and I rode to the hospital in the ambulance.

One of the nurses wasn't very nice. She seemed like she had had a long day. One of them was super nice. And one was a gorgeous fellow NNUer who is, unfortunately, married. :P I had to take my shirt off in front of him! How embarrassing! But the female nurse in there kept me covered well.

Anyway, this is too long already. I'm fine now. They told me take it easy, so I didn't go the PRAXIS exam at 7:30 this morning like I was supposed to. Oh yeah--they discovered I had anemia. That sure took me by surprise! I have anemia? What surprised me even more was that my aunt said it runs in our family on both sides, and that my grandma has had it for years. I never knew it! My sister just discovered she has it last semester, too... Weird. How do you get genes like that out of your family? Anyway. It's not too serious, I suppose. Just means I need to eat more meat and green, leafy vegetables, which is a little difficult. The Dex's meat is disgusting. It's always mostly fat. The vegetables I might be able to do, though; we have a pretty good salad bar.

So that's my exciting story. :) I'm sure I'll have to tell it a billion more times in the next few days, LOL.

-Stephanie

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