I miss food

It took me an hour to eat dinner last night.

This is day three of immobilizing jaw pain.  The I-can't-open-my-mouth-properly-without-terrible-pain kind. I think my remaining wisdom teeth are to blame.  I frantically called my dentist yesterday when I was certain I wouldn't make it through the long weekend, and they graciously got me in for Friday.

Of course through all of this, all I can think about is food.  Glorious food, that is officially too painful to eat.  So I'm sipping on a smoothie that the boyfriend (who is immeasurably thoughtful) brought for lunch and dreaming about hot dogs and corn salsa, and popcorn (yep, you can judge my food choices if you want). 

Image from GiantEagle.com.

The other focus area is how debilitating this is.  I can still walk, breathe, type, work, drive, blah, blah, blah.  But I can focus on very little aside from the pain, the personal level of panic over something being wrong, or my impromptu wisdom tooth removal tonight.  I don't feel "sick", but I'm definitely not healthy.  It's such a strange place.  I'm used to colds, or the flu, or a physical injury, but not this.

Weekend plans are on hold.  Who knows what tomorrow will be like.  Who knows how the rest of the long weekend will pan out.  All because of a stupid tooth (which, might I add, sat there for months without causing a lick of trouble and then all of a sudden decides to spaz out and take my entire mouth with it).

I try very hard to be a "go with the flow" kind of person.  I don't always succeed.  Situations like this necessitate it, but I still hate them.  I would rather have the whole plan worked out in my head (and maybe never vocalized) and change it at the last minute than to be completely in the dark.

It's another opportunity to grow.  Seriously though, did it have to be this painful?

P.S. I had a college roommate who struggled with a stomach problem that they were never able to diagnose.  She figured out that most pain (which could leave her doubled over) came from eating.  She hardly eats.  Bowls of cereal are pretty much it.  You'd never know though, unless you asked (or unless you were like me, and saw her lying on her bed in excruciating pain).  She didn't make it the focus of everything (although I'm sure it dominated her thoughts).  I can't help but cringe when I think of how I respond to pain.  I'm pretty sure my response is not the same.

UPDATE:  The wisdom tooth removal went smoother than smooth.  Took less than 20 minutes from the time I sat down in the chair until I was back out the door.  No pain all weekend (which is funny, since I was popping ibuprofen like candy earlier in the week for pain), and aside from eating carefully and trying to stay away from the worst foods (for my condition) it was like it never happened.  So, my weekend plans of building a table from lumber bought from Home Depot, and painting a room were not delayed.  Quite the holiday weekend, and thankfully, pain free.