Pulling a tooth means no sleep for me...

My hubby has bad teeth. He has fillings in 4 (I believe) of his molars and they've been there since he was a child (around 10-13 is what we figured). For the past week his bottom left wisdom tooth has been aching but he didn't think too much of it because Ibuprofen was taking away the pain enough for him to get through the day and through work. That is until yesterday. 

His tooth was bothering him so much that he actually said something to me about it. I offered him some of my Orajel and he gladly accepted but just a short hour later the pain was back. He applied more Orajel and popped some Ib. When he went to work last night I told him to bring the Orajel with him and use it when he needed it. He left for work and I dallied on the computer for a few hours before laying down to watch some movies.

When he got in at 3:30 this morning he told me that the Orajel was no longer working for the pain. We both knew it was still good because the surrounding areas were appropriately numb from the solution but he could still feel wave after wave of pain in his tooth. Now I knew (after helping him with the Orajel the first time) that the filling in that tooth had completely degraded over time and it was all but completely gone. I figured that the pain was coming from inside this shell of a tooth and the Orajel just couldn't get to it properly.

He got on the computer for about a half hour then we both laid down to sleep. He started crying. I about died of heartbreak. He never cries. He's just not that way. He normally takes any aches and pain in stride and (normally) I never even hear about the pain until after it has subsided. Not this time. He openly cried and moaned and I held him not knowing what to do. He'd taken a total of about 8 Ibuprofens and 7 aspirins just to get the pain to stop and it wouldn't. I finally bit the bullet and told him something that I knew he wasn't going to like.

"We have to get you to a dentist." He hates doctors. He hates hospitals. We have a running joke between us that he's my big strong grizzly bear until someone comes at him with sharp pointy things. I expected him to say no. That he would wait it out and hope for the best. He said "I know and we will." I started crying then because I knew just how much pain he was really in.

By this time it was 6:30am and he was all out sobbing. I got up, grabbed the phone and proceeded to call the Emergency Room to see if they could suggest anything for me to give him to get him to 9am (when the closest dentist was going to open). Of course they couldn't help me. My emotions were running on high and I couldn't stop shaking with fear, anxiety, anger, etc.

He got up soon after that and brushed his teeth for the second time in 30 minutes because as of then it was the only thing alleviating the pain even a small amount. He came into the living room and we were trying to figure out what to give him to help him. My mom suggested a shot of whiskey. It would help with the pain a bit and help him to sleep until the dentist's office opened. I was out of suggestions so we tried it. I got him something hot to eat and made him a cup of coffee and he took his double shot of alcohol. 

We both laid down shortly after that to see if he could sleep. The whole time I was holding him he would clench up when a new wave of pain over took him. I started praying to any God or Goddess that was listening to take his pain away. I knew that it would have to go somewhere so I started chanting "Take his pain away and give it to me. Just let him sleep." I don't know how many times I said it but I know it took him a good half hour to 45 minutes to get to sleep. Only then did I try to get some rest.

We slept until 3:15pm. We would have slept later but a friend called our phone and it woke us up. I asked him how he slept and for the first time I felt a little relief. He slept good. On a scale of 1-10 (9 being what he was at when we laid down to sleep) he was at a 2.

Wuffy came over to take us to the Dentist only to find out that they can't do an extraction today. We have to go back tomorrow morning at 8 when they open (thought it was 9 before lol) for an exam, x-ray, and consultation. I'm just hoping we can get this sorted out soon. I hate seeing him in so much pain.

)o( Jena