like i got hit in the face with a brick

seriously…

…that’s what my face feels like right now.

i don’t know if obamacare covers dental, but if so i want in. my mom’s side of the family genetically has bad teeth. my dad’s as well. combine the two and…well…teri has spent a lot of time at the dentist due to the fact she tends to land gigs with dental insurance.

i tend to not.

as a result most of my back teeth are rotten and crumbling, and they don’t go quietly. well, i guess they DO go quietly in the sense that they don’t actually make an audible noise – but they cause enough pain to where i sometimes do. i’ll go weeks…months…even years with minimal issue. but when it comes back, DAMN does it come back.

and last week it was set off by some over-cooked bacon around a cheese-stuffed jalapeno. hell, at least it was something good. but i noticed it within a few minutes and it’s been fucking with me for about a week now. sometimes it’s just a little painful, other times it’s just DAMN.

and it’s run the gamut.

when you’ve dealt with this as long as i have you learn to recognize different types. the slow, dull pain. the sharp pain. the “my gums are swelling and i can’t stop them” pain. or the “infection sets in to where your jaw locks and you can’t open your mouth” pain. i’ve felt ALL those, to one extent or another, in the last week.

eventually i figure most of the back will have to be replaced with prosthesis.

i’ll fight to keep the front ’cause even though they’re not perfect, they ARE mine and i’d like to keep them as they seem to be holding up well…for now. but for today? i’m gonna triple up on echinacea (i ran out yesterday so that have kicked it a notch backwards) and mainline a shitload of aleve. we’ll see how that goes. last time i remember it being this bad was back when i was unemployed in 2009 and i would actually gargle with jack daniels (this was pre-ke$ha single release, i should add) to alleviate the pain.

hopefully it won’t come to that this time – i’m out of jack daniels.

maybe i just need some pliers and a mirror?