Here's My Story {or pain, pain go away}

Yes, I know. It's Wednesday. Already. And I'm just getting around to posting. I have a really good reason. {promise}

Okay, so in my last post I left you all wondering "what the heck happened to Leslie?" I really didn't mean to sound so cryptic. {really} The past few days I've waffled on whether or not I'd share "my" story with you. But then I thought...this is my blog and my faithful readers come here to know me. I mean most my friends outside of "bloggyville" know this about me...so maybe it is time to share with all my on-line friends. AND maybe what I say will help out someone else. {i would be just tickled if it did} So {deep breath} here goes...oh, and this story is LONG. I thought about condensing it but if I do you d\won't understand where I've been and you won't understand the complete JOY and RELIEF I am now feeling. So, as not to make this so long I am going to break it up into two posts. Hope that is okay:)

Approx. 7 to 8 years ago, in February I began having tooth pain. Actually more like teeth, jaw and facial pain. I ended up seeing a dentist and he proceeded to give me a root canal. and then another one. and another one (on the same tooth!) You see after every root canal everything still hurt. Each visit was met with frustration on both my part and his. I would tell him how much pain not only the tooth was in but all the surrounding teeth and my face hurt. On my third visit with him he was so upset with me that he told me there was nothing more he could do with me and to not come back. {i was appalled and so mad. i left in angry tears}

It was May and I was still in pain. In fact the pain was worse. It was becoming more and more difficult to chew. I had to give up eating my favorite foods...raw veggies, salads, apples...basically anything that had to be chewed with my back teeth was out. I used mostly my front teeth. Oh, and chewing gum? Unbearable! I was downing Excedrin like they were candy. I was also not just laying around waiting to get better. I was researching the internet and books trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I knew it was more than just a normal toothache. I thought maybe I had TMJ.

That July I ran into my old dentist at the County Fair. I was having my usual pain {masked a bit with the Excedrin}. I began sharing my "story" with him and my thoughts on maybe having TMJ. He told me to come to his office that Monday. So I did...

For the next few weeks I would visit him...he x-rayed my tooth...saw no decay, no crack...nothing that would require a root canal or be causing me pain. He checked the surrounding teeth, too. Then he checked my jaw...all areas that would make it TMJ. He recommended I go to a dental school in Kansas City that specialized in TMJ {but he didn't believe it was that}. We didn't go to the Dental School because my dentist was afraid they would break my jaw and do lots of other unnecessary things to me all in the name of "learning".

Fast forward to the last week of August. It's the Thursday before Labor Day weekend. I am in AGONY. I am sitting in a chair crying in pain. Out of desperation I call my dentist. He says come in. I drive to his office {my kids were at school and Dave at work}. There I was, in his dental chair begging him to pull my tooth. I mean it was killing me. It had to be a toothache, right? This TMJ stuff was all crap...it was my tooth!! He did another xray then, with great hesitation, agreed to pull my tooth. He thought maybe {just maybe} the tooth had a hairline fracture that couldn't be seen with even an xray and that was the cause of my agony.

POP! The jaw tooth was out. I felt sick to my stomach as something told me this was NOT the cause of my pain AT ALL!!!! I looked up at my dentist. He was horrified {i mean he was sick...i knew by the look on his face he wished he hadn't pulled the tooth}. He then proceeded to tell me {after examining the tooth} that he had, in fact pulled a perfectly healthy tooth. I was devastated.

That day was the beginning of my nightmare. I thought the pain was bad before...oh, baby I hadn't seen nothing yet!


***I'm gonna stop here. The kids need to get to school and I won't have time to get back on the computer for most of the day. Later on this afternoon I promise to stop by and read all your blogs {and comments!!} I haven't been able to do that all week!!!