Earlier this week I woke up with one of the worst headaches I have had in a long time. At first, I thought I slept wrong but my neck didn't hurt.
A woman who works in my father's office suggested that I may have a sinus infection because she was dealing with the same thing that day. Yet, I could breathe freely from my nose, so this didn't sound right.....But the next day, my teeth on the right side of my face started hurting. Not just one tooth, but the entire upper and lower teeth hurt. Except they didn't hurt to eat, and there was no pain from hot or cold drinks, it was just this excruciating pain radiating from the right side of my head to the jaw bone.
The pain was horrific! I was supposed to visit a friend who, when I called to cancel our day together, suggested that it may be a sinus infection because sometimes when she gets a sinus infection her top teeth hurt, but she had never heard of the bottom teeth hurting as well. I began "self medicating" - taking Sudafed sinus, lots of tylenol which did nothing for the pain and using an older prescription I had for a cough syrup that had codeine in it just to dull the pain. But I was getting nervous, nothing was helping my teeth pain.
Now, while I have nothing against going to the dentist, I have never had a major problem - never had a cavity in my life. So now I was convincing myself that I may have to get my entire mouth filled because the pain had to be numerous cavities, or maybe I needed root canel! Oh Shit! I didnt' want to go through major oral surgery or even getting cavities filled. And besides, everytime the sudafed kicked in the pain would lessen....
Damn! What is this??... yesterday, I just couldn't get out of bed because of the pain - I slept for 13 hours during the day. When I woke up today my entire right side of my head hurt - my ears were clogged, but I could breathe freely out of my nose.
Okay, I gotta suck it up and go to the dentist. I called my dentist's office (she is also an old friend I have known since I was a kid) but she wasn't in today and the earliest she could see me was Tuesday. But the pain was really really bad! So I called my Doctor - I was going to see if he could give me some strong pain killers to survive the weekend.
When I got to the doctor, he looked in my right ear, down my throat and proclaimed I had maxiofacial sinusitis which was causing all the pain! Three prescriptions later I cancelled my emergency dental appointment and have slept most of the day.
While I am still in pain (which is being helped by Tylenol with Codeine), I am so happy it's JUST sinusitis and not major dental work that needs to be done. I don't think I have ever been so happy just to be sick......
