Oh man, what a week. Mostly consisting of pain.
A couple of weeks ago I started to get a nagging toothache. Well, more of a gum-ache really, which of course I ignored. I eventually found a dentist and made an appointment, and was told it was an abscess in the gum, and needed antibiotics to treat it. And what’s more, the antibiotics were strictly no alcohol, for five whole days. Five days. I can tell you, the one thing you want when you’ve got a gum abscess pulsating away in your mouth is a drink!
Anyway, I took the antibiotics, and the five days booze free, literally on the chin. The pain seemed to diminish a bit, but it, and the lump, were still there. So back off to the dentist I went, to be told that the tooth was too damaged to save and that the bugger would have to come out.
I’ve had teeth out before, and to be honest, other than the injection bit, it’s bearable. You just need to take an ipod with some loud music, wait for the anaesthetic to take hold and it’s usually over with pretty quickly. So while I knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant I was kind of OK with it. And i’d booked a late appointment so I could go straight home after.
Well. This tooth did not want to come out. It took a 40-minute struggle, some pretty horrible dentistry and a few tears to get it out of my head. I won’t go into details, for the squeamish, but just to say it wasn’t pleasant. Or quick. Or like any other tooth I’ve ever had out. And it’s left a bloody great big hole.
That was on Monday. On Tuesday I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and should probably have worked from home. But I dosed up on ibuprofen and went it. I was pretty much rattling. Then on Wednesday I was booked in for a tattoo.
We’ve finally finished phase 1 – the backpiece. This is the cover-up and central piece to the tattoos that are going to go over the shoulder and down my arms (to elbow). It was a relief to get it finished, and I had some pretty strong painkillers to get me through – which pretty much stopped me thinking about the tooth thing for a couple of hours.
We finished the heart around the skull and just for good measure, went back over the cover-up (ouch) as Valerie wasn’t quite happy with the colour. There’s a few cherry blossom left to place but they will be done last.
So, now we move on to my arms, and I’m actually pretty excited. Roll on mid-August.