Toothache Journey #
- Started about two years ago, occasionally in the evenings. Pain would spread across half my face, but sleeping it off would make it better.
- Last Thursday night, the pain was worse than ever before, couldn’t really sleep.
- Last Friday at noon, couldn’t stand it anymore so I went to buy painkillers from the pharmacy behind my office. The pharmacist said acetaminophen (Tylenol) doesn’t work for toothaches and told me to take ibuprofen instead.
- Friday noon 12:35, took the medication. After an hour, I felt some changes in my body, but hard to say if the pain had eased.
- Friday night was extremely painful. Around 00:07 I swallowed a pill, got up to sit and rest but still hurt so much I cried. Around 00:30, suddenly the pain just stopped.
- Saturday to Sunday during the day, barely any pain.
- Sunday evening around 6-7 PM, felt discomfort again.
- Monday 4 AM, woke up from pain. At 4:14 took medication, went back to sleep.
- Monday noon having lunch with colleagues, at 12:30 the pain hit so hard I rushed back to my seat to take medicine, but it had no effect whatsoever.
- Monday afternoon took sick leave to see the dentist, was hunched over in the chair sweating while waiting.
- Doctor said my wisdom tooth was decayed, 80% likely that’s the culprit. Extracting wisdom teeth requires oral surgery, so he could only clean my teeth first and scheduled the extraction for Wednesday afternoon.
- 16:10 walked out of the clinic and suddenly the pain was gone.
Obviously, both times the pain suddenly stopped were 12 hours after taking painkillers. So I guessed the medication would wear off like last time after about 18 hours, meaning Wednesday morning at 8.
- Wednesday morning 7:30, woke up for a meeting, felt fine. By 8:20 started feeling uncomfortable. Went to the office to organize some documents pretending to be productive, then went for the tooth extraction in the afternoon.
- Wednesday afternoon after the extraction, the numb face felt very strange when poked.
Interlude #
I went to a neurologist on Saturday morning. The doctor said the symptoms didn’t seem like nerve pain. Doctor: “This doesn’t look like typical nerve pain. Have you been under a lot of stress lately?” Me: “…”
When picking up the extraction medicine, I saw ibuprofen on the prescription too. I showed the pharmacist the box I bought earlier and said: “This takes about 12 hours to work for me, and the effect lasts 18 hours.” Pharmacist: “That’s unlikely. You mean it didn’t work after you took it?” Me: “I wasn’t sure at the time because the pain comes and goes. But 12 hours later it really would suddenly stop hurting - happened both times I took it.” Pharmacist: “Hmm, did you tell the doctor?” Me: “Well, no.” Pharmacist: “Usually it should take effect in 30 minutes, and the medication doesn’t last that long.” Me: “I wonder why it’s different from what I found online…” Pharmacist: “That’s really a bit strange for you.”
Turns out I’m a painkiller dinosaur with super slow reactions. Taking medication after the pain starts is way too late - so troublesome.