Well, the Couch to 5K training did start on Monday as I planned.

However, it came to a screeching halt on Tuesday after a trip to the dentist.  I finally gave in and went to the dentist for a wisdom tooth that has been bugging me since, oh, I don’t know, April?  It was throbbing and swelling.  My whole jaw hurt and I couldn’t close my mouth or chew on that side.  This stupid tooth had already broken the surface, but now it’s causing all sorts of trouble.  Anyway! Teeth are gross (to me at least) and I’m sure no one wants to read about the ordeal.

This is also my first time dealing with Tricare dental plans.  As anyone using Tricare knows, it can be a royal pain in the butt.  After searching for dentists in our network for days and requesting appointments online to no avail, I finally gave up and called one of the dentists listed.  Low and behold, they took Tricare and could get me in within a few days.  They didn’t do a full set of x-rays or a cleaning–which I thought was super odd…..

Instead they did one x-ray of the side that was killing me slowly.  The dentist came in and said unfortunately he didn’t feel comfortable extracting this bad boy himself, so he was referring me to an oral surgeon.  What luck! I’d be able to get my pesky tooth out of the way and I’d finally be on the road to recovery.

That is, until I called the referral oral surgeon.  As luck would have it, they didn’t take Tricare and everything would out of my own pocket.  I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t have an extra grand up for grabs to use to pull a tooth (hello! I’d have a vehicle if I did!).  They offered to get me in bright and early in Honolulu the next day (a 45 minute drive without traffic).  Initially I accepted, thinking I HAD to get this thing out before I removed it myself, Castaway style.

After calling my hubby with the “good” news, he proceeded to gripe rather vocally about how that was ridiculous and “why would they refer you to someone not in our network?!”….So I went hunting for another oral surgeon within the Tricare Network.

I finally found one and they’re significantly closer to home.  The seventh cannot come soon enough.

Anywho! Back to why I’m sidelined.

I was fine with running with the jaw pain.  Whatever, the first week of C25K isn’t that bad.  But after my dentist took a look at the troublesome tooth, he decided to prescribe me some painkillers and an antibiotic to keep infection away until I could get in to the oral surgeon.  Well….painkillers and I have a long history of not liking each other.

As a preemie, I was given morphine and my heart nearly beat out of my chest.  When I was in my early twenties, I was unfortunate enough to have a week in the hospital with a bowel obstruction and was given demerol, which we promptly learned I am extremely allergic to (puking one’s guts out with a tube down one’s throat is possibly the most vile experience ever).  Thanks to my mother, they switched it out for dialodid which wasn’t much better.   Essentially, I cannot handle any of the “good” painkillers.

My wonderful new dentist (who really is pretty awesome as far as dentists go) gave me some Tylenol #3.  That would be acetaminophen with codeine! As it turns out, codeine and I do not get along so well.  I spent the better part of Tuesday afternoon and evening getting intimately close to my toilet. With all the hugging I was doing, the porcelain gods should be appeased.

I wasn’t sure if it was the painkillers or something I ate, so Wednesday I tempted fate with the pain pills again.  My jaw was so sore by morning, I was willing to make nice with my toilet again just to feel slightly better in the face region.  I ended up sleeping a lot (a fun side effect) and feeling nauseous all day.  So it was likely entirely the pain medication’s fault, but I’m still on it until it’s gone.  So every six hours I gear up to feel icky for the sake of my poor jaw until those things are gone (not too many days left!).

I do get to go back to the dentist for a full set of x-rays on Tuesday so maybe they can find me something else until the seventh.

Until then, I’ll suffer the ill feelings and start up the C25K as soon as I’m good to go from the tooth extraction.  The first day felt way too good to want to give up on it.

Until then,

-A