I'd like to think that I have a high tolerance for physical pain. During the course of my life, I've had my share of broken or dislocated bones, sprained ankles, flesh wounds, bashed toe and finger nails, head concussions and even bee stings, but nothing compares to the terrible pain that a small hole in a molar brings.
It started with a slight prick right after dinner, which I ignored. Then it turned into a bothersome pinch on my gums as I watched a National Geographic special on Mongol Invaders, which I tried to follow because the decision of the Chinese to build the Great Wall was more interesting than a small tooth begging for a little attention.
My molar might have taken my cold treatment personally that not long after, it was drilling a hole deep enough to penetrate my brain, which made me lose concentration on the raid that the Chinese Army made on the camps of the Mongolian barbarians. I asked my wife to Google a remedy for toothache.
Google, understanding the urgency of the situation, gave a prompt report: Gargle with warm water with salt and crushed garlic. I quickly concocted the potion and gargled several times. Instead of relief, it gave me more searing pain which numbed every part of me, including my fingertips which no longer had the interest of pressing the Return Channel button for I had momentarily checked on the rerun of Little Nog and Jason Brillz hammering each other at UFC.
I was curled into the fetal position on the sofa when my wife, fresh from rummaging through an assortment of medicines, handed me an Alaxan If-Arr capsule and a cup of water. After downing it I resumed my fetal position, but this time with a throw pillow covering my head for good measure. I can see Little Nog having Brillz on a headlock, time expired but no tapout. I was however tapping the pillow for the pain was already unbearable. Then after a few minutes, the If-Arr began to work and I was able to watch Little Nog's hand raised in victory by Referee Yamazaki amidst the boos of the crowd who thought the loser was the rightful winner. Not five minutes have passed and my painful tooth had me again on its tight grip. Now I know why it's called Fast Relief --it works fast and fades just as quickly.
Google to the rescue once more: with your bad tooth, chew on a clove of garlic and keep it there. I immediately chomped on a clove as if my life depended on it. It got worse before it got better -- but it was working. Garlic, after all, has natural anaesthetic and antiseptic qualities. That's why it is used in so many medicinal cures, not to mention that it is ideal for also lowering cholesterol level and high blood pressure.
But I knew the night is going to be long if the ache comes back, so I crushed a few more pieces of garlic, placed it on a saucer and on a chair beside our bed. I was about to fall asleep when the tooth ache came back with a vengeance, not only drilling my head, but also sending cold, prickly chills across my entire body, which responded by turning up the heat and giving me a temperature equivalent to a fever.
I reached across for the garlic, then, with my bad tooth -- crushed it. Again, the pain raced all over my body. At least, with a broken bone or a bad ankle, you can still find a comfortable enough position to enable you to get some sleep by just sticking to it. But with a tooth ache, you fall asleep when the intense pain subsides because you are literally drained of life. Sleep simply becomes an aftermath of a ravaging.
I don't know what time it was but I felt it again, a slight throb at first, like a train coming in from a distance, then slowly accelerating into a full action jackhammer. My eyes began to cry not because I was in tears but in the force that I closed my eyelids so tightly that the lachrymal glands are squeezed of its contents. Again, I reached for the garlic then absentmindedly chewed on it with my good teeth.
What do you know, the relief came without the soaring pain. Why of course, it's the juice that counts and not whether I used the bad tooth to crush it. From outside of the house, a familiar but unwelcome sound pierced the silence of the night. Ahh-wwwww-hhhh, ahh-wwww-hhhh, ngyaaarrr.... "Damned cat," I thought, "out on the prowl again." I don't know if it was cheering or taunting me, but instead of stirring angrily, as I would have done on any other night that the prowling cat would rudely awake me in the dead of night -- I remained calm and tolerant. I guess it's the garlic at work, lowering my blood pressure
The tooth woke me up at least thrice more in the night, and each time I reached for garlic. If this carries on for a few more days and nights, I know I need to do something: Visit the dentist.
But in the two occasions when I visited a medical practitioner as a patient -- once when I was circumcised and another for a tooth extraction, both in my childhood -- the experience led me to pain, excruciating pain -- despite the anaesthesia that doctors said they used on me. So I'm really not looking forward to seeing a dentist anytime soon. In the meantime, I'm content to have garlic breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment