Friday, January 20, 2006

"malady mary" (or "maybe this is the end")

i started off the abbreviated week with a little ear & throat cold. no biggie. i OD'd on ricola (yes, it's possible. don't try it unless you're eager for serious gut rot) and hot beverages and gallons of water to eschew any possibility of trading in that little cold for something bigger and nastier, namely the flu.

i shouldn't have been so specific.

i should have said i didn't want to make any sort of trade, that i wanted to get 100% better, period.

two days later, on thursday morning, i woke up feeling much better, well enough, i thought, to pick out something bright and pink from my closet. i threw on the turtleneck and tried to smile like i felt like a million bucks.

my still-recovering self reflected its disapproval in the mirror. i sighed and went for something basic and black. a few minutes later after changing, my neck began to itch a bit. it's the winter season, right? it's crazy dry here in the city and i didn't think anything about it.

at work, i regretted not wearing a turtleneck. turns out i had developed some sort of rash along the left side of my face and down my neck.

great.

but i couldn't spend too much time thinking about it since i - after losing my appetite to my cold, finally regained a healthy hunger - foolishly elected to eat the cafeteria's version of mexican enchiladas (read: velveeta "cheese" squeezed into crusty wraps). what can i say? when i'm really hungry, i forget that i'm lactose intolerant.

so after ridding myself of all that, my appetite returned again and i went for the thing closest to me. good ol' BBQ chips - a bite of which left me in pain way back in my mouth on the lower left side.

my wisdom tooth is coming in.

i mentioned it to a friend who told me to get it removed. i scoffed and pointed to the other wisdom tooth already in. "this one came in just fine. those dentists, they tell you you have to have your teeth removed just to make an extra dollar. my parents didn't have their wisdom teeth removed. so if it was good enough for them, then it's good enough for me."

i will have to swallow my words.

this morning, it hurt real bad.

i visited the school's nurse to ask her if benadryl (for my weird rash) and aleve (for my tooth) taken together would kill me.

"mary," she said gently, "i don't think those two things are separate issues. i think you've got an infection in your wisdom tooth and it's getting into your bloodstream." she placed a bunch of mirrors around me so she could get a better look at the back of my mouth. that seemed to confirm her suspicions.

tomorrow, i'm meeting with an oral surgeon.

...

at least it's not the avian bird flu. i guess that's good news.

4 Comments:

At 3:30 PM, Blogger suz said...

mary, you poor thing! i'll be praying for healing of your various (and apparently interrelated) maladies. and getting your wisdom teeth out isn't so bad...and it's a good excuse to eat pudding. :)

 
At 6:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dearest Mary,
I pray that you make it through your wisdom tooth problems. Just remember that it will be so much better once it is out!
Love you lots,
Rachel.

 
At 2:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, Mary! I'm so sorry! :(

Please keep us posted. I'll be praying for a speedy recovery.

 
At 9:43 AM, Blogger cory said...

while you indeed have my sympathy, i would like to send a special shout out to anasthetics and post-op pain meds.

also, your avian bird flu comment made me laugh from the belly.

 

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