RAKs & Root Canals

It is unfortunately one of those "wake up at 2:30, get out of bed at 3:30, write a blog post at 4:30" mornings.  My intention was to say how "overwhelming" life has been lately but then I thought "overwhelming" doesn't really cut it ... there must be a stronger word I could use to really get the point across of how "beyond overwhelming" it has been.  I therefore started researching this on Google & do you know what I found?  Not one word meaning "beyond overwhelming" but did you know that "whelm" is actually a word?  How many times have you ever heard "whelm" uttered in a sentence or seen it in print somewhere?  Merriam-Webster says it means "1.  To turn (as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something; cover or engulf completely with disastrous effect.  2.  To overcome in thought or feeling, as in 'whelmed with a rush of joy' or 'the news so whelmed them they were stunned into silence.'  3.  To pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it."  My working life was spent as a transcriber, proofreader & editor but in all that time ... in all my life ... I never had any exposure to the word "whelm."  I guess waking up at 2:30 sometimes has its advantages.  Today I learned a new word.

Continuing along ... things have been "beyond overwhelming" lately.  Sometimes I just want to go into a closet, close the door, curl up in a ball & stay there till Jesus comes to get me.  I'll spare you the details but suffice to say that "beyond overwhelming" covers it.

I had a root canal recently.  I've had root canals in the past & I don't remember them being horrendous so I didn't give this one a second thought.  Believe me, I'll remember this one because it was indeed horrendous.  The tooth was supposed to have one nerve but when the dentist starting working on it she discovered it had two.  Each was roughly 1-1/8 inches long.  She had numbed me well but because there were two nerves to deal with the work took longer than planned.  By the time she was shoving her little file up there to file away the second nerve I was not having a good experience.  However, the real horror came after I got home & the anesthetic wore off.  I had several days of pain due to the trauma of all the filing & drilling & poking around she had to do.  I was informed that what she had done was just the first part of a two-part procedure.  I had to return 10 days later to be filed & drilled & poked again in order to put some kind of filler material in the spaces where the nerves used to be.  The filler material was put in place this past Thursday & then HEATED (!) to make it expand.  Even though I made sure she used lots of anesthetic this time around, heating up that filler material was again not a good experience.  I am now beginning this round's Day 2 of ingesting prescription pain killers & this will continue for a few more days I'm sure.

Just before going in for my second part of the root canal procedure my TMJ started acting up.  I've had this for years & saw two different specialists about it but both of them said it wasn't bad enough for surgery.  (Surgery, by the way, doesn't always take the pain away & can sometimes make it worse.)  There are times when the TMJ will be dormant for long periods of time & then suddenly one day I'll open my mouth to yawn or take a bite of something & tremendous pain will begin & last ... well, it's anyone's guess how long it will last.  This bout has been lasting a few days now & I say enough already!  I can tell the pain is starting to subside but I have to be very careful because it can easily flare up again if I move my jaw "the wrong way."  Of course I don't know what "the wrong way" is until it occurs.

On a happier note, I sent out 2 RAKs this week & one has been received!  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them before mailing them so I have borrowed a photo from the blog of the first recipient to receive her RAK ... Marly at Samplers & Santas.  Hopefully she does not mind   : )

Marly's RAK is this ornament made using a Homespun Elegance pattern called Sampler Santa.  I really enjoyed stitching it & plan to make one for myself one of these days   : )   I did all the stitching of course but then sent it away to Faye at Carolina Stitcher for her professional finishing expertise.

Speaking of Marly, God bless her!  Blogger's sudden change to my dashboard freaked me out but she posted how to get it back to what I was used to.  You can read her instructions here   : )

Although I began writing this blog post at 4:30 this morning I ended up going back to bed at 6:30, slept till 7:30 & then got up again.  It's 9 p.m. now.  It's been a cool, rainy day.  This, coupled with the lack of sleep last night, naturally meant napping took place.  I also did a bit of housework, some stitching for IHSW (I finished stitching my house on my Stacy Nash ... HOORAY ... although this is a bit of a story in itself that I will save for another post), made chicken noodle soup which turned out pretty good (another future blog post), & John & I watched our Saturday night movie.  I foresee it being an "early to bed" night.  Hopefully I'll sleep ... fingers crossed   : )