“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
— Albert Einstein

Dr: “On a scale of 1 to 10 — 1 being not at all and 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever experienced — how would you rate your pain?”
Mer: “Pretty close to 10.”

I used to think an earache was the most painful ailment possible.

I based this on my two decades of accidents, injuries and illness. I’ve fallen from the top of trees and been run over by a lawnmower. I’ve broken arms, legs and fingers, torn ligaments, sprained my ankles a dozen times and pulled my shoulder blades out of place more than once. I had the chicken pox twice. I am and always have been accident prone.

But this week I discovered the worst pain in the world is nothing I’ve experienced before. The crown had previously belonged to the two ear infections I had my freshman year of college, but even when coupled with the respitory infection I had simultaneously, they don’t compare to the pain throbbing in my head right now.

The worst pain I’ve ever experienced is a toothache.

It started hurting last week, and I tried to ignore it. Took some excedrin and tylenol and wiped on some abesol hoping it would go away. I don’t have the money or time to deal with it. You see one of those lovely things that happens when you graduate from college is that you’re no longer covered by your parents insurance. Great time to get a toothache, wouldn’t you say?

Well my ignorance is bliss method didn’t work. By Sunday night I was in so much pain I couldn’t even eat dinner. I tried to go to sleep. I couldn’t. It hurt so bad I thought my brain was going to explode. Seriously. I don’t know if it’s possible. But that’s what it felt like, as if any moment the throbbing would become too much and my brain would just explode from the pressure.

So, after a few hours of listening to me cry, my mom forced me to the ER. The doctor gave me a few shots of what I suspect was just novicaine (which barely worked anyway because that stuff has no effect on me) and a couple prescriptions for antibotics and painkillers.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I HATE taking medicine. It’s like admitting defeat. It’s admitting that it hurts so much that I can’t reason my way out of it. But it hurt so bad I didn’t care what I was admitting; I couldn’t handle the pain. Unforunately, I had forgotten how much Vicodin knocks me out. (The last time it was prescribed after surgery, I took one and flushed the rest because it made me so out of it.) SO this week — when I need to be packing and preparing everything for my move this weekend, when I need to say my goodbyes to everyone and wrap up loose ends everywhere — instead of doing what I need to do, I’m so dead I can’t do anything but lay in bed and sleep and think about everything I don’t have enough energy to do.

My appointment to have the tooth removed (because anything that hurts this bad doesn’t deserve to be in my mouth, and because the Dr. said it was probably my wisdom tooth coming in that caused the tooth to break) is first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully this pain will dull or die after that. Otherwise, my head may explode. But it also sucks because any follow-up appointments will mean I have to find a new dentist asap because I’m moving Friday.

Has anyone else noticed how I have the worst luck and timing ever? Anyone?