When the unexpected happens, God has your back.

I woke up Sabbath morning with a terrible ache in my jaw. It was almost like how my wisdom teeth ached before I had them removed. After a quick look in the mirror I passed it off as nothing more than an irritated gum probably caused by a popcorn kernel.

Three days passed... After three days of not being able to eat or swallow anything without this dull ache I knew it was time to stop procrastinating. I had a nagging feeling that I should take a trip to the SDA Dental Clinic. "Convenient!" I thought to myself. This is probably the one location I could have chosen to come that has a state of the art dental clinic just a mile down the road from where I work. By now I knew that whatever was going on was probably more serious than a popcorn kernel. I just didn't know how serious until I sat down in the dentists chair.

The hygienist took a quick look and then brought over two of the dentists. They took two x-rays of my jaw. As soon as the results were out I sat helplessly in my chair while the two dentists, Dr. Berglund and Dr. Creed, began making comments about how "strange" it (the x-ray) was and how I would be needing antibiotics. It was around this time that it dawned on me that numbing agents, shots, and gauze were in my immediate future. Dr. Creed made an incision and drained the fluid that had built up. Then they broke the news to me.

About a year ago when my wisdom teeth were taken out, the dentist also accidentally removed the bone that separates your gums from your maxillary sinus. The infection in my gum was a result of the absence of this bone. Is this "TMI"? Haha well anyways, although Dr. Creed has taken care of the issue for the present, I will most likely have to deal with reoccurring infections unless I have a bone graft.

The silver lining in this is that a periodontist is coming to visit the dental clinic the first week of November! If I remember correctly, the periodontist only visits once or twice a year. Talk about great timing. November 7th is my consultation for surgery. I would be bummed and a bit scared about the whole thing, but all I can think about is how God had my back with all this.

So that's this weeks adventures. Stay tuned for part two.... the surgery!
"Da da da dum!"  :)