Daring Monday: Do What Needs to Be Done

I’ve read before that you should never apologize on your blog for your blogging frequency. The advice was more along the lines of:

Do what you say you’re going to do (commit and follow through) or blog whenever it strikes you, but either way just shut up and do it.

I think this is pretty practical advice. Imagine how whiny I’d sound if I apologized every time I meant to get a post up and didn’t. Bloggers like me could have a whole category for “Apologies” alone!

Still, I feel the need to apologize to you; I really meant to get some more content onto the blog this past week. I really didn’t want to have it be another Daring Monday to Daring Monday week. Yet, here I am – on Monday.

In my defence, I have a really good reason: I had a tooth pulled!

I know, you are probably thinking that this is far from a good reason and yet more evidence of my whininess, but you would be wrong. For me, this is a very good reason; one that even warranted applause and congratulations when my friends all found out.

My Tooth Drama

As of the end of this summer I’ll have been married for 13 years; the year we were married my husband took me to Vancouver with him on a business trip. I spent about half the trip in agony with tooth problems. When I got home and took myself right to a dentist I found out I was in serious need of a root canal – and in (less serious) need of a second one on the other side.

I don’t know how many of you have had a root canal, but mine was agony. I went for three appointments to get it done and my arms shook, my eyes watered (like my body crying without my mind’s participation), and I could hear the concern in the Dental Assistant’s voice. They kept giving me more Novocain, but it didn’t matter. I was in agony.

Four years later, when I finally relented and went to another dentist because my mouth was bothering me, he told me that the first dentist had missed a root and filled my tooth in with a huge infection still there, which had been there ever since.

Oh, and by the way, I need a root canal on that other side too.

I decided to have the first tooth pulled rather than go through the agony of root canal again. But that didn’t help; novocain again let me down and I felt the entire extraction. It was excruciating.

So, you can understand why, despite the constant infections, the pain, and the annoyance of a hole in my mouth the tooth on my right side has gone unaddressed this whole time (and has been actively ignored for the last six years or so). There was no way in hell I was going through that agony one more time…

It’ll Kill Ya…

Then, my natural doctor mentioned that chronic tooth infection can wear your liver out and in mentioning symptoms of possible liver toxicity I heard a few symptoms I’ve been struggling with for a few years now.

I also noticed that while I was never (umm, yep, I pretty much faked those few sicks days mom, sorry) sick as a kid I’m sick more and more frequently lately (frankly, whenever I’m tired or low on energy). My intuition practically started jumping up and down with neon signs:

Pull the Tooth. Pull the Tooth

Finally, I could ignore it no longer. I made an appointment with a specialist who puts you to sleep during the procedure (the only way I figured I’d be able to get into that chair). Last Thursday they knocked me out and finally pulled the tooth.

Insert Applause Here

The truth is, no matter how afraid I was – it needed to be done. A dozen years is far too long to put off something so simple.

And you know what, it really was that simple. I remember him telling me he was putting the drugs into the IV and then I was being woken up and told it was done. That’s it. The pain was fully managed and besides being absolutely wiped since it’s all been relatively easy peasy. (The “absolutely wiped” part, or as I’ve been referring to it “The Wobbly Head” syndrome, is why you haven’t seen more posts.)

So, I’ve decided, this is the week to Do What Needs to Be Done! I mean, how long have you been putting that thing off for anyway? Is it going to be (at the least) a huge relief to have it done – once and for all. Plus, I’m pretty sure that (if my tooth is anything to go on) it won’t be half as bad as you’ve been expecting it to be!

I imagine that, once the infection has been cleared out of my system, I’ll be surprised at how much of my health improves. I’m sure that a lasting infection for over a decade has got to have its tiny claws dug into all kinds of areas of my life that I haven’t even thought of. Frankly, I’m excited to see what happens to my health, my energy, and my body over the next few months. And I just don’t get why I’ve been putting it off for so darn long. (Turns out that being daring is paying off in more areas of my life than I could have imagined!)

What needs to be done in your life? What have you been putting off (for a really, really, long time)? What could you cross off your list that will give you a sigh of relief, or possibly even improve your life in a hundred small ways?

p.s. Any lack of coherence, flow, and typos are being blamed on the last remnants of wobbly-headed-ness. I’m being gracious and letting my body heal in it’s own time, but that means I’m not all there at the moment. Sorry! (Now, I shall slink away never to apologize again.)