Does Anybody Else Do This?

Thursday morning, I woke up with a toothache. It wasn't awful, my face unswollen - or, at least, not swollen from a hurty tooth, but it wasn't particularly pleasant.

I just ignored it.

Yesterday, the toothache was still there. Except worse. As the day progressed, so too did the tooth pain until even "chewing" yogurt or taking a swallow of water hurt...a lot.

At this point, I considered my options. Call the dentist? Call the doctor? I'm both doctor and dentist-resistant, just so you know. Most of the time, I opt to call Dr. Sid, the chiropractor and acupuncturist, for most of my ailments. As far as I know though, he's not a tooth guru.

My mind was aswirl with possible causes of my malady - a stuck pumpkin seed shell festering or the more likely sinus inflammation - and potential home remedies. Gargle? Floss? Nap?

I opted for nap. It was tooth-hurty after all (2:30), the napping hour, and that seemed like a plausible solution...or, at the very least, the best avoidance plan.

Didn't work.

Oh the nap was great! 2 hours of sleep-induced ignorant bliss is the best one can ask for, in my not-so-humble opinion. However, upon awaking, I discovered the toothache was more prominent than ever before.

As I stood in the bathroom, mouth opened wide, fingers poking and prodding at the tender areas, wincing in pain when I'd hit a particularly sore spot, my eyes wandered to the medicine cabinet.

Um...hmmm...perhaps a pill will help? It's not like we don't keep a well-stocked medicine cabinet, after all.

And I realized I do this a lot. And by "this" I mean forget there's a cure for what commonly ails me. I'll suffer through a headache, arthritic flare ups, sinusitis and never once have it occur to me I could simply take a little Advil and be done with it.

I don't know why this is or when it started. I just don't take pills. I don't have difficulty swallowing (get your minds out of the gutter) or any sensitivity to most medicines. There's no reason not to, I just don't.

But the tooth-hurty drove me to it finally.

600mg of Advil and 15 minutes later? Better. Much better. Nearly pain free. No doctor or dentist or magical chiropractor necessary.

*rolling eyes at myself* What a silly goose.