Toothache in the Time Of Quarantine

How is everyone doing? We are in week 5 (I think technically D. and I are on week 6 even...wait what? I honestly don't know, scary!) of quarantine.

Last week I started getting a mysterious throbbing but quite intense pain in my jaw, it sort of radiated all around and was hard to pinpoint. I had never had anything specifically like it but I was pretty convinced it wasn't a tooth issue because I didn't have any specific pain when eating or anything like that.

A couple days in and the pain was just getting worse, the only thing that gave me relief was icing it and then adding heat, but the waves of pain were way more intense than most things. I was convinced it was tmj (I am a tooth grinder and do wear a night guard). I watched a few YouTube videos and started doing all of these jaw exercises, but after a couple of days David convinced me to call our dentist, who I did not think would be in office and was super reluctant to call because of the situation we are all in right now.

Long story short, despite my conviction that I knew what was UP, my dentist was pretty certain it was a tooth issue, given that I had an infected tooth before and a history of crappy teeth malfunctions. He had me wait a day and then call him back, by which time my pain had reached a level of unpleasantness that was pretty breathtaking, no painkillers were touching it, ice and heat became something I had to do almost constantly and it was shorter and shorter periods without pain. He decided to put me on antibiotics.

I don't think he can actually see patients right now, but I do feel so grateful that I had a dentist I could call and speak to. Within 2 days the pain had changed from a less radiant one to a sharp, targeted tooth pain, with any kind of pressure. Honestly I was still surprised, because my whole head was so inflamed I guess I couldn't feel it before, so weird! So yeah, I am finished with day 5 as of today, I still have some pain which I hope goes away completely but otherwise feeling so lucky that I called the dentist and he was available to treat me over the phone at least (knock wood it has bought me some time).

I know this story is super boring, sorry, but there was also someone in my family who had to seek emergency medical care of a more serious note during this quarantine, and I am so grateful they were able to get treatment quickly.

When I was searching Twitter for jaw pain there were seriously tons of people complaining about it, and then when I had the infected tooth the same thing happened. I have read quite a few articles saying that people are putting off going to to the doctor right now and unfortunately in some cases it means they are letting what should be minor ailments escalate to something more serious. I hope we are all taking care of ourselves, I know it's scary to think about going anywhere near a doctor's office or hospital right now but putting your head in the sand is really not the way to go either. I admit I tend to procrastinate going to the doctor's, even with my medical history, because it's just like uggggh don't wanna! Immature & silly, I know.

Anyway other than that, or maybe because of that, I have felt less stressed on a general level this week. I guess having a physical problem to distract me was weirdly a blessing in that sense. I know, it's still scary and weird and sad out there, and my cabin fever is highly ironic as an introvert who loves nothing better than staying home, but overall week...5(?!) of quarantine has gone by quicker than most. We don't have too much food or supply anxiety anymore (although I am definitely having to plan more which is so not my forte).

Most of my stress remains centered around: I really need me/us/my loved ones to not catch this; I am sad and tired of feeling so helpless and useless to help the people who are really fighting this thing for the rest of us. And obviously, the permanent, simmering rage at the politicians who have led us like lambs to the slaughter and not given the medical staff the tools they need to survive.

The more Boris/his stand in's and Trump bullshit and bluster (I can't even with Trump but not going there...), that they have somehow done a good job when medical staff are repeatedly saying they are desperate for PPE and the nightly death toll continues to at this point numbly horrify, the harder it gets to not boil over with an all consuming fiery destructive fury that is sadly, in the end, impotent. The only power we have is to vote them out. All of these cold hearted murderous f*ckers. That's it. Sorry.

via GIPHY




Yeah so I WAS feeling better! I just can't allow myself to think about it for too long or it gets dark. I TRY to stay off Twitter now as much as possible, it is no longer serving my mental health.

Things that have been pleasant distractions this week:

A couple of walks in the sunshine (honestly hecka stressful in their own way because PEOPLE everywhere in the city, seriously why can't they close the roads, we need the extra space to stay distanced!)...but still I felt like a vampire seeing sunlight - oh but they don't like that!

I bought someone flowers, which felt nice, and then I bought myself flowers, because also it felt nice :-). I hem and haw over every purchase now and try not to buy anything that isn't a necessity but I really needed cheering up and I figure it's basically good to shop and support the economy, within reason? How are you guys dealing with shopping? I feel bad every time I hear a retailer is struggling here in the U.K. but also why are so many BIG businesses operating on the verge of bankruptcy? When are they going to reassess that paying out big bonuses to a select few while their company burns is not a viable business model?

I am going to try to finish True Blood, corny, campy, saucy occasionally scary vampires and other monsters show that I abandoned somewhere in season 4 so I am re-watching it. (It's on the NOWTV box in U.K.).

Ok well good luck to everyone, stay safe and you know, it you loathe it by now, stay home ;-). xo

Irish Soda Bread

Oh I am still on my baking bullsh*t too ;-). This soda bread was a bit of a mixed bag recipe wise, I kind of made it up as I went along. I used yogurt in the spirit of trying to use up stuff (in place of buttermilk). I think either that or a smidge too much butter (they sell butter in these rectangular blocks here and me, a dumb American, has no idea how to measure butter here to this day other than winging it! Expat problems!), made it not rise very much. Also I cooked it in a cheesecake pan (which I had never used!) because I hate when soda bread spreads to a big monster disc thing. It was still pretty tasty though. I even used some dried out raisins which I brought back to life by soaking in warm water, so I was kinda impressed with my thriftiness game!