Soma-ch for the Afterglow

Where to start? Well. I suppose the beginning, no? Life has been really great lately. I was having great times reconnecting with old friends and nurturing my current close friendships. I was planning my wedding--you know, getting down to the nitty gritty details--and finally checking off to-do's on my planning lists. My novels are progressing rather well and I'm still talking to literary agents. So yeah, life, in general, was great.

Until last week, when all hell broke loose. Too much drama to get into in detail so let's suffice to say that I am having some MAJOR dental issues. Try taking a crowbar to the face sometime and then maybe you'll understand. My jaw was locked for a days, then I had this intense railroad-spike-through-the-jaw pain along with some incredible swelling and nausea. Did I mention that I no longer have dental insurance? Yeah. Try scoring an appointment without insurance. Not an easy feat...

I've been mixing up my own pain cocktails with some success--and yes, I know that it's dangerous, but when you're in pain, safety goes right out the window. Extra Strength Tylenol with a glass of wine, then Extra Strength Tylonel with Aleve (double doses at a time,) then Extra Strength Tylenol (1000mg) with 500 mg of Naproxen, then 500 mg of Naproxen with some--ahem...borrowed--Soma. I finally nabbed a dentist appointment on Tuesday afternoon where my dentist announced that I would have to have five teeth surgically removed next Tuesday. It doesn't help that I have a mitral valve prolaspe or a heart murmur b/c that limits some of my pain medication choices and increases my risk of serious complications. Oh, joy! So now I'm on some kind of steroid thing (methylprednisolone or medrol) chased with extra strength Tylenol and I am finally receiving some relief! I actually slept last night--my first night of sleep in over two weeks.

I had a mini-breakdown yesterday, too. Normally, I refuse to cry b/c crying is--quite frankly--a sign of weakness. So I like to keep things bottled in because I'm not comfortable asking for help. That's strange and horribly ironic since I'm always the first to volunteer to help someone else, but that's one of my biggest quirks, I guess. At any rate, the pain was at it's most intense yesterday and my dentist hadn't returned my phone calls for pain meds and Dave finally managed to get through and went to CVS to pick up the Medrol and he came back and the prescription warning was about five pages long and I just couldn't take it any more and I started bawling like a little girl. I mean, full on five year old with a skinned knee ugly sobs. Yikes.

Dave came through, though, and did that whole jump off the couch, wrap his arms around my shoulders, soothing promises, stroke my hair, it's-gonna-be-ok-we'll-fix-this-bit. Gotta love having a strong man in your corner, right? If this year has done anything, it's proven that we have what it takes to get through these small crises (Dave's hospitalization, my fucked-up jaw, etc...)

So anywho...I'm going to try to stay optimistic b/c that's prolly the best thing to do right now. All of my invitation stationery has arrived, and it's simply beautiful. I have some great ideas for the ending of my latest chic lit novel and for a paranormal romance I might pen...maybe. Oh, and of course, Halloween is right around the corner and we all know how much I LOVE Halloween!!!!!!

Alright. I'm gonna go take some Tylenol. Laters.