Nov.5 Extraction

Mon. Nov 5^th

On Monday the sun rose much too early. It does that just to make me look lazy. By the time I got breakfast and walked the two miles across town to the dental clinic there was a large crowd of people in line before me. After checking in, I sat in the waiting area and tried to read. A large lady sitting opposite me was nervous about her appointment and expressed it by talking loudly about every topic imaginable. I sat there from 10 am until 2:30 before they called my name. The student examined my broken tooth and determined that it was going to have to get pulled. It’s one of my last two wisdom teeth, so I wanted to get it out anyway. After x-rays I sit in the waiting area for another half hour until they’re ready to put the new whole in my head. This is the fourth tooth I’ve had removed here so I know the drill. I clench the chair with all my strength while they give me the series of about 500 anesthesia shots that taste remarkably similar to road-kill juice. Finally they go to work on my face with crowbar and pick-axe until the bloody old stump detaches from my jaw. It feels like someone swung a sledge hammer straight into my face! I’ve barely got an hour before the happy juice wears off and that’s when the dull ache turns into a porcupine popsicle.

I walk briskly back to my campsite with a large wad of gauze clenched in the new hole. It’s getting late in the afternoon. I’d like to just call it a day, and stay till morning, but I only have till Saturday to make it all the way back to Brewer and I’ve just lost most of Monday already. As I’m trying to pack up my campsite the happy juice wears off and my jaw feels like it’s in a toothed vice. All I want to do is lay on my back and moan, but the temperature is dropping rapidly as the sun sets and I need to get moving while I still can. I take three acetaminophen and two Excedrin. Hopefully that kicks in soon. By 5pm I’m rolling again.

I’ve had all of Sunday and most of Monday to rest. My legs seem happy to be on the move again. Walking takes my mind off the jaw and the pills seem to be working, so I settle into a strong power-walking pace. With the sun down and the sky overcast it’s hard to see the ruts and rocks ahead of me. Once I get outside the Machias area, the breakdown lane turns into a soft gravel shoulder. With the evening rush hour traffic I am constantly swerving off the road into the ditch to avoid cars that can’t see me well in the dark. As the hours pass traffic gets lighter and I occasionally get a welcome stretch of paved shoulder to walk on. The temperature drops below freezing, but I’m setting a strong pace and have to keep my shirt open so I don’t overheat. I plug in my headphones to listen to Bible teaching. The professor finishes Job and starts into Psalms. My body feels completely different than when I started this. After four hours of walking I’ve nearly covered 15 miles and I feel so good I catch myself breaking into a jog. It’s my dad’s birthday, so I call him and we talk for a while. My friends, Alvin & Katrina live in Columbia Falls. I thought I’d be getting there around 12-1am so I was going to just walk through instead of bothering them in the middle of the night, but at this pace I’ll be there before 10, so I call them up. Alvin picks me up on route 1 and takes me to their house. We have a grand time catching up and I sleep like a baby on the couch in the cozy warm house while my cart crusts over with frost outside.