As many of you will find out in the next cartoon that comes out this Wednesday, while on vacation in Florida, I accidentally “sheared off a cusp” on my molar. In layman’s terms … I broke a tooth. Terrific.
Fortunately while it DID break, the filling that had been in the tooth since I was VERY young held the rest of it together and it didn’t really start to hurt right away so, no emergency trip to the dentist in Florida! Phew! So when I got back home and spoke to the dental office, we decided it isn’t an emergency, set the appointment and also, don’t eat on that side of the mouth. That is what I did, ate on one side of my mouth, not fun nor glamorous … for almost a month. Now, during that time I would forget or slip up and switch sides and a couple of times it broke apart more and that’s when the pain started. Small at first and then more throbbing later. An appointment had already been made and all I had to do was see it through.
What you don’t know yet is, our Dentist is in Virginia, MN! That’s a 4-hour trip from our home. What?!? Before you get after me know this, my dentist is my Brother-in-Law, so it is also family time for the weekend too. Two birds, one stone. Sign me up.
So, how did I handle this pain situation? One step at a time. I had to wait this out, day by day. I can stay home and treat my pain but I still have to work. I do NOT want you to think that if you are in an emergency, you shouldn’t seek medical attention, that is not true. Everyone is different, situations are different, levels of pain are different. What I AM saying is it wasn’t “blinding pain;” an appointment had been made and I had work to get done. There are just times in your life where you have to “embrace the suck” and move forward one step at a time. And that’s what I did.
I knew what was going to happen before, during and after, I weighed the probabilities and I mentally took a step forward. The next day I did the same thing and then I did the same thing the day after that! Pretty soon, I was closer to the appointment AND I’m getting projects done all while using pain management to handle my day. Did it work everyday? No. Did I TRY everyday? YES! When it didn’t work, I left it alone and went back and started again the next day, that’s “Embracing The Suck,”
… and that’s how you win your day, by just showing up.
Go win your day!
