It turns out I had an infection, which abscessed. The right half of my face swelled up like a balloon, and I was in utter agony, especially at night.

Monday, the oral surgeon wasn't in, but the regular dentist gave me a prescription for Penicillin. My Vicodin had run out, and he gave me another prescription for Vioxx (which my insurance company rejected). So for twenty-four hours, I had to make do with Ibuprofen, which was nowhere near effective enough.

Tuesday, the oral surgeon saw me again. He cut some drainage holes on the inside of my cheek and under my tongue, removed some of the infected material, gave me a refill on the Vicodin, and told me to come back Thursday to see how things were progressing.

By Thursday, I was much worse. Even with the Vicodin, I had trouble sleeping (and when I did sleep, I was troubled by bizarre fever-dreams). The oral surgeon loaded me up with Novocaine and spent about half an hour cutting holes inside my cheeks and trying to squeeze out the infected material. Even with the Novocaine, it was excruciating; and because the drainage holes he'd cut on Tuesday had closed, he put a drain in, to ensure that the material would continue to evacuate.

As awful as that was, it worked wonders. By Thursday night, I was able to eat the first actual food I'd had since the previous Monday, ten days earlier. Never has Fetuccine Alfredo tasted so good. Of course, my atrophied jaw muscles paid for it the next day, but it felt great to actually have something in my stomach again. As a result of my extended fast, the clothes I bought last Saturday for a wedding, which fit perfectly in the store, now hang loosely on me; I've lost about two inches in the waist.

This morning, I went in for yet another followup visit. I was a little nervous; the doctor said that if I hadn't improved enough, I'd have to be hospitalized, and the infection would have to be removed from outside (resulting in scars on my face). Fortunately, that turned out to be unnecessary, but I'm still not completely out of the woods.

So now it's time to try and get back to the land of the living.