Still alive!

Righty-o. If you've never had an abscessed tooth, let me tell you right now, I would rather have to give birth while passing a kidney stone than go through that again. It is by far the worst pain I've ever experienced. And I've experienced all three kinds of pain. So I feel like an expert of the worst kind.

The nights were the hardest, because I desperately wanted to sleep. But the pain kept me awake. That's. Serious. Pain.

While breathing and trying to focus on not being in pain sometime Thursday night, I thought to myself, "I haven't even thought about smoking. If I make it through this abscess, I think I might actually be an ex-smoker."

Of course, Thursday was the day that a strange dentist I don't even know prescribed antibiotics for me. Thank heaven for antibiotics. I had to wait just about 24 hours to feel any kind of let-up in the infection, but once it started, oh, it felt so good!

I slept through last night for the first time since Tuesday night, and that also felt good. Now I'm up and walking around and eating and stuff.

And I have to tell you, now that I feel almost normal --

-- I would really like to have a cigarette.

But I'm aware that the nicotine is now officially out of my system, so really what I want is something to do with my hands. I'm baffled and mystified by this need to do something with my hands. I'm constantly asking, "What do non-smokers DO all the time? Do they just sit still and do nothing? How do they do NOTHING???"

I may have to take up crocheting or knitting or something. Because having nothing to do is kinda driving me crazy.