Miracles, Chaos and a Straw
Last week began like very few I have experienced leading into the holidays on many levels and had I stopped to really reflect on the various aspects of it, I would have understood that the ebb cycle I was having was preparing me for a personal walk unlike many I had before. In the past seven years with the business any time a major ebb appeared in the schedule, something occurred on the home front that required my full attention. Several times my dad’s health situation went sideways, other times it could be another family member who required assistance, this year it was me in a way I haven’t experienced nor at the beginning understood what was about to transpire.
It started with an extremely throbbing molar that came out of the blue that went through a cycle of on/off with the pain levels and was worse when I was laying down for the night. Being horizontal equaled a sleepless, painful night whereas sleeping sitting up although being riddled with occasional pain meant sleep could be found. Despite all the tooth experiences I had throughout the years - and believe me I have had many from the time I was 5, this was up there among the unusual. The 19th found me at an emergency dental appointment with a diagnosis of an emergency root canal the following day due to infection at the tip of the tooth. The on/off pain and worse when laying down being the key indicators.
When the two-hour long procedure was complete, I was numb on many levels and armed with instructions on what to take for pain. Given that the past ten years, I have not had to take any over-the-counter pain medicines or used anything beyond essential oils, I stopped at a local Walgreens to pick up small bottles of the prescribed 600mg ibuprofen for inflammation and 500mg tylenol for pain relief for initially every 6 hours for the first 24-hours plus I picked up soup for when the Novocain wore off. Typically, when a root canal is done, once the procedure is completed, the pain goes away as was the case in this tooth's previous event.
On the 22nd the next experience arrived making it challenging to eat with swollen lymph nodes, swelling and more pain in the jaw joint which took me to an urgent care clinic and led them to place me on ten days of antibiotics for the following day I would be on a flight to my brother’s house.
On the 23rd, I chose a cheese stick to eat on the opposite side before taking the antibiotic and I quickly found this choice shot pain through the left procedure side of the jaw before heading off to the airport with my mom via a shuttle service. For the Phoenix peeps, the route of the 303 south to I-10 taking us from my mom’s home to the airport.
The miracles this day were layered with chaos. Upon getting on I-10, we were being directed off to use surface streets which took 40 minutes longer to get there. during this trek our first flight into the Las Vegas airport was delayed four times with one of the updates saying we would miss our connecting flight before the last of the updates saying we’d get in at 9:53 for a 10:30 connection. We ran from the plane in Vegas to our other gate taking time for a quick restroom stop getting there 5 minutes before lining up into our groups to board. We originally had a two-hour layover. Yes, I would deem this the 5th miracle since Monday.
At my brother’s outside of Amarillo, we were staying at a brand-new Hampton Inn in Canyon, Texas that opened three weeks before we arrived about a mile from my brother’s house. It was great to see my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, two canine nephews, one feline nephew, one canine niece and one feline niece with the eldest being a 14-year-old Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix and the youngest a three-year-old German Shepherd.
Christmas eve day began with me awaking with pain up to my temple, more swelling and could only open my mouth ½ inch with joint pain (the equivalency of one finger height versus the 3-finger height normal). We started our steps on how to get to the local urgent care by texting my brother at 7am, then my sister-in-law, then calling my brother (who didn’t hear it due to his hearing aids being out for sleep), then asking the front desk about a taxi (no taxis in Canyon and closest uber 20 minutes away in Amarillo). While we tried to call a family member again, the hotel had located someone on staff who could have dropped us off at the urgent care when we reached my sister-in-law on the phone who came and got us. Thirty minutes after getting to the clinic, I was being seen and told this is all related to the root canal and the face muscle that runs from the mouth/jaw area goes up to the temple and it wasn’t happy nor was the original 24-hour mixture of pain medication touching it nor the alternating ice and heat compress that began the night before. This doctor replaced the ibuprofen with a higher dose prescription for the inflammation. My brother picked us up from the urgent care, we walked into the local grocery store, had no one in line ahead of us at the pharmacy, picked up the prescription and were out the door in 15-minutes. Yes, I see several miracles in that two-hour period and a lot of kindness.
The next experience came for me at a local coffee shop where we stopped for some sustenance. Mine in the form of a milk shake to get some calories in as I wasn’t hungry the previous night and to take the new pill with…what I found out quickly was my hands were shaking so much due to the essential tremors mixed with all the experiences leading up to the moment including the dental procedure that heightened things that I could not keep the beverage cup steady on my own without assistance which my mom naturally did as a nurse, caregiver for various relatives as well as my dad and his tremors. As a person who has been working on getting comfortable being seen in many different ways, this one is an ongoing challenge of needing help on a personal level. I would liken this to those who find it easy to give to others, often find it difficult to ask for help and receive; those who are caregivers of others (whether pets or people) may find it challenging to be assisted as that is outside their comfort zone; rarely have we heard of stories where a doctor makes a good patient – you get the gist.
This would be a continual lesson throughout the trip on a whole new level than ever before with soup bowls etc. You might be wondering where the power of the almighty straw comes in - right now! For five days, the only way I could eat was with a straw and I had tossed a hard silicone one in that was wider from an old, insulated water bottle, it was through this, still with pain that I brought nutrients in the form of additionally blended soups into my body.
In the midst of all of this we did family things: watching movies, looking at neighborhood lights, catching up with each other, and talking about the fun memories of experiences with my dad. He would not have enjoyed the traveling, but he would have loved the result: the togetherness, the love and the laughter. The miracles continued with the first time I didn’t experience pain in my jaw when brushing my teeth, the first time I was able to eat oatmeal (something beside soup) through the straw with the help of a lot of milk, the first time I could drink a cup of tea or eat soup without someone holding the container and yes the first day I forgot to use the ice pack/heat compress protocol which all of these occurred on Monday, the 26th.
The miracles continued on our trip back through Las Vegas. After five delays of our flight out of Amarillo watching our layover time diminish from three hours to 5 minutes, we were praying for a miracle as we ran from the b gates to the c gates to literally walk into the line for our flight group and board the plane albeit out of breath. The crew for this flight was stuck two-hours away and the three that were on the flight volunteered to step in to be there so the flight could leave. Lots of angels, loved ones in spirit, and yes modern-day miraculous events transpired to bring this all together!
We got into Phoenix with our luggage some of the first onto the carousel in baggage claim and headed straight out to the shuttle service, got in, sat down, and gave each other the look (you know the one) before just laughing. SO many things to be grateful for in the midst of family, fun, chaos, miracles and a straw.
May we all have a new year filled with love, fun, new adventures, and experiences that remind us of the miracles that surround us on a daily basis whether it is the hands and fingers to hold a steering wheel, a cup of tea or your own bowl.
