The Root of the Problem

I sit at the computer this afternoon all jacked-up on Tylenol 3. So if I say, "I love you, man..." more than once, it's the codeine talking. Here's my story...

Gary Sadler and I were hanging out at his place last Friday afternoon when he wondered why I looked a bit under the weather. I told him that a tooth had been hurting for a few days. He went on to tell me one of the most profound statements I have heard in a long time. Gary, being the consummate C.S. Lewis fan, quoted to me his hero's take on the subject of pain:

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."--The Problem of Pain

Pain is the great motivator. It comes in the form of emotional distress, hunger, physical injury and is our body's megaphone to us saying, "It's time to rest, use the facilities or slow down!" Sometimes my objective is louder than my pain and I completely disregard it's message...until... it tackles me to the ground and I have to deal with the source before I can do anything else. By today, early Monday morning, after a long event-filled weekend, I surrendered and called the dentist.

I hadn't been to a dentist in six years. So the disapproving looks from both the dentist and his staff were well deserved. His diagnosis, after eying the x-ray, was to perform the dreaded "root canal". Didn't someone epitomize excruciating pain as a root canal?...like in, "that baseball bat to the shin was 'not as bad' as a root canal!" Well, this morning was filled with the most intense pain I have ever experienced. Isn't it ironic that the day after Mother's Day I am complaining about pain? I can hear a chorus of moms right about now shaking their heads, saying, "Pain, you don't know what stinking pain is until you give birth!" Well, you got me there, Mommies. I will never know.

So...I am sitting in the chair as the needle is inserted into the inside of my upper lip, just above the sore tooth. Thank God that they put a topical deadening solution to the area where the needle is plunged. I'm a musician and have no business telling the dentist to use a certain technique learned in a similar situation. A previous dentist told me he put the syringe under warm water for a short time before puncturing the gums. Then, the liquid is at least body temperature when the stuff fans out under the flesh. Guess what, friends, this new dentist missed that class and shot pure ice water into my head. I just about lost my shoes when my legs flailed uncontrollably at the foot of the chair. After the pain of the pain medication (irony) subsided and I was able to will my hands out of their death grip, I was fine...for a while.

Skipping to the chase scene, the Novocaine wore off too early in the process of drilling the "canal" in my tooth. I about pooped my pants again when the Mother of all pain shot through my whole body: Dr. Evil injected more ice water directly into the nerve! Holy crap, I thought I saw Jesus, my mom and a bolt of lightning all at the same time. They almost had to un-Velcro me off the ceiling! I managed to suffer through to the end when the assistant gave me 800 milligrams of Advil (didn't even kick in for an hour) and a prescription for Tylenol 3.

This takes me to the moral of the story: God SHOUTS to us through our pain. So for His sake and the benefit of obedience, stop doing what is causing the discomfort. Just STOP, deal with it and move on. The only blessing that I took home was the opportunity to enjoy the soothing effects of the medication.

Go in peace, brush and floss, and get to know your dentist and staff. Their disapproving grimace can be painful enough!