IMS_Blog

Waking up at 4 in the morning with an agonising toothache is not fun. Given my lack of knowledge of relevant dental treatments available when everyone is in general asleep a phone call was placed to the only medical resource I could think of that I knew to be available at that time (other than casualty which seemed overkill), namely the NHS direct helpline (actually Rachel initiated the call due to the fact that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to speak, mainly due to the fact I was lying covered in sweat and shaking). The nurse who eventually got back to us (having had to give a seemingly endless sequence of details) was as helpful as he could be and I must express my gratitude that he did seem to genuinely seem to be doing his best but basically all he could offer was take some ibuprofen (yeh, done that already funnily enough). Unfortunately it was at this point that I realised that despite the area I live I don’t actually know a local dealer in anything stronger :-(

The strange thing about this is that as suddenly as the pain began (and this was somewhat above my actually relatively high threshold) it stopped with bizarre abruptness. Now it’s sort of waxing and waning but the immediacy of the situation has at least faded. The whole incident did initiate a 5 O’clock run to Asda for more painkillers, coke, envelopes, a battery and toilet roll. Who knows what the night shift worker there thought.