Due to my younger brother busing away last afternoon when he went to hook up with a friend or two for his usual drinking, he was not home last evening when I gave up the T.V. and decided to have an early evening of it by getting to bed before he showed up.
I was into bed well before 10:00 p.m., with both makeshift blindfold and my earplugs in place ─ I never know when my wife may show up after her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant.
And then the sleepless torture began.
I am fuzzy now on the details, but I think perhaps both my brother and my wife had arrived home before I managed to fall asleep ─ despite the earplugs, I could hear conversation downstairs.
I have serious doubts that I managed any sleep at all before my wife finally came to bed at 1:31 a.m.
From the first time that my wife came into the bedroom, she left the bedroom light on. And psychologically, it was disrupting ─ as were any subsequent forays of hers into the bedroom.
I was dreadfully uncomfortable by the time she did finally come to bed ─ overheated, and in dearest need of micturition. There was no possibility of further sleep at that point, but I did not care to be explaining myself ─ I was ready to get up and come here to work at my computer, tackling today's content assignment at the post I almost have finished at one of my six hosted websites.
Yet I determined that I would give her precisely a half-hour to sink into her own sleep before I rose and gathered up my clothes.
That was a long, long wait ─ I don't know how many times I looked at the slowly-advancing time.
The only way that I could quell the recurring surges of urgency to flee to the toilet for relief was to cause myself distracting pain. Specifically, I would slightly aggravate a tooth that has begun to bother me.
Years ago, when I was in my earliest 20s during the early 1970s, I stupidly went with a young fellow who claimed to know of a party. We were drinking, and he was driving his car.
It was late into the night.
He was bombing along a major street, but he evidently forgot that at one point it made a sharp left turn. When he realized where we were, he was unable to negotiate the turn and we plowed into a telephone pole or light standard.
I don't know if my knee connected with my upper teeth or if instead those teeth made contact with the padded dashboard, but the upper two right incisors were the recipients of the contact.
The second of those two incisors slightly relocated just a little ─ enough to find itself in behind the edge of the first incisor, forcing it a little out of alignment.
Or maybe the first incisor was twisted and placed somewhat ahead of the edge of the second incisor? Something went wonky, at any rate.
And there was bleeding around the gum line that presented for a few days ─ as did the pain. One tooth was even somewhat loose, and I had concerns that I would lose it.
That first incisor has ever since periodically been sensitive at the root, much as one might expect if excessive bruxism and forced biting might aggravate the deepest base of the tooth.
I recently experienced that sensitivity again, and yesterday stupidly forced myself to use my incisors to bite through every bit of a rather long and quite hard raw carrot I was eating last evening.
I don't know what I was thinking ─ maybe I thought that the added work would be good for the tooth.
Well, overnight it has come to feel like the root of the tooth may actually be infected. Sometimes the throbbing comes near to making me feel ill.
But so does the thought of what is going on if it is indeed infected ─ the harmful bacteria will be spreading from there into my bloodstream. And with the sinuses, eyes, and brain so near, I find that notion most disturbing.
Anyway, tapping and lightly pressing against that tooth last night definitely overcame the discomfort of needing to have that pee, and I weathered the full half-hour.
So up at 2:01 a.m. I rose, got the needed relief in the bathroom, and was soon here at my computer that I keep in a small room immediately next to my bedroom.
I thought to work until I had met the requirements of the day's content assignment, and then return to bed since it would still be early enough for me to do so without likely disturbing my wife's sleep.
But apparently my poor sleeping habits of late began to take their toll, and I started to realize that I was only going to manage to complete about half of that content assignment ─ I had begun to feel most unpleasant, as if something was wrong and I dared push myself no further.
So I suspended work, but I was feeling so unwell that I did not care to return back to my bed ─ I wanted to be alone with my suffering, or I was not going to find the needed peace to allow me to fall asleep.
My throbbing tooth was exacerbating my distress.
And so I reluctantly bedded down on the floor in front of my computer ─ it may only have been around 5:00 a.m. at very latest.
I managed a few bouts of napping before finally deciding to check the time and finding it to be just after 9:30 a.m.
I chose to get myself up, and put in a little further work on the website post before joining my younger brother who was downstairs watching T.V.
My wife surprised me by emerging from our bedroom at 9:40 a.m. and going into the bathroom. She doesn't usually rise until around 10:00 a.m. on her workdays, for her restaurant start time is not usually until 11:00 a.m.
I was to learn that she was having her own sleep problems, and trying for more was futile.
So she got an early start on a Thai curry dish that she prepared for everyone's supper.
It was around 10:20 a.m. when she left on her drive to work, and I teased that no one there will understand what's happening that she is there so early ─ she is very often late.
It may have been very lightly raining when she left. Then around 10:45 a.m. I noticed that there was lots of snow falling with the rain, and soon the street outside (we live in a cul-de-sac) was white with slushy snow.
As I type these words now at 4:01 a.m., the Sun is shining, so obviously the snow didn't last. But for us to have any snow at all in March hereabouts is unusual. There are still some blankets about of older snow that fell during February; and a light further blanket remains of snow that fell yesterday.
My brother sought some bedrest in the noon-hour in order to restore himself for his afternoon shenanigans. I was set to return to my own bed for some more sleep, but I was uncharacteristically hungry ─ it was as if my suffering from the painful tooth was affecting my appetite in morbid fashion, yet it made no sense that I would be doing something like chewing that was only going to cause some further aggravation.
Regardless, I did have a small meal; and I probably returned to bed just ahead of my brother's emergence from his bedroom.
I napped nicely, but was probably only in bed a little over an hour; my brother was gone when I got myself up.
I hope the pain beneath this damned tooth ameliorates. I will just have to avoid using that area for biting and chewing and hope for the best.
Good Lord! I have just heard on the radio that a snow warning has been issued for this region!
I was going to take a break here and see if I could squeeze in some exercising using my 43½-pound dumbbell, but I am too far below par ─ something is definitely off with me.
In fact, I am indeed going to take a break...but I am going to seek another nap, even though it is so late into the afternoon.
Can the throbbing pain of that tooth be affecting my overall well-being? Or is there indeed an infection that is essentially polluting me?
oooooooooooooo
Well, I did lie down, but my conscience would not allow me the calm to remain ─ I cannot easily skip an appointed exercising session.
So I only rested 10 minutes at best, but it was sufficient for me to rally my way through the session.
A bath followed.
Both experiences shifted my metabolism into higher gear, and left me feeling considerably better.
However, it is now after 6:30 p.m., and I am left with no time to do anything serious with this post.
Had I not spent some of my early afternoon clearing away the remainder of that website content assignment, matters might have proceeded a little differently.
How I hope I have an exceptionally good night's rest ─ and a better tomorrow.
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