We leave the ice cream shop and continue on our way home. From the ice cream shop this was another hour or so. With every minute passing, I am in more and more pain. We finally make it to the pharmacy close to home and I’m almost in tears. I’m not one to cry over pain, I’ve always been one that just takes it and goes on. I’m also not one to show or talk much about when I’m in pain. I’ve always considered myself to have an extremely high pain tolerance and those closest to me would agree, I’m sure. When I was younger, I needed braces and a palate spreader to correct my pearly whites. A palate spreader attaches to your top molars (back teeth) and then has a middle section that expands. The palate spreader had to be adjusted daily in order to make my palate, roof of my mouth, bigger so that I had enough room for all of my teeth. My parents would take a little key each day and turn it three times. Over time, this broke my palate and spread it out making enough room for all of my teeth. The first day I got this on my orthodontist told my parents, “She won’t feel like eating because of all the pain. And each day after turning it, she will be in quite a bit of pain and likely won’t eat much.” Well that didn’t slow me down eating! That’s another thing that people know about me, who know me at all, I LOVE TO EAT! We left the orthodontist office that day and I asked my mom to stop at Taco Bell. She said, “Are you sure you can eat?” Of coarse I could eat and that I did. I also continued to tumble and do anything else I wanted to do. I tell this one example to show I’m not wimp when it comes to pain. I’ve also had rupturing ovarian cysts and endometriosis, never once called off work or let it stop me in any way. So, for this new pain to be getting to me and interfering with my life, you know it has to be pretty bad. And this, as you’ll see as I continue with my story, is very hard for me to learn to cope with.
We go through the pharmacy drive-thru to get the prescription. My husband hands over the prescription and they tell us it’s going to be 30 minutes for them to fill it. I think, just shoot me now! I’m starting to cry, I’m hurting so bad. We pull around to wait on them to get it ready and sit in the parking lot because I can’t imagine continuing to drive with pain like this. I did get some amusement watching a hooker, in quite the getup, make googly eyes at my husband. My niece, Skylar, was laughing so hard in the back of the car. It’s finally time to pull through the line to get the prescription. We get it and I take one of the pain pills, which for me is huge because I am very anti-medicine. I’ve just never been one to take even a Tylenol, let alone something like this. When I get headaches or dreaded period cramps, I usually just wait them out in order to not take medicine. But again, at this point, I’ll do anything to help this pain. I take one of these pretty strong little pills, it really doesn’t do much with the pain. We get my Baby (our Yorkie) and head home. I get home, sit in my recliner and wonder how the heck I’m going to do much of anything. At this point, I’m still not able to use the restroom or shower without assistance and my husband is set to go back to work the following day then on an out of town fishing trip at the end of the week. I’m supposed to be taking care of others, not others taking care of me, but I just can’t take care of myself…not even the basics!
Ami’s Journey 