How to learn from simple things.

As I sat in the chair while they drugged me up today, I realized a few things.

First, I sat down and they immediately put me on the gas to calm me down. I'm not a huge fan of people drilling at my teeth, by the way. So this was necessary.

Then they attempted to numb my mouth a little before they put the needle in to numb my mouth completely. I had to close my mouth for them to be able to do this effectively. Well, I did this and as I did, the assistant flipped a switch, thinking it was something else, and stopped my only airflow. I sat there for a moment trying to figure out what was going on before the girls realize I couldn't breathe. They looked at it for a while and never really figured out what happened. They eventually got it fixed and moved on with the horrible task at hand. 

They proceeded to stick that huge needle in to my mouth. After about 3 times, they poked around a little and decided that should be enough. Well, the dentist then came and started drilling. I could feel everything. As they noticed me wince, they immediately stopped drilling and stuck more needles in me. 

This didn't just happen once through the process, but 8 times. They couldn't figure out why I wouldn't go numb. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off. 

Eventually, the dentist stuck the needle in, moved it around a bit, and found the spot that hadn't been numbed yet. It hurt so bad I wanted to cry. But after that, they began to drill and I felt nothing. All I could think about was how wonderful the gas was. 

The gas made me happy. Relaxed. Two things that I haven't been at all since February 5th at about 2 pm. 

Well, they filled the stupid cavities and I went to work and haven't been able to really open my mouth since. Yawning sucks. The muscle that they put that last shot in to is really pissed off now. 

But heres what I learned from this whole situation. 

First, sometimes things stop working and we just don't know why. That doesn't mean we should give up on them completely. It means we should press a few buttons, pray a little, and try again. I would have been so mad had they just given up on the gas once it stopped working.

Second, sometimes to stop future pain, we have to go through a lot of other pain. And not just once or twice, but sometimes 8 times. If that's what it takes to stop the ultimate pain, God puts you through it. Even though the pain may make you want to cry and yell and hate the person inflicting it on you, sometimes its the only way your going to be okay later. 

Third, sometimes when God knows your freaking out, he lets you go through it for a little while then pumps happy gas in to your life. It may only last a little while, and have very minimal effects, but it takes off the edge a little. This may come through any form. Like an actual gas (Drug addiction to this gas would be super fun). Or maybe from just being with friends. Or maybe from spiritual gain. These things don't solve all the problems. And they may only be there for a short amount of time. But they take off the edge. If only for a little while. 

And last, sometimes we have to deal with pain for a lot longer than we want to. And sometimes we re-injure ourselves. (Like when we yawn.) Sometimes it makes it hard to do anything. Like eat or sleep or talk to people. Sometimes we feel like the only thing we can do is keep our mouth shut and wait for it to pass so we can talk to someone about how badly it hurt. But, the pain will pass. Whether I will wake up fine tomorrow or not, at some point, I won't feel it anymore. 

Oh, and until it passes, loading up on Ibuprofen and milkshakes is always a positive when everything else seems so negative.