Thursday, July 9, 2015

I Did It

Found on Auntie SparkNotes. 

Gosh. My body never ceases to amaze me.

Wait. This is a weirdo thing to say even for me but hear me out. So, I know that I spend most of my time here whining about aches and pains and brain fog and dryness.....but. On occasion I am impressed with something that this old bod does RIGHT.

It's a small thing, and probably something to which I wouldn't have given a second thought a dozen or so years ago. But it's my tooth. Or rather -- where my tooth used to be; while it is waiting for ongoing dental work. A few weeks ago my lip and jaw was swollen, red, and very obviously infected. And it hurt like heck. I've been grumping around for what seems like forever, until this morning while I was brushing my teeth and realized that something had changed.

It was gone.

Not only the tooth - duh, Julia - but more importantly the swelling and pain. I had healed the abscess and infection, with an enormous amount of help from dentists and medications, of course, but still. My body healed itself.

How cool is that?

For now, I look like a kid that's lost her first tooth when I smile widely, but that's perfectly fine with me. In a few weeks, I'll receive a brand spankin' new artificial tooth to replace the one that was there and shortly afterwards? I'll betcha anything that I won't even remember that anything happened at all and that the conniption fit that I've been throwing will seem kind of silly.

I was wondering why the recovery from an abscess and tooth extraction seemed so miraculous. And after a bit of thought realized this: that so many of the changes caused by my autoimmune disease - IBS, peripheral neuropathy, restless leg, heat and sun intolerance, fatigue to name just a few - have been described to me as things that I'd have to deal with. To manage. But that these things would never truly be cured, or healed. Ah, but this latest challenge, even though minor, is one that is ALL BETTER. Gone. It's healed. Cured.

Oh, yeah. Tooth infection? ZIP. Julia? ONE. I have to take my victories no matter how small wherever I can find them.

.::Julia does unattractive but exuberant celebratory dance::.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yay for Julia's body. I get it. Three years ago I split my shin open like a ripe plum when I ran into the floor fan in the dark. Took months to heal and left a big ole ugly scar. Two nights ago I did it again. Hit just outside the scar. This time a 6 mm neat, clean laceration that stopped bleeding almost immediately. Last night when I took the dressing off it had formed a pretty little scab. Yay for my body. Celebrating the small victories!

mcspires said...

That is truly worth a celebration. Dance away! It is nice for our bodies to actually do something normal once in a while, isn't it. Seems like every problem we come up against is permanent, and just "one more thing" we add to our long list of things to cope with. Gets to where you don't even want to go to the doctor because it is always more bad news from Sjogrens, the Gift that Keeps on Giving!

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