Can you spread yourself too thin?

It's 10:16pm Friday night and I'm sitting here wondering, yet again, when I will have time to sleep this weekend. I have two cake orders for Sunday. The first is a full size standing guitar cake for the 8th Annual Tom Webb Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser hosted by Cory Morrow. The second is a sheet cake for a young man turning 18 and headed for college in Nashville.

I allowed adequate time for both projects, then boom, I lose a crown while eating a Jolly Rancher. No problem...I'll call my dentist and have him slap it back on. No such luck! He tells me I've broken the tooth (with the expensive root canal) off below the gum and it had to come out. Can you say oral surgery? OK, not such good news but he was a sweetie to work me in on Monday so I say, "let's do it." Two hours later he says it was one of the most difficult extractions he has ever done. Did I mention he broke the crown on the tooth beside the one he was extracting? Yep. Thanks goodness Leon drove me. We made a "bee line" for the pharmacy to fill the pain medication. The pharmacist mush have realized I was about to "go postal" because they got it filled in record time.

Wednesday rolls around and I have an appointment to get fitted for a replacement for the broken crown ($300+.) Leon asks me if I can drive myself. I think sure, it's only a fitting. In and out. Did you know that a crown "fitting" involves removing the old crown? I didn't. Of course it couldn't come off easily. No sir-ree. He cut, chiseled, and peeled it off only to find a huge cavity under it...below the root line! Filling this involved shoving pieces of cork the size of tree bark deep down in to my gums to separate them from the tooth. Talk about painful! Since he was in the area he also filled cavities on two other teeth on that side. Within five minutes of leaving his office, I was in agonizing pain and my pain medication was at home. I cried all the way across town to pick up a portable air conditioner for my son. I stopped at Walgreen's and overdosed on Ibuprofen, which did little for the pain, and headed home.

Here it is almost midnight two days later and I still cannot go more than four hours without pain medication or my jaw feels like it is exploding. Is that normal? If it is not better by tomorrow I'm calling Clint at home. There are perks to your dentist being married to your daughter's best friend from high school. Full access to home phone numbers!