Over the weekend I cracked a front tooth. It had a root canal at some point in the early 2000s, and my dentist had already fixed it once with a titanium rod so I wasn't in any serious pain, but it needed to be fixed.

Off to the dentist's office I go, where I'm told they're going to have to pull it (expected that). It was apparently overdue for this treatment because my dentist ended up using a tool basically like a cold chisel, and hammering the big crumbling bits into little crumbly bits that he could pull out. Really unsettling experience.

Anyway, the dentist then tells me he has to cut into my gum to make room for the new bridge (at least that's what I heard; I was on nitrous and my anxiety medication had kicked in at that point, plus I was riding the wave of euphoria that comes immediately after the pain stops). Out comes the electrocautery pencil. I still have the scent of porcelain chips and burning flesh stuck in my nose.

Tramadol for pain isn't my first choice because it doesn't work too well for me, but it does take the edge off, and my sleeping pills seem to have gone AWOL in regard to their ability to put me out. Neither of those situations is helping me deal with the other.