Pain

Being a cyclist, I am accustomed to a certain type of suffering, and can successfully ignore the burning in my quads half-way up a long climb and the ache in my back or neck after a long time in the saddle, but I am apparently terribly unprepared for the pain of a TOOTHACHE. I'm taking Advil like candy and actually looking forward to a visit to the dentist this afternoon. I'm sure this one is going to cost me a root canal and cap, probably in the $1,500 neighborhood, and that's not including the other three or four neglected teeth that have not yet eroded to the point where raw nerves are exposed. Damn, I hate going to the dentist. I've always had lousy teeth, so every visit is pretty much guaranteed to be (a) painful and (b) expensive.

Wish me luck!

Anyway, I did make it out this morning for an easy Friday training ride. Oddly, this tooth doesn't hurt when I'm sleeping and doesn't even hurt much while I'm riding. It didn't start hurting again until I was most of the way back to the house. By the time I was at the office, however, it was screaming. Damned lousy enamel genes!