I got through my nightmare of a weekend, and had my tooth extracted yesterday. He scolded me for taking so much Motrin, but I told him that it was either overdose on Motrin and be sitting in his chair on Monday morning, or he could sit in the empty chair while reading my obituary in the newspaper.

Twilight sleep is the way to go! It was great to wake up and have it all over. I am eating and drinking, with difficulty. (Hooray for yogurt.) I took one hydrocodone yesterday, but have not taken it again.

I'm in some pain now, but it is nothing like the weekend's agony. You know how they ask you, how is the pain on a scale of 1 to 10? If find that a funny question because what criteria are we supposed to use? Burning your hand on the stove hurts pretty bad - is that the scale? (What number would that be? 5? This was worse.) Cutting myself on the broken glass from a falling light fixture and needing stitches hurt when it happened, when the doctor rubbed antiseptic into the cut, and after I got the stitches, when I was trying to sleep. (What number would that be? 7? This was worse.) Does that mean it was a 10? Or maybe even a 12? Would cutting off your leg with a chainsaw hurt worse? I don't know.

Now I am nervous about getting something called "dry socket" which I guess happens about 5 percent of the time. I'm being very careful, but with my luck, I will probably be part of that 5 percent! I guess it is very painful. How painful? A 10 again? I hope not.