Did it again

Way back in the years I worked in psych facilities, I noticed that a lot of my patients on anti-psychotics had extremely high pain tolerances. I didn't really know if that was from meds or from the disorders and from what many of them had undergone in the name of "treatment" prior to the development of more humane medications. At that point I hadn't spent more than about 3 months on an anti-psychotic thanks to bad reactions.

About 18 months ago I had 2 fillings done. They were replacements of old fillings, one of which had been done wrong and which had a very deep cavity around it. My dentist told me from the outset that this tooth might need a root canal eventually. I put up with it aching for 2 weeks since I knew it was a deep filling. But finally I went back because the pain was worsening. It was just a constant ache, it wasn't keeping me up at night, I could stand it, but it ached. After an exam he told me that he thought it was ok but because the chances of it needing a root canal eventually were high that I could choose to get it over with if I wanted. I said yes. When he opened the tooth up it was horribly infected. I was within probably a day of sepsis. It took something like an hour for him to clean it out, and he was having to flush it was lidocaine because the nerve root itself was infected. When he finished he talked to me for a while about my having just shown that I have an extremely high pain tolerance because I should have been in desperate pain and I called it an "ache". He then mentioned his observation that people on anti-psychotics tend to have higher pain tolerances. Bingo. Theory confirmed.

So one of the side effects of my ankle injury is that my other foot also has tendonitis. It is the direct result of standing oddly for weeks. At this point it is much more painful. So I ordered some treatment things, one of which is a strap on support for my arch. It felt so good that I didn't notice any problems except that I had to loosen my shoestrings toward the end of the day because my foot had swollen a bit. When Friday finally ended I realized that I really was a bit sore, so I removed the arch support. When I did I discovered a huge blister on the top of my foot, possibly the largest blister I have ever had.

One day I'll learn to pay attention to these things.....