Numb teeth from percocet

I smile and laugh, play, and joke around, but I also cry a lot, especially at night. I feel like a balloon that's been overinflated, ready to burst. I see no hope for the future, no motivation, no confidence, and no self-love. When I try to envision my future, I see myself stuck in the same place.
This started when I was 12, after 6th grade, and worsened at 14. Since I was 11, I've been babysitting my little brothers a lot. I love them and understand why I had to do it—my parents were struggling and working to keep a roof over our heads. It's not their fault, and I don't blame them. But for the past seven years, babysitting has been my daily routine. When my parents were home, they were either resting, spending time with my younger siblings, or doing family activities. Emotionally and mentally, I felt they weren't there for me. I never felt comfortable talking to them about how I felt. And I thought they had bigger worries than me, so I kept everything to myself but there was like three times were I’ve opened up to them . For temporary happiness, I turned to video games, the internet, and my dog. These distractions kept me happy for a while, but over time, they stopped working. I had no friends and stayed home all day. After sixth grade, I did online school for two years, which meant I spent my days playing video games, eating, and staring at screens. Without social interaction, I forgot how to socialize and developed social anxiety, insecurities, self-hatred, and no confidence.
I was isolated for two years, which severely affected me. When I returned to school in 9th grade, I couldn't make friends. I was always quiet, couldn't ask for help in class, and struggled to hold conversations. When someone talked to me, I got dizzy, experienced blurred vision, tunnel vision, and shaking. I kept my head down because I was so insecure about my face and body. Everything I'm typing is how I still feel.
When I was 15, we moved. For two or three months, I didn't go to school, staying in my room all day, watching my younger brothers, sleeping, eating, and browsing the internet. I was socially isolated again. When I finally started school, I met a girl who talked to me first. We became friends, and I felt a bit happier, though still insecure and sad. Eventually, I made three more friends, and we ate lunch together. However, as soon as I got home from school, my parents left for work, and I watched my siblings until late at night. This pattern continued, though they didn't leave as often as they used to. I had some alone time when two of my younger siblings started school, but I still had responsibilities, like picking them up from the bus stop and again watching them until like 10 or 11.
After more moving and struggling, we settled into a nice house, which I'm grateful for. But despite the change in living conditions, I still feel the same—full of self-hate, lacking confidence, feeling hopeless and unmotivated. I'm 17 now, not in school, have no friends, and feel worse than ever. I want to tell my parents, but I fear they won't understand, and nothing will change. No matter how many times my mom tells me to love myself or sends me motivational videos, I feel numb. Deep down, I can't imagine ever loving myself, feeling motivated, or escaping this hopelessness. I believe nothing will ever change. Am I wrong? Are my feelings even valid? Every single day, I deal with crying, fighting, and my name being called constantly. I can't do this anymore—it's overwhelming and exhausting. I'm bed rotting all the time, unable to take care of myself properly. I'm neglecting myself. Basic tasks like brushing my teeth, showering, and cleaning feel useless to me. Why take care of myself when I feel so low?
Don't get me wrong; I have days where I feel better and think I should take care of myself and dog, but those feelings only last a few days at most. Then I go right back to neglecting myself. I still get up to take care of my brothers, make them food, and clean up after them because I have to—otherwise, my mom would be upset, and I just don't want to hear it.
On especially hard days when I'm feeling more down than usual, I reach a point where I just don't care anymore. I won't clean up, though I still make food for my brothers because I would never let them starve. Other than that, I can't find the motivation to do anything else. Is this just me being lazy? Or is it something else? I lack the motivation to just do it. Are my feelings valid? I don't feel like they are. I don't know anymore—I just can't.
I feel so awkward around my parents and barely talk to them, especially about my feelings. It’s just never been that way. Three times, I tried to open up to them, but nothing changed. Instead, I felt like they were invalidating my feelings with comments like, "What do you have to be stressed about?", "When I was your age, I didn’t have anybody," "Growing up was hard; you're lucky," and "Depression isn’t real."
I'm grateful for everything my parents do for me and my siblings, but these comparisons to their past make me feel even worse. It makes me question whether my feelings are valid. Once, I told them I thought I had an eating disorder, and they just looked at each other, shook their heads, and laughed. That was me trying to open up, and it made me feel terrible.
I'm sorry if this seems jumbled; I just have a lot to say. I want to understand what’s going on with me. Are my feelings valid, or am I over-exaggerating, being dramatic, or having a victim complex?
Also I love my parents so much like I just wish things were a bit different and I’m grateful for everything they’ve done for us I really am I don’t want to seem disrespectful but I’m sorry if I’m coming off as disrespectful or ungrateful I don’t know.

This is my first reddit post and honestly it's a lot so please bear with me. I'm still trying to figure out how to process everything and make sense of it all. I guess we will start at the very beginning. My boyfriend,( we will call him michael) and I just passed 6 months together. Honestly, hes been great. We clicked pretty fast and have a great bond. I feel safe and comfortable around him and can communicate in a way ive never been able to before. It just kinda works. I definitely fell hard and fast for him and from what I could gather, the feeling was mutual. We had met on tinder in early October and went on our first date in November. We made it official shortly after our first date.
After we started dating, he had briefly mentioned that he had a friend who had a bit of a crush on him. I told him I didn't mind and I trusted him. As long as he kept things respectful to me, it didn't matter. He then explained that her crush was a bit obsessive and he actually wanted to push her out of his life and needed advice. Apparently, this friend, (we will call her beth) was pregnant and wanted Michael to be her baby's God Father. He said that she would follow him and got jealous when he was with other girls. I found this kind of odd but he swore they were just friends, so I told him the best way to let her down gently and let him do his thing. About two weeks later, he told me she was out of the picture. I didn't really care either way but the communication was cool.
Anyways, I pretty quickly forgot about all of that because it was irrelevant and I wanted to focus on our relationship. One night when we were hanging out, he got a snapchat notification. He turned away from me to respond to it but I didn't think much of it, just asked who that was. He said it was just a friend (we will call this one Jen) and they were catching up. I had never heard of her before but I didn't care, I just said cool and dropped it. Just like before, I quickly forgot about that conversation because again,it was irrelevant and I had better things to think about. I trusted him so why should I care who he talks to? He is his own person after all and I understand the importance of friendships.
Fast forward about another two weeks later, him and I had our first argument. I dont remember what it was about. Most likely something small and pointless because I had a stressful day at work but nothing too serious. We did not talk much that day. Later that night, I apologized and we talked it over. Everything was fine. He then told me that earlier in the day, an old friend that he had removed off social media readded him and messaged him. We will call her Molly. Apparently she had just noticed she was removed and was upset and wanted to know why. He told me that he sent her a message explaining that he didn't see her in his life long term and doesn't feel the need to keep someone around who won't be around forever so he didn't want to be friends anymore. He then removed her again. At this point I thought the way he acted was odd. I had never heard of molly before, he waited until he had already removed her before telling me about the conversation, she only came into the picture when we had our first argument and it got me thinking about the other girls who were just friends. I definitely started to over think a bit and was more than curious about who these people were and what their relationship to him was. But he swore they were all just friends. So I continued to believe him.
We went a long period of time without anything coming up so once again I forgot about it and moved on with my life. Him and I were doing great. We were young dumb and in love. I felt truly happy, something I hadn't experienced in a long time. I felt like I genuinely found someone who was right for me and I didn't need to second guess whether or not he was gonna cheat on me. He occasionally would ask to see my phone but I didn't have anything to hide so I allowed him. I had set a boundary with him that if he ever felt concerned or needed reassurance, he needed to bring it up to me first. After we talked it over then he could see my phone, but we would always go through it together. This seemed fair to me. My phone was never off limits, there just needed to be open communication. Anyways, he would always offer for me to see his phone in return but I would decline. I didn't feel the need to and I had learned from past experiences that if you go digging, you will most likely see something you can't unsee.
Then one day he needed to have his wisdom teeth removed. I dropped him off in the morning for his surgery and I was told I needed to hold on to his personal belongings and wait until the operation was over. No big deal. I know this is wrong and I shouldn't have but finally curiosity got the best of me and I looked on his phone. At first it wasn't malicious. I genuinely was just curious. But of course, I saw things I wish I could unsee. It started off on tiktok. In one of his conversations with a friend, he poured his heart out, explaining how he was still so in love with his ex and missed her like crazy. Of course it stung a little to see the things he said but I knew there was someone before me so it wasn't that surprising. That was until I saw those messages had been sent in mid October. So of course i was like huh.we started talking early October and dating early November. So clearly he wasn't over his ex when he met me. But I was willing to forgive it. It wasn't a deal breaker. But Instead of putting the phone down to protect my peace and his privacy, I kept looking. And boy did I find a lot. I found lots of old text messages from contacts that were not saved. Most of then were hard-core sexting and flirting. This dude literally acted like a dog.And yeah it was again hard to see but it was before me and he wasn't like that anymore. With me, he was gentle and respectful and never treated me like an object. Some people just go through a phase and that's okay. Again, it wasn't a deal breaker. But finally i found some very passionate, lovey, intimate messages with an unsaved contact. I was immediately drawn in by the kind words and heartwarming love messages. Whoever this was, they cared for eachother very strongly. I almost immediately felt heartbroken. Not because she was a past love interest, but because he had never spoken to me the way he spoke to her. I read all the way from the top of the conversation. Months worth of love confessions, paragraphs of strong feelings, longing to be with one another, etc. But finally halfway through in one of the paragraphs I see a name. Molly I was shattered. Molly was the girl who supposedly was removed months before him and I even met. The one that was "just a friend" who messaged him and he removed her because he didn't want to be friends anymore. Yeah clearly they were more than just friends. I was livid and felt crushed. Why did he feel the need to lie about something so unnecessary? I wouldn't have been mad if he had told the truth about who she was. But then it got me thinking. Was Beth truly just a friend? Was Jen truly just a friend? What was the actual relationship? I gathered up as much as I could but then the nurse came to the lobby to tell me he was awake and ready to go home. I kind of panicked and in my hurry, I forgot to delete the screenshots out of his phone.
We get in the car and I give him his phone, he's still pretty loopy. Obviously I had a million questions to ask him but I knew he wasn't in the right state of mind to have that conversation so I put my feelings aside and decided it could wait. Well he wanted to take pictures of his bloody swollen face and send it to his uncle. In the process, he sees the screenshots i had forgotten to delete off his phone and immediately screams what the f*** is this? I tried to talk calmly and explain that now wasn't a good time to talk about it and it could wait. He kept pressing "what the f*** did you do? Who the hell is this?" In my mind I thought "uh dude, you tell me." But didn't want to escalate it while he was drugged up. I decided the best option was to simply say that I wasn't mad , I stilled planned on taking care of him while he recovered and that we would need to have a conversation when he was in a better state of mind. He just started sobbing. Oh boy. I kind of ignored it as much as I could. I drove us to the store to get ice cream and other soft foods he could eat before taking us back to my apartment. I helped get him set up in my bedroom and he still was crying. So much so he started coughing out blood. It smelled awful and got everywhere. He was a wreck. I felt bad for everything. I felt guilty for going on his phone behind his back, for leaving the screeshots on his phone and for him crying. It took several hours but eventually I got him to calm down. I kept my word and continued to take care of him until he was recovered.
Finally when enough time had passed I decided it was time to sit down and talk about it. I explained that obviously I had found messages and i wanted an explanation. He told me molly was just a friend, and very clearly it was more than that. I also explained that I had a suspicion that he was not fully honest about his relationship with Jen and Beth either. He looked me dead in the eyes and said he had no idea what I was talking about and they were just friends. I remained calm and explained that I won't be mad at him or leave him. I told him I didn't want to fight. I just felt as though I deserved to know the truth if I was going to continue to be with him, especially since he was still in contact with Beth and Jen while we were dating. We continue to go back and forward for several hours with no progress. I decided then if he didn't feel I deserved the truth, I would find out for myself. I took the screenshots I had found and reached out to the contacts one by one.
Let's start with Beth. She was the quickest to respond. I briefly explained who I was and that I was hoping to ask some questions about my partner because I felt like i was being lied to and was hoping she could fill in some of the gaps. She texted back and simply asked "do you work at blank" I responded that yes, I did. She then asked if I lived at a specific apartment complex. I said yes and was creeped out. She knew where I worked and lived. She then asked if she could call me. I agreed. For some context, he told me that she was a friend he had met in school. He explained that she had gotten out of a rough relationship and he wanted to make sure she was okay when it happened. That's how they became close. He explained that they would hang out all the time and eventually she became obsessed with him. Well during my phone call with her, I heard a very different story. Yes, they met in school and initially started off as friends. But, slowly with time as they started to spend more and more time together, they started to catch feelings. He said I love you first. And she proved this with screenshots. She also sent me pictures of them holding hands and kissing. She explained that they never officially started dating but they definitely were more than just friends. Their relationship was much more physical and romantic than platonic. She also told me that they had hooked up about 3 times. She explained that they had eachothers location and pretty frequently they would make plans then he would last minute cancel. So she would see what he was doing and would see him at two very specific addresses. Visiting my work or my apartment. She eventually asked him where he was and he told her that I was his cousin and was trying to get out of a rough relationship so he was helping me. I felt sick. No wonder why she was "obsessed" he was borderline dating her, telling her he loved her, and then started to ditch her when he made things official with me. Then it killed me to realize that even though they never had an official title, he was dating the two of us at the same time. I didn't know what to do. I ended up apologizing to her for everything he did and told her I never would have agreed to be his if I knew he was entertaining someone else. Michael overheard this phone call between us and looked like he had seen a ghost after. All he did was started crying, said she was lying, and that she was only a friend. I asked "so....these screenshots and pictures are all made up?" No response. He knew he was busted.
I decided I needed to take some time to process that information and I didn't want to say something I would regret. I let him stay at my place because he had nowhere else to go and I went to stay with a friend. He kept calling and texting but I couldn't deal with it. I cried all night. I was a mess. I should have just accepted that I was cheated on and lied to but I couldn't leave. I needed to know the truth. So I kept reaching out. Next up was Jen. I never was able to reach her, but I found out through Michael and Beth that Jen was Beth's best friend. But even more than that, I found out the three of them had a threesome together. He had told me previously that he had never been interested in a threesome and would never want to have one. Then I found out not only did he have one and lied about it, but it was with two girls he told me were just friends.
I went back to my apartment the next day and tried to talk stuff out. He just continued to say they were just friends. I finally snapped. I screamed and cried and told him that I just wanted to know the truth. That I deserved the truth. He looked me in the eyes, pinky promised me no more lies. We talked for a while and basically he explained that he never had an official title with Beth. They were very close but he basically just used her to pass time because he had nothing better to do. He said he loved her because that's what she wanted to hear and he treated her like a partner without ever having any real feelings for her. He knew as soon as he met me that he wanted me but didn't want to hurt her so he just kind of pushed her to the side but kept her in the picture. I felt so sad for her. He used her. He led her on. He treated her like an object and then threw her to the side when he met me.I asked why he lied about having a threesome. He said he felt ashamed Apparently they started to do it and then he chickened out so he didn't really count it. That made sense to me. I was pissed that he lied but at least it made sense. Next I asked why he told me Beth and Jen were just friends instead of being honest about the relationship. He said he never had feelings for either and they never had the official title so he didn't think it was important and he did not want to scare me off. I explained to him that although I understand why he lied to me, I didn't forgive him. I warned him that I would not tolerate anymore lies and obviously for the time being I did not trust him. I told him I wouldn't break up with him but if I found out he lied again, he would lose me. I also told him I considered what he did as cheating since he was seeing us at the same time after him and I became mutually exclusive. After we concluded our conversation about Beth and Jen, I started thinking about molly and the messages I had seen. I asked him what their relationship was, he said just friends. I freaked and told him to give me his phone. I found their old messages and told him to read them. "Hey goofball, you awake? Well if you're not I have something impossible to say to you. You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars. I love you lots and want you to know that no matter what happens I will always care about you. To me you are perfect. Amazing. And attractive asf. You are also very sweet and caring and adorable. Don't think about the negative things about yourself that will drag you down. You are way more than that. This is an official goodnight and I love you goofball." This is just one of the MANY messages sent back and forward. He reads the conversation and just goes oh. He then says he didn't remember any of that happening. We began to argue and the story he tried to spin was that his life must have been so traumatic that his brain literally deleted his past memories and replaced them with false memories where he didn't do these things that he is ashamed of. He got caught in lies and after so long was just like...whoa I did that? I had no idea I didn't remember. Technically I didn't lie because I told what I thought the truth was the way I remembered it. I told him I wanted to break up and he cried and begged me to forgive him and stay. I listened.i tried to move on and make things normal again but I couldn't stop thinking about all the lies and what else he might have been lying about. Then randomly one day, Molly added me back on social media. She was the last and took over 1.5 months so honestly I figured I'd never get ahold of her. I was genuinely surprised to see her show up on my friend list and reached out. Once again back story, he told me that she lived in Wisconin and they had never met. He said he was also using her for nudes and to pass time, same way he used Beth. He had told me that he removed her off social media months before him and I even met and aside from that one night she reached out, he hadn't heard from her in forever. I found out from her that she did not live in Wisconsin, she lived in the same state as us That to her, they were definitely dating and in love. I also saw a messaged saved on snapchat where he had been texting her in October (after we met) and even sent her the same pickup lines he had sent me. he had cheated with not just one, but two (at least that I know of) other girls.
At this point I had been broken so bad I didn't even feel the pain anymore. I just went numb. I had no more tears left to cry and couldn't be bothered to care anymore. I stopped eating and taking care of myself. I just went to work, came home, slept and repeated. I had watched the man that I loved and adored, one that made me feel so safe and happy turn into a monster right in front of me. He wasn't him anymore. I finally could see him for who he was. But I still didn't leave. He told me that he had only ever slept with three girls. I later found out it was actually six. He told me he had never been in love before. I later found out he tells basically every girl he's ever talked to that he loves them AND genuinely was in love with his ex before me. He told me after his ex and him broke up, he had a rebound but he only hooked up with her once before ghosting her. I found out they actually dated for several weeks, hooked up several times, and she had taken cute couple pictures with him and posted them on social media. He said that he never wanted to take those pictures, she made him put his Hands on her and pose and if he didn't cooperate, she would throw a tantrum like a child. One last thing I think that is important to mention,when we went on our first date, I told him I don't do hookups. We stayed out late and hit it off really well so I offered for him to stay the night at my place. I said I was okay with cuddling and whatever but I did not want to have sex. He seemed okay with it. I went to bed and then when I woke up, my pants were off and he was inside me. He claimed he didn't know I was asleep and thought I wanted it because apparently my butt kept rubbing against him while we were spooning.
It's been about a month since all that and I'm still just meh. I haven't exactly forgiven him but I also don't hate him. Things are normal. I act normal we still do couple things. But I can't help but wonder if he is just using me the same way he used them. I mean after all, he lives in my apartment rent free and asked me to buy him a truck for his birthday. He says I should forgive him because he genuinely doesn't remember doing these things and he didn't mean to lie to me. He said he's so ashamed of who he was but isn't like that anymore. He doesn't associate with who he was and wants to be given a chance to show that he is different. But can I ever forgive him? Should I? Where do I go from here? I feel so lost and confused. I dont think I'll ever be able to trust his word again. I dont feel secure. He broke me so bad I can't even feel anymore. Am I crazy and somehow making this a bigger deal than it is? Can I ever have the man I fell in love with back? I'm sorry if this was confusing. I'm typing this all out in one sitting. Please help me because I genuinely am so lost and I don't want to tell any friends because I don't want them to hate him.
TLDR: My boyfriend cheated on me with at least two other girls that I know of at the moment and has lied to me about too many things to count. His argument is that It doesn't actually count as cheating because he technically didn't date these people and he didn't remember doing it.

My dental hygienist did an injection to numb my lower teeth for a deep cleaning. Ever since then I've had a shooting pain in my chin. It happens maybe once per day but it's really annoying. At first I thought it was tooth sensitivity but I'm pretty sure it's this. The worst one happened where it shot from my chin and around my cheek up above my right eye. Sometimes I do also feel a dull throb or headache along with it.
Does this get better with time? Has anyone in a similar situation found any treatments that worked for them?

I went to a dentist who told me to have a root canal on tooth #20 and #2 and she’ll crown it. I did the canal on #2 and scheduled to have #20 done. I recently had a not so pleasant experience with her where she did the crown on my tooth #2 without me being fully numb. I told her it hurt and she just kept going. Due to this, I saw another dentist yesterday to continue my treatment.
This dentist looked at my xray on tooth #2 from February and said “cancel that root canal. It needs to be pulled. I would never put a crown on that. The gums have grown over the tooth! You’d need crown lengthening prior to the crown which is gum surgery!”
This was news to me. My other dentist who just xrayed the tooth in April said to get it evaluated for the root canal and she’ll crown it. The endo said this would be a very quick root canal since the pulp is already exposed. She said it’ll take 20 mins. Neither of them mentioned anything about the gums being in the way and needing gum surgery after the canal.
Now I don’t know what to do or who to believe. He claims the endo would do any root canal to make a quick buck and the original dentist would tell me after the canal she couldn’t do the crown because I’ll need gum surgery first but she would wait until after the canal is done so im stuck. It felt a little fear mongery but maybe it’s true?
I really don’t want to pull that tooth. I’m 26 and would rather save it. The new dentist claims the crown will only last 5 years max. I just don’t know if I trust him though.
He saw my other cavities too and where the other dentist said she’d fill them after root canal #20 and crown and I’d go on my way, he said that if I don’t fill them soon I’m going to loose my teeth. He said this is how 30 year olds end up with dentures because they prioritize other more major work and leave the cavities to sit. He said I should put all my focus into the cavities and ignore tooth #20 even though it hurts and I can’t eat over there. Also, some cavities were very deep so he said he’ll put medicine in the deep ones then come back to them, Basically he wants to stop the decay, even if, in his words, “the filling doesn’t look pretty”, then go back later and make them look better and/or send me for root canals. The other dentist didn’t mention anything about putting meds in the cavities.
He also said I should use prescription strength fluoride toothpaste. I’m a bit hesitant because I’d like to get pregnant soon.
Am I being taken for a ride here or should I trust him? If the original dentist didn’t mention the gum growing over, why is he? He claims the original dentist would have sent me for the root canal and then said “oops we need to get you gum surgery first.” Catching me completely off guard? I just feel like this is inaccurate.
Also, will the original dentist be upset that I saw another dentist? I left a voicemail at the office asking for some clarifications on my treatment plan and said I got a second opinion. I planned to just ask outright if I’ll need this gum surgery he spoke of.
Should I just ditch both dentists and find a completely new one?

I had chronic sinusitis for 2 years after a complication from wisdom teeth removal. symptoms were always pretty mild but CT scans showed my entire right sinus was full of goo. the doc did FESS on my right maxillary sinus to drain the infection and trimmed down some tissue to help with future drainage. a pretty limited procedure compared to many, but here’s my first week of recovery for anyone going through something similar!
day of surgery
• I made sure I went with an ENT/hospital I liked/trusted. originally had my procedure scheduled somewhere else but decided to switch last minute— very glad I did
• they had me show up 2hrs before the procedure and took me to my pre-op room. I got into a gown, socks, and hair net. they took some urine, got me on the IV, took vitals. my BP was a little high (probably from anxiety) but didn’t cause alarm. closer to the surgery time I asked them to put some drugs in my IV to help with that
• before surgery, I got to speak with a nurse, the anesthesiologist, and my ENT/surgeon. they asked me some questions and answered any questions I had. anesthesiologist looked into my throat to make sure he had a clear path for the breathing tube. (this was my first time having one of those so I was a lil nervous. all good— in and out while I was asleep)
• when it was time for surgery nurses came and wheeled my bed into the op room. they got me laid out flat. I was still conscious at this time so I had small talk with my doc and the team for a little. somewhere in the middle of that I was out— no breathing mask, no countdown, the IV took me out before i noticed.
• suddenly regained consciousness in what I think was the same room. it felt like coming back from a nap so naturally I kept my eyes closed at first. then someone asked me if I was ready to go and I said yeah, so they wheeled me to my post-op room. that’s where they brought my mom back to meet me (she had been with me in the pre-op room). they gave me a Sprite and some crackers to check for nausea.
• another nurse came in to give me a pain pill (hydrocodone) and my post-op packet. he took my IV out and told me I could get dressed. after I was dressed they sent a wheelchair for me and another nurse wheeled me out to my mom’s car.
• had some moderate pain for the first couple hours, but I took 800mg ibuprofen when I got home and I basically had no pain after that. a steady little nosebleed until I went to bed. some slight rasp/throat clearing from the breathing tube but overall not much soreness.
• took a hydro before bed and also 4hrs later when I woke up in the middle of the night. slept with my head elevated just as a precaution— I didn’t have that much pressure. had pretty broken sleep, inside of my nose became dry/painful from all the dried blood and being advised not to stick anything in there. nothing unbearable tho. put a hot compress on my nose for a few minutes and that helped enough to get me back to sleep
day 1
• no real pain or pressure in the AM. some mild discomfort from the dried blood at first. nosebleed wasn’t as constant and came out clearer. took 800mg ibuprofen when I woke up
• back to eating regular food. I only ate soup, crackers, and pudding post-op the previous day just to re-acclimate my stomach, but had no real food restrictions. just nothing spicy and whatever I felt comfortable eating
• started post-op treatment 24hrs after the procedure. used my steam inhaler as needed and started sinus rinses 2x a day (used Brita water for the inhaler and distilled water for the rinses). doc told me I was allowed to lightly blow my nose after 24hrs. only blew during my sinus rinse
• more congestion on this day, mild headache after sinus rinse. alternated between ibuprofen and Tylenol every 3-4 hrs. hydro before bed
day 2
• woke up with a little more pressure in my face this day. slept through the previous night without much issue
• no more nosebleeds but some blood and mucus while doing sinus rinses. during the rinses I had some yellow mucus and couple blood clots but mostly clear
• more tired on this day, took an afternoon nap. think my body was trying to get back into regular REM cycles
day 3-6
• same routine— pain pills as needed, steam inhale when I felt like it, and sinus rinse a couple times a day
• had some slight congestion and cheek pressure, but nothing all that different than pre-surgery
• sinus rinses were uncomfortable at first but got easier over time. some water would get stuck in my sinuses and come out sometimes hours later
day 7
• had my first post-op appointment/debridement. can’t even lie it was mad uncomfortable but on an actual pain scale probably like a 7/10. lasted only about 3-5 mins total. the camera was sharp, the area was still sensitive, and the suctioning was crazy to hear and feel. I also think the numbing spray gun malfunctioned so it certainly would’ve been easier if I’d been numb, but I did take two Tylenol before the appointment
• I’m doing the rinses for another week and then going for another post-op in 3 weeks
if you read all the way here I hope this helps!

Just had a couple of questions to see if it’s similar for anyone else. Any answers really appreciated.

• Do your symptoms “jump around”? One day, my fingers will be sending stabbing sensations. Then my teeth are numb. Then it’s my toes. Then it’s my eye. Then it’s my calf. It just seems to hop around for me. Nothing is really consistent.
  
• nerve symptoms have been my only symptoms from the start. I also haven’t been affected by alcohol or even minimal amounts of marijuana. Would this rule out a b12 deficiency? I responded to low dose supplements by reversing out and having wake up symptoms. At least I think it was wake up symptoms rather than my symptoms just getting worse.
  

Thank you again

27 female UK - got dysautonomia (really bad heart symptoms) and gastroperisis (bad digestive symptoms) - 2 central nervous system disorders, from REALLY MILD COVID 2 years ago.
I've now been dealing with quite severe COVID for 7 days now. More than just cold symptoms. Arms going numb, visual hallucinations (I've never had these), in and out of fever like nightmare dreams, can't sleep for more than 6 hours, fever was 38.4 on the 6th day but not at the moment, conjunctivitis, headache that hasn't gone the whole time but was really severe day 3/4, teeth have killed for a week like all of them are so painful only co-dydramol is helping, can't stop blowing nose like 2 box of tissues in one day, cough becoming painful. Had worst sore throat, that's fine now though but has turned into painful cough, short of breath at times.
What's concerning me is the non-cold like symptoms, none of which my friend has. I.E conjunctivitis, arms going numb, hallucinations. Plus, the high fever so late into it on day 6. The fact I'm not getting better, wake up day 7 with conjunctivitis and friend has already completely cleared COVID, never got conjunctivitis or severe runny nose/headaches etc.
My friend caught it same time, and at day 5 she was better, no signs of it now - at day 7 I'm just getting worse. She had it much milder than me from the start, but we caught it at the same place the same night, fell ill the same day a few days after, but she likened it to a cold whereas I feel like it's literally attacking most parts of me, going deeper than a usual cold. Her teeth never hurt, she never got numb arms, or anything. I've done a lot more to get better, she was eating fish and chips, drinking alcohol, not taking vitamins, and she's fine now. Ive been eating mostly just fruit and veg, drinking electrolytes with vitamins in, zinc lozenges every 5 hours, taking 3 different vitamins throughout the day, tumeric tea, ginger shots, vaporrub on chest etc (for nose and head). And I'm actually getting WORSE on day 7.

27 female UK - got dysautonomia (really bad heart symptoms) and gastroperisis (really bad digestives symptoms) - 2 central nervous system disorders, from REALLY MILD COVID 2 years ago.
I've been dealing with severe COVID for 7 days now. Arms going numb, visual hallucinations (I've never had these), in and out of fever like nightmare dreams, can't sleep for more than 6 hours, fever was 38.4 on the 6th day but not at the moment, conjunctivitis, headache that hasn't gone the whole time but was really severe day 3/4, teeth have killed for a week like all of them are so painful only co-dydramol is helping, can't stop blowing nose like 2 box of tissues in one day, cough becoming painful. Had worst sore throat, that's fine now though but has turned into painful cough, short of breath at times.
What's concerning me is the non-cold like symptoms, none of which my friend has. I.E conjunctivitis, arms going numb, hallucinations. Plus, the high fever so late into it. The fact I'm not getting better, wake up day 7 with conjunctivitis and she has completely cleared COVID, never got conjunctivitis or severe runny nose/headaches etc.
My friend caught it same time, and at day 5 she was better, no signs of it now - at day 7 I'm just getting worse. She seemed to have it much milder than me from the start, but we caught it at the same place the same night, fell ill the same day a few days after, but she likened it to a cold whereas I feel like it's literally attacking most parts of me (I wish it just felt like a cold, lol.) I've done a lot more to get better, she was eating fish and chips, drinking alcohol, not taking vitamins etc. ive been eating mostly just fruit and veg, drinking electrolytes with vitamins in, zinc lozenges every 5 hours, taking 3 different vitamins throughout the day, tumeric tea, ginger shots, vaporrub on chest etc (for nose and head).

For context, I am a 20F Paramedic student. I will obviously not disclose where this happened or where I go to school to, but I felt the need to get this off my chest.
Recently, I had started my clinical rotations for this semester. It has been a very fun experience so far, as I’ve been able to practice my skills from the lab setting to the real life setting. Overall, it felt great to finally get my first IV in the hospital 😊 !
That being said, a traumatic code came in. Adult male shot in the face, torso, leg, and arm. He was young, I won’t say the age but he definitely had alot of life ahead of him. I felt terrible, I see many of my colleagues able to just brush it off. They are calloused, numb to it. I don’t want to end up like that, then unable to really empathize with my patients. I feel as though I could have given that man a hug goodbye, his life is over. We did everything. Us as students couldn’t do much either. It felt. Very saddening. I hate the feeling, but I also don’t want to just throw it away and become numb. The pain to me shapes me into working harder, but it still hurts quite a bit.
Before the night ended, we had another code come in. It was a female who was a bit on the older side, witnessed arrest so hands were on the chest immediately. That was the first save of my life, even if I was just doing ventilations. This feeling felt amazing. I don’t know exactly know what to feel, seeing a tragic death and a teeth clenching save.
I am sad but happy, and also very tired.

Hey guys, I start on the floor this wednesday with my preceptor. My first shift after those long modules and first time on the actual NICU unit.
Long story short- i got my wisdom teeth out 3 weeks ago and it was a botched surgery. I have been in immense pain daily that is getting worse every second - i am not exaggerating. I have been crying daily, taking Percocet daily and even that won’t control the pain.
Had a follow up today to find out my tooth is infected because the surgeon left a piece of tooth in and I need to get opened back up. I literally cannot think, eat , or sleep from the pain and I don’t know how i am supposed to do it for 3 days in a row when i can’t find any relief from any pain meds.
I am brand new, and a new grad, literally first week on the floor AND i have a vacation the following week (which i am considering cancelling from this pain). I would hate to be that person/nurse.
Should I call out? Should i suck it up and hope i pass out so they send me home? I can’t even begin to explain the excruciating and debilitating pain that i am in and i can’t imagine working 3 12s back to back.

Hi everyone. I am hoping someone could give me some insight . sorry it’s long, some of you might’ve helped me on my last post.
I had my 4 wisdom teeth removed 04/26 almost 4 weeks now. Since day 7 i have been in horrible pain coming from 17’s site , and every day seems to get worse. I went in for a check up at day 14 because pain was increasing in severity and becoming constant- surgeon says everything is fine (no sign of infection) and says this type of pain is normal for up to a month.
I am in EXCRUTIATING pain - pain meds wear off in less than 2 hours. I go to see my dentist (not surgeon) at week 3 because i couldn’t handle it anymore& surgeon wasn’t available. Dentist takes xray that shows a root tip is still inside of the side that is hurting.
Pre & post left side : https://imgur.com/a/2SUhCV2
I go to surgeon today & his tech takes an X ray only because i mentioned what I saw from my dentist’s xray. Some whispering about me between surgeon and assistant he finally comes in and he says he “intentionally left that in so as to prevent numbness”. He says “i put it in my notes i can show you”
But he didn’t explain anything to me day of procedure, or on my check up day when I first explained my worsening pain. simply dismissed the pain as recovery pain
He says he left it in but it COULD cause an infection in the future - but the root tip is not the source of the pain. i tell him the pain is unbearable Then he says the pain is the infection ??? but i was never told there was an infection? Says he can’t remove the tip until i finish a week of antibiotics so as to not drag the infection deeper.
I know there’s a lot of legality behind his answer and not wanting to get sued for malpractice whatever i GET that. I am a nurse. but can anyone tell me if his answer was likely the case? or was it a case of trying to cover his ass?
i am in so much pain i cry every day and have been basically bed bound from the oxy. Listening to my body i think i need the root tip out, it feels like it is rubbing against the tooth next to it and absolutely causing some sort of damage to the next tooth.
I don’t know what to do or if i should seek another surgeon ?
TLDR; nearing 4 weeks post wisdom teeth removal. 17 is causing me excruciating &debilitating pain. I JUST found out that the tip was left in.
https://imgur.com/a/2SUhCV2 Surgeon says it was “intentional” to not damage nerve but never explained this to me. Saw him little over a week ago when pain first started to get bad and he dismissed it as recovery pain. All of a sudden He says my pain is from infection & he won’t remove the tip unless i finish antibiotics. Was this actually intentional or did he likely not see it and accidentally left it in? Should I seek another surgeons opinion?

What is everyone doing when your babies teeth come in? My 7 month olds first one came in on the bottom row and it’s getting more and more painful to breastfeed.
He favours my right side, it’s also the side I produce more from. I’m trying to give him my left side more but he gets frustrated when he can’t pull milk as easily.
He’s also started biting and chewing on my nipple and now I’m having a hard time healing it when I’m still nursing him every 3 hours.
It’s really only sore for the first like minute when he latches on and at the end if he started chewing and I have to work him off of it. But still sore in between nursing from friction. I’m using a prescription healing ointment that also numbs but it only helps so much.
What are people doing to help with this?

What is everyone doing when your babies teeth come in? My 7 month olds first one came in on the bottom row and it’s getting more and more painful to breastfeed.
He favours my right side, it’s also the side I produce more from. I’m trying to give him my left side more but he gets frustrated when he can’t pull milk as easily.
He’s also started biting and chewing on my nipple and now I’m having a hard time healing it when I’m still nursing him every 3 hours.
It’s really only sore for the first like minute when he latches on and at the end if he started chewing and I have to work him off of it. But still sore in between nursing from friction. I’m using a prescription healing ointment that also numbs but it only helps so much.
What are people doing to help with this?

The Zoo - A NoSleep story
***
Full job description:
Immediate Opening!
Night shift zoo managesecurity. All-weather foot patrol opportunity for a “night-owl”, who enjoys working outdoors and with minimal supervision.
Under general direction of the manager of the zoo, the Security Guard patrols the zoo grounds on a regular basis throughout the shift. Responds in a timely and professional manner to a wide variety of routine and emergency situations.
Requirements: BA in wildlife, biology, etc, which provides the required knowledge, skills, and background for this position. Valid Florida Driver’s License with good driving record is desirable. First Aid and CPR certification preferred.
The qualified candidate has the ability to use independent judgment in handling routine as well as the capacity to perform under stress when confronted with an emergency, unusual, or dangerous situation. Ability to oversee animals’ well-being, monitor conditions, create enrichment activities, and exercise safety precautions.
The Security Guard must be able to walk and remain on feet a full shift (up to 8 hours), and potentially up to 12 hours at a time. Must be able to exert a minimum of 50 pounds of force and able to lift, push or pull, or otherwise move objects that may exceed 50 lbs. Ability to negotiate all areas of the zoo in all weather conditions.
Note: Zoo is haunted.
***
Starting with the job posting makes sense, I guess. I spotted it on Indeed while making my daily check for anything and everything that would hire someone with my biology degree, and it seemed on the up and up. Their website looked decent, the guy on the phone sounded nice, and I was looking for anything even slightly related to working with wildlife. Being a nightshift guard at a zoo was fine, especially when I took the incredibly generous rate of $25/hr. into account. That’s eleven bucks more than my dad makes at the local grocer, and he’s been working there for thirteen years. Then again, from the P.S. on the posting, I thought there might be good reason for the rate.
When it comes to ghosts, they’ve never made much sense to me. Considering how badly our brains function from just getting jostled around on a football field, I’m not sure how ghosts could exist without a brain at all. I’d be excited as the next person to find proof, but YouTube videos are always fishy and the people on TV are essentially actors who only focus on the entertainment factor for their ratings. So, since I’d never seen anything that vaguely resembled a ghost, I’d say binge-watching Supernatural on Netflix last year was the extent of my experience in that department.
It seemed that the zoo hadn’t been here for long since it wasn’t even on Google Maps yet. There was a bit of a commute, it was half an hour away, but since I’d worked local jobs while I attended college online for the past four years, I’d saved up the money to buy a car. It wasn’t anything fancy, just an old Nissan sedan that I’d bought from someone in the next town over, with faded red paint and a mismatched back right door painted blue. It accomplished the job of transportation, though, which let me search the job market further away, a good thing considering how small a town I lived in. I really didn’t want to leave home yet, so moving for a job in a city or another state wasn’t an appealing option.
The website said very little. It had yet to fill in drop down menus that would excitedly describe their attractions. So far it only had some small sections about conservation and education, though that was intriguing because it mentioned that all the animals they had were endangered. I read that notation and wondered what the animals were. Mammals were always favorites of mine, which I know is a bit of a cliché, loving the furry ones. But when it comes down to it, I’ll take any animal over a person.
The employee entrance to the zoo was a door in the large steel fence that surrounded the property, a few yards down from the sliding gate that presumably opened to let visitors in. I pressed the button on a panel beside it, glancing up at the camera, and I was buzzed in. There was a short path that led to the building near the front and I knocked politely before going inside.
The interviewer, a plain metal nameplate on his desk describing him as Director of Security for the zoo, welcomed me in. He gestured to one of the two loveseats in front of the desk before he sat smoothly into his chair on the other side. His name was Andrew Higgs, and he had a British accent, which I thought was cool. I sat in one of the two loveseats in front of the desk.
Andrew was dressed business casual, with a blue Polo shirt, a thin black jacket, and I saw he was wearing slacks when he stood up to shake my hand. He was black, with dreadlocks that stopped just short of his shoulders, and a closely trimmed mustache. There was a tattoo, an artistic rendition of a hippo, on the right side of his neck, which bode well in my opinion. So many places hiring these days were overly uptight about their employees’ appearance, but it seemed that wouldn’t be the case here.
We went over the basics before he picked up the piece of paper off his desk, my resume, which he’d printed out. “Well, I spoke to all three of your references,” Andrew noted. “They had some good things to say. You were a great employee on the farm you worked last summer, your boss said. Punctual, hard-working, took instructions well…”
That was nice to hear. I’d spent this past summer working at a dairy farm, mostly assigned to the goats and cows they kept for milk. Aside from the staggering muscle pain that tapered from agony to merely miserable by the end of the summer, it wasn’t a bad job. I did have an old shoulder injury that I always had to work around, but it was my left shoulder and I was a righty, so it wasn’t that difficult to manage.
If anything, the muscle pain in my back and legs from being on my feet all day distracted from the typical issue I dealt with. My standard exercising day-to-day was typically either riding my bike or yoga, although yoga is mind-numbingly boring, so I need to listen to a podcast to pass the time. So, in fact, through the job, I was sort of grateful that my brain was focusing on a different area of my body that was in pain. Yeah, chronic pain is weird.
“He also said you don’t work well with others,” Andrew added, glancing up to me. “You kept submitting complaints about incompetent coworkers?”
I pursed my lips and let out a long breath through my nose, considering the most delicate way I was capable of replying to that before saying, “I dislike stupid people.”
Andrew gave me a half-smile and sighed, replying, “Well, I must confess I’m not fond of them either.” He looked back down to the paper. “This job will be a great fit for you.”
The job interview seemed like a formality, and I don’t know why. I was twenty-three and the ink had barely dried on my degree from the online college I’d attended. I’d been applying to jobs for months and had been thrilled when I’d gotten a call for an interview for this one, but also surprised. Call me a cynic, but I expected more invasive questions about any past work I’d done for a job in security, since I was a woman.
It's not like I was petite. Actually, the most common word I’d heard to describe me is ‘built’, and I fall short of being labeled overweight only because of muscle mass. One comment I recall from high school was being teased for being shaped like a rectangle. Even so, there was no good reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, but of course, me being me, that meant I examined its teeth closely.
“So, you’re hiring me? Just like that? Why?”
Andrew, chuckled. “Look, you’ve got BA in wildlife biology, and specializing in animal behavior is just the cherry on the sundae. That tells me you know animals are not people, and even if you feel like you know them, they can still be unpredictable. They can hurt you. But also, it makes me know you care.”
I suppose that did make sense, and it was true, so I’m glad he knew that. Most of my job on the night shift would be watching cameras and then walking around the place to make sure all the animals were as they should be, but it was more than that. Working at a zoo meant knowing where the line was, and sometimes it wasn’t exactly at the fence, but sometimes just putting a single finger through that fence meant losing that finger. As a whole, humans are generally idiots. Looking at you, anyone who really, honestly thinks that a bobcat would sense your boundless love enough to let you pat it.
“The website didn’t have much about the animals,” I said. “I know this place is new, so you might not have info on them up on the site yet. Do you have a map for me?”
“Oh, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Andrew said with a wave of his hand. At that point, it had seemed to be a reasonable thing for him to say, but I will tell you, the reason was not what I thought. “Just to confirm, you’re not an early bird, Miss Mason? This schedule isn’t a concern?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m pretty talented at sleeping in, actually. I never really got past that teenage talent of staying up until five and sleeping in until three. And you can just call me Ripley.”
That made him smile. “Good. Then I won’t worry about you falling asleep on the job, Ripley.”
“Oh, no way.”
“All right. So. You saw the note at the end of the job posting?”
He just stared at me and I was forced to answer, “That the zoo is haunted.”
“Right. What are your thoughts on that?”
There was no easy answer to that question, especially depending on how seriously he took it. “Do you know the best word the Brits gave to us?”
“What’s that?”
“Bollocks.”
Andrew slowly smiled and pointed at me with the end of the pen in his hand. “I think I’m going to like you,” he remarked. “Look…this is the part of the interview where we switch gears. If this was a regular zoo, you’d be a shoo-in for the job. But we’ve got other boxes to check. This outfit is…basically a preservation society. As you saw on the site, all the species are endangered, but what it didn’t say online is that the only people who come to visit are private parties.”
“So, that means…what?” I asked. “You bring in super-rich people who feel special when they get to see the animals you’re rehabilitating and taking care of? Then they donate oodles of money so they can brag to their rich friends about their charity contributions and having seen the animals here?”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “Pretty much got it in one. It’s just more preservation and less rehabilitation. And a lot of our patrons really do care about the animals, or else they would just donate and not visit. You’ll see tourists a couple times a week, but we decided not to have anyone until we’re settled in here, and that means a person who’s on during the night shift that I can count on. And I don’t know if I can count on you yet.”
“Wait, I’ll see the tourists?” I asked. “They visit at night?”
“Everything we have is nocturnal,” he told me. That struck me as odd, but he continued before I could question it. “Listen up, and I’ll start with the basics. Have you ever seen anything weird? Possibly supernatural?”
“Nope,” I said with a shrug.
The fact is, I got along with my classmates, but I never did have any close friends. So, I thought maybe that’s why I missed out on all those reckless teen moments that started every horror movie. Maybe it left me without a bunch of exciting stories to tell. But hey, at least I didn’t break my leg falling through the floor of an abandoned building in eleventh grade.
Yes, that happened. It was a classmate of mine by the name of Brent. And yes, he’s just as much of a moron as you would imagine.
“If you see the ghost here,” he said, his tone emphatic, “will you freak out?”
I paused. “You’ve seen the ghost?”
“All the time,” Andrew told me. “It’s a young woman in a blue shirt and tan slacks, looks like she just walked out of a lake.”
“Do you have a picture?”
“No, and absolutely no photos or video are to be taken of her,” he said, his tone abruptly turning stern. “It’s cause for immediate dismissal. We have video cameras for security, but they all record off-site in a secure location, and Suzanne Cooper, the owner, manages it herself. Firstly, the ghost deserves privacy rather than exploitation, she’s not to be displayed like one of our animals, but secondly, people believe in ghosts. One leaked photo of her connecting it to us means we get overrun by ghost hunters, and if we trace it back to you, you’re done.”
Andrew seemed next-level serious about that, so I nodded. “Understood. That makes sense.”
The animals were the priority after all, I knew. I preferred them over people anyway, and that included dead people. Even if I could get a video of this ghost doing cartwheels back and forth through a wall, I would never post it and spread word of where I’d taken it. Andrew was right; the zoo would never get the paranormally-obsessed to stay away and would definitely have to relocate.
He continued, “If you’re curious, she’s never so much as tried to hurt anyone. But the zoo has moved before, and she moved with us.”
“She moved with you?” I asked, my eyebrows rising. “Is it like one of those stories where she’s attached to something in the zoo rather than a place?”
“More complicated than that,” he said. Then he grimaced. “She died because she was too ambitious with one of our animals. It never should have happened, but she… She was foolish, you’d say. Attempted to interact with one of the animals, got too close, and honestly, she should have known better. I thought she did.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “What killed her?”
He stared at his hands and shook his head. “It was before my time.”
It was clear Andrew was a true believer, but I still really wasn’t sure at that point. How was I supposed to react, though? Zoos have fences and tall barriers for a good reason. Not just to keep the animals away from us, but also the other way around, and ‘death by stupidity’ is not uncommon amongst humans. So, the story wasn’t outrageous, but still, I’d never so much as experienced something unexplainable. But if I saw a ghost, I suppose that’d be that.
“I just need to know, plain and simple, if you’re the kind of person who can handle things that are terrifying,” Andrew told me, splaying his hands. “Our last night shift bloke there was with us for years and years, but we spent months going through other employees. There were six we tried before we found him.”
“Six?” I exclaimed.
He snorted. “Yes, six. Let’s see…” Andrew counted off each one on his fingers. “The first two, the first night they saw the ghost, they lost it. One called me in a panic, babbling, and I had to get out of bed and drive to the zoo to send him home, and the second quit, although at least she made it to the next morning and didn’t drag me out here,” he said, his voice thoughtful. “They just thought I was blowing smoke up their bums with the whole thing.”
He shrugged. “Then, the third one was a bloke who was asleep when I got there in the morning, so I had to fire him. Then another ghost freak-out. The fifth bloke was someone who couldn’t deal with the animals, and then the sixth was so scared of the ghost that when I got here, he was already outside the zoo, pacing, waiting for my car. Apparently he’d said some stuff, rude or mean or whatnot, to try to get her to leave him alone and she had followed him back into the security room, so he fled. I need the opposite of those folks. Alright?”
At this point, I was starting to take it more seriously. Sure, this could just be Andrew’s thing, that he believed in ghosts and then made up these sightings to ensure I believed him. But if I saw her? What would I do?
Well, this would be my job, so I would have to take it seriously. Maybe that was why the pay was so good, to make employees think twice before ditching it. From Andrew’s perspective, if it really was haunted, he was the one who had to deal with applicant after applicant quitting as soon as they laid eyes on the guest who would never leave.
“So…honestly, I can’t say I won’t freak out, considering how next level this is,” I told him, feeling compelled to go with honesty, “but yeah. I think I can handle it, mostly because it’s important for someone to look after this place, look after the animals, so I’d do my best to work around anything that freaks me out. I mean, I have to say that I’ll believe it when I see it. But if ghosts really exist, as long as it isn’t some serial killer who stuck around to keep gutting people, I’ve always thought it’d be cool to find out we can exist after we die.”
The thing is, I think I did believe him. I thought there might really be a ghost there, because otherwise, why take it so seriously? It could’ve been that Andrew had only glimpsed her out of the corner of his eye a few times and could ascribe it to lack of sleep, but he was literally worried about word getting out. I thought that being halfway to believing him would give me the mental preparation I needed if I saw her. At least, I’d hoped so.
It turned out that most of my time would be spent at the security desk in the main building, near the entrance. Real-time footage from thirty-five cameras around the zoo all played on a large screen that was five cameras across and seven cameras top to bottom. The cameras were impressive. I would mention the resolution, say something about them being 4K, but Andrew explained some stuff about how it’s actually the lens that is the biggest selling point. Looking at these cameras on the giant screen, I could see practically every corner of the place, and if I brought up one camera in particular to encompass 2/3 of the screen, I could zoom in so far that it felt like I could use it to check if one of the animals had fleas.
The zoo was well lit, not surprising considering nighttime was apparently the zoo’s business hours, not all of the tall lamps had red bulbs. For those of you who know why, A+ to you. For those who don’t, fun fact, it’s because red is closest to the dark and your eyes don’t need to strain to adjust to it. That meant I didn’t need my flashlight all that often, and even that was red, a solid name-brand one that had been on my desk when I arrived. I kept the white lights on back in the security room, though, because I didn’t want to make my brain think it was time to get tired.
When I headed out for my first sweep on that first night, I had the folded map in my pocket, but I already knew my way around. The layout of the zoo wasn’t that difficult to memorize, since there were only eleven expansive enclosures, and after the interview I walked around for half an hour to start training my memory. I’ll admit, working in a dark environment was creepier than I thought it would be.
I do want to mention the high quality of the zoo. The size of each enclosure was considerable, and the greenery was natural, hinting that they’d hired a pricey professional just to do landscaping toward the front of the enclosures after buying the land. The backs of the enclosures backed up into forestry, and from the estimate I got from Andrew, it seemed each of the animals had plenty of roaming space, including the small lake at the northwest corner and a manmade lake for one of the animals in particular. When I considered all of that, the thought passed through my head about how horrible it would be if word got out about the zoo having a ghost and needing to relocate, because it’d be devastatingly expensive.
My orders were to walk the zoo once every hour. This was my first security gig, so I’m not sure if that’s more or less than typical, but I had my comfy hiking boots on, the ones I’d saved up for and invested in a couple years earlier and were perfect for a job where I had to do laps around an area. This job was one that I didn’t have to worry about my shoulder pain worsening, since it was mostly about being on my feet. I take one or two Vicodin a day, depending on how bad my pain is. It came in handy in high school, actually. With a flexible ‘take as needed’ prescription, I occasionally sold pills for extra cash.
There wasn’t much to step in and there weren’t even any dips in the concrete sidewalks that I followed around in a route that easily led me back and forth until I made my way back to the office. The first three nights were actually boring. I would have thought Andrew had been pranking me about the ghost, but like I said, it hadn’t felt like that. And he hadn’t been specific about when she showed up for new people, or even for him.
To keep myself busy, I’d brought my e-reader with me, and I got into a cycle of looking over each of the cameras every time I hit the end of a chapter. I’m a pretty fast reader, so it was a good system. Also, every once in a while, I looked up if something moving caught my eye, like an owl flying close enough for the camera to catch it, but that’s about it.
Then, every hour on the hour, I did a walk through. The fourth night, I was passing by the small lake at the back left corner of the property when I saw her.
People say that you can tell if someone’s staring at you, that there’s some sixth sense humans have. It’s not true; they’ve done experiments. But the thing is, all those experiments were of someone human looking at them. But now I think that the sixth sense that sends goosebumps down your arms, the one that makes you feel an intangible pressure, that slides your body toward fight or flight mode, might be true of…other things.
Slowly coming to a stop at the disturbing feeling, I hesitantly looked around, through the trees. Then my heart skipped a beat and my breath hitched. It was startling because she wasn’t moving. Just standing among the trees, staring at me. I broke out in a cold sweat as I stared back at her, unsure what to do. I didn’t run. I didn’t try to talk to her. I just stood there. So, there’s my answer to Andrew: I didn’t freak out. I just froze.
The woman was Latina, her skin tone pallid from death, and was dressed as he’d described her, in slacks and a silky blue blouse. And she was soaked, as if she’d just walked out of the lake. Beyond that, her shirt was drenched in blood from what looked like claw marks across her abdomen. Her eyes were dark and penetrating, boring holes into me, as if she were able to get any and all knowledge that she wanted about me simply by glaring. The fabric of her shirtsleeves clung to her skin and was dripping, as was her long black hair. Speaking of her hair, it appeared to have seaweed woven into it, or maybe she also grew seaweed along with hair. Not my area of expertise.
The look on her face was indescribable. There was something deep in her eyes, behind her closed-off expression, that made my heart beat rapidly. Maybe I would’ve projected some emotion into her face if I’d had any idea of what she was capable of, whether she could move objects, or possess me, or if all she did was hang around. As things stood, I was left just projecting my fears, which gave me the impression that she was cross with me simply for being present. It felt like I was trespassing, even though I was a dozen feet back from the fence that encircled the enclosure. And also, this was my job so I was explicitly allowed to be here.
She was disturbingly close, and remained unnaturally still. If she had attacked me, I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done. Ran, probably, but considering ghosts probably don’t follow the laws of physics, maybe she could’ve chased me at Usain Bolt speed. For all I knew, she could teleport.
After an amount of time that felt awkwardly long, I finally spoke up.
“Hi,” I croaked.
The woman slowly tilted her head but didn’t otherwise move. I’d forgotten to ask Andrew for her name, I realized, but he had mentioned her death had been before his time, so maybe he didn’t know.
Swallowing hard, I tried to take a slow, deep breath, even though it felt like there was a cinder block on my chest. “So, I, uh…I work here now,” I said slowly. “I’m night shift security.” Pausing, I kept trying to gather information from her demeanor but failed. “Is that okay?”
At that, I saw a hint of curiosity flash across her face. “Why would it not be?” Her voice sounded completely normal, which was an off-putting contrast to her appearance.
Good question. Hell if I know the answer. “I don’t know. I mean…you were here first. I don’t know if you feel like I’m…intruding…or something.”
“You’re just doing your job,” she said, her tone softening a smidge.
I waited to see if she wanted to say anything else before saying, “Right.” Can I get you anything? A towel? Some bandages? “I’ll be going now.”
The woman made no movement to come after me as I gradually took one step, then another, keeping her in my sights as I walked off. I finally had to turn to face forward, unable or unwilling to be seen by her foolishly walking away backwards. Instead of continuing my sweep, I took the path that would lead me back to the security room. I kept looking behind me and felt her eyes on me all the way back, though I didn’t see her following me. At that point, even if she hadn’t moved an inch, my brain was on red alert when it came to self-preservation and figured I would continue to feel like a wet hand might grab me from behind at any moment.
Finally, I returned to the security room, swiping my card across the panel at the back door with a beep. Opening the door, darting inside, and slamming it behind me, I walked to the far side of the room and turned around, putting my back to the wall. Until I’d gotten back, I hadn’t noticed how fast I’d been walking, how quickly I’d been gasping for air. Leaning back against the wall, my legs turned to jelly and I slowly slid to the floor.
And that was it. My first sighting of the ghost. I’d thought that if I had seen her, there would be some part of me that was skeptical, that would reason my way out of it, convinced it was a prank. But I knew. She wasn’t a person. At least, not anymore.

Panel:
Narrator: Naivi’s playful spirit never waned. After his fathers disappearance, snow had become his best friend.
(Visual: a soothing scene of Naivi amassing A SNOW FIGURE. No words.
Snow ball building in size.
Piling them on top of each other.
Putting sticks on as arms.
Adding pieces of coal for eyes.
-And finally a carrot.)
Page 48.
Panel:
Naivi 13 years old: I did it.
(Visual: Older looking Naivi with a big smile on his face and a look of satisfaction.)
Panel:

• Finally the marvellous titan snow-spider is finished!!

SFX: “Slip!”
Oh!
(Visual: Naivi falling from the top of the tall snow figure.)
Ai, Ai, Ai!
Panel:
Naivi in a playful manner: Damn you snow spider! You embarrassed me in front of my crew!
-Next time we meet, I’ll be the one having the last laugh! Hahahaha!
Page 49.
Panel:
Narrator: The crew he was talking about…
Naivi: Am’ I right guys?!’’’
(Visual: Four snowmen on horses standing in row silent. Wind breezes past them.)
Panel:
Naivi: I gotta show this one to my Ma! Hopefully she’s fit enough to come outside today!
(Visual: Running away leaving snowmen behind him. One of the snow-man’s stick arms looks as if it was reaching for Naivi.)
Panel:
(Visual: Naivi running past countless snow sculptures made by him. )
Panel:
( Visual: Naivi then sees a bunch of bullies destroying his creations.)
Page 50.
Panel:
Bully 1: These are the wicked snow totems that I was telling y'all about! Made by the ghost of the frozen child!
Head of the bullies: Let’s destroy them all and we’ll be celebrated for breaking the curse of this town!
# 2 Arc what’s the problem?
Panel:
Bully 2: My momma said that the streak of bad luck that this town has been cursed with is down to the winter's evil spirits living in these hills!
Panel:
Head of the bullies: My father said that one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse lived here! And that his cursed spirit rides through the night keeping an eye on his snowy-hill till the end of the days past.
(Bullies all together and Naivi who has snuck in to the group without them noticing): SCARY!
((( Naivis PA has been scaring the people of the town to not come to the hills. Protecting his family from trouble. )))
Panel:
Bullies: Huh?’ Who are you?
Naivi: Oh, H-Hello there fellow children of the town! None of that is true!
Panel:
Bullies all together: The ghost of the frozen child!! IIIK!!
Page 51.
Panel:
Naivi: I-Im not a ghost. See touch me, don't go through right…’
Bully 2: Yikes don’t touch me!!! DON’T! …Huh? He’s right… Strange… I guess he’s not a ghost after all…
Panel:
Head of the bullies: Hmph! D- Doesn’t matter if he’s g-ghost or not!
Naivi: ?
Bullys: Yeah!

• Your fathers lies about the hidden gem mountain caused my brother’s to travel to the wild world and they have never come back since!
• After all these years no one has still found it and countless lives are still thrown to waste in the hopes of finding the treasure!
• Because of your father and the other riders the railroads were destroyed and all of the traction in this town died down! Majority of the families can’t even afford to eat daily anymore!

Page 52.
Panel:
Head of the bullies: I saw my father being eaten alive by a wendigo! All because of your stupid father’s stupid lies!
Panel:
(Visual: Bullies start throwing snowballs at naivi)
SFX: BLASH!
Panel:
Visual: Naivi’s blank expression as the snowballs hit his face. Eyes wide grinding his teeth.
SFX: BLASH!
Panel:
Naivi: I didn’t know…
(Visual: Naivis face full of snow similar to father in previous scene this time with a somber feeling.)
Panel:
Mother arrives.
-Leave my son alone, thank you.
Panel:
Ahhh! the cursed mother of the mountains, Don’t look at her eyes or you’ll be turned into a snow sculpture!
Panel:
(Visual: Bullies run away…)
Panel:
(Visual: Mother is sick coughing heavy)
Page 53.
Panel:
(Visual: Mother faints)
Naivi: Ma?!
(Visual: scene fades out…)
Panel:
(Visual: Back home doctor tells mother once again to lay still and not to go out in the cold. It only worsens her condition.)
Naivi: Is it true what they said ma?
Where the four horsemen really villains?
Ma: Well, they were out-laws… in the end. Cough Cough!
Naivi: Was Pa a bad guy then?
Ma: What? Your father was a great man. What did the bullies-
Naivi: Was? You don’t believe anymore that he’s coming back do you?
Ma: That’s not what I meant… and you know that darling.
Panel:
(Naivi in his thoughts, goes out the door.)
Naivi: Sorry ma, Imma go out… To play…
Ma: Naivi… Cough Cough Cough! Don’t be out for too long, the sun is setting down.
(Visual: Door slams shut.)
Ma: I hope he’s okay… Darn it! I will go after him. Cough Cough!!
Doctor: No. You need to lay down. Child is healthy when it plays. If the kid stops moving you should be concerned. Call me then again here is my business card.
Page 54.
Panel:
(Visual: Walking in melancholy through broken snow sculptures all destroyed by bullies while he was gone.)
X ( shadowy figure ): Why the long face kid?
Naivi: Huh… Who are you?
X: Just an old family friend… Passing by these borders on my way through… Do you mind telling me, why you look like you just sold your whole ranch in a bad deal?
Naivi: Heh. No big deal mister… I was a big fan of the dime novels that told about the 4 horsemen. And -
X: Really? My children love those books too. Their favourite rider is the one with the long scythe. Don’t know if I should be worried for them or be proud, Zeh zeh zeh!
Naivi: …Oh for real? Today I got attacked by some butt hurt bullies who told me that the riders were villains in real life…
X: …? Go on...
Naivi: The worst part is that my father was one of them! They said such horrible things about my father… That hurt in a way I’ve never felt before! My Pa didn’t have an ounce of evil in him. I can’t believe the stories. I won’t. They must be untrue…
X: You know what kid…
Naivi: What?
X: They were right!
Naivi: Huh?´
X: Here! If you’re curious about the truth… Put my hat on and it will show you just a glimpse of the evil the four riders have done to our world!
(Visual: shadowy figure hands Naivi his hat. Hat is infested with insects pouring out of it.)
Naivi: …
(Visual: Naivis expression of curiosity mixed with horror. Don't put the hat on…)
X: What is the problem? You don’t like the things living under my hat? These insignificant little fleas? Don’t worry they don’t bite awfully hard… It becomes quite a relaxing sensation due time… -Believe me or not.
Naivi: I like to play with bugs during summer. it’s not that what I’m worried about…
X: Then what makes you so hesitant? Are you scared of me…!?
-Or what the hat might truly show you?
Naivi: I’m not scared of some stupid old hat! ( Visual: Puts the hat on. )
Naivi: !!!
(Visual: picture of pair of giant size, horrorful looking monsters (( we see their silhouettes )) destroying a city in the 5 * state. )
Naivi: Gasp! Huf Huf!
(Visual: Naivi is back in the snowy forest. Shadowy figure isn’t there anymore)
Naivi: What was that, some sort of black magic?? It all happened so quickly!
-Huff Huff… What did I just see… And where am I?
(Visual: Naivi looks around but doesn’t recognise where he is in the vast white forest. Naivi is lost. Starts walking around)
(Visual: Naivi sees a massive snowdrift sparkling in the light of the sun setting down. Sees a tunnel going inside it.)
Naivi: At least the hidden gem mountain… I-It has to be real.
(Visual: He whispers looking at the sparkling snow mountain ahead of him.)
Page 55.
Narrator: Naivi decided to explore the tunnel going inside the massive snowdrift. Imagining himself as the legendary rider, whose story he had heard from his father a long time ago, digging deeper and deeper as if a treasure awaited for him at the other end of the tunnel. Naivi was fully engrossed in the play. Feeling better already.
Narrator: As the hours passed and the last rays of the sun light came down, the sky had turned into moonlight. The original idea of finding the treasure went through a metamorphic change.
Narrator: It felt like someone on the other side of the dark tunnel was waiting for him. A cold shiver ran down Naivis' spine. He could barely see anything but felt something was staring back at him at the other end of the dark tunnel.
Page 56.
Panel:
-N…N… NAAAA...IIIIV…IIII…
Narrator: A HORRIFYING CRACKLING VOICE CALLED HIS NAME. THE SOUND CAME FROM BEHIND.
NAIVI, TREMBLING IN FEAR, SLOWLY TURNED HIS HEAD TOWARDS THE NOISE.
HAUNTING LOOKING SNOWMAN FILLED THE EXIT OF THE TUNNEL, STARED AT HIM WITH LIFELESS COAL FILLED EYES AND SMILE.
THE SNOWMAN REACHED ITS ARM MADE OUT OF BRANCHES AND STICKS. IT SLOWLY STUTTERED:

• G...GET... OU... OU...OUT OFFF HEREEEE......

Naivi: AAAHHH!
Narrator: This shock triggered Naivi into panic, accidentally kicking one of the pillars down that was holding the tunnel up, causing it to collapse.
Page 57.
… sfx: exhale
…sfx: inhale
Narrator: Buried in the snow, Naivi experienced oxygen deprivation, immense pressure in his bones, as if all of them were shattered into small pieces. His internal organs were slowly shutting down one at a time.
Sfx: Heavy breathing trying to inhale: pff! pff! pff!
Narrator: During this long and painful ordeal, the only place the young boy could escape to was once again his own imagination. Questions started to arise in the bleak state of the mind. Wondering why the snow, his only friend could betray him like this. He was angry, scared, and physically all broken.
Sfx: heavy breathing continues: pff pffff!
Page 58.
Naivis thoughts: I'm numb to anything but pain and this freezing cold! Breathing feels like somebody shot my lungs full of holes. Did something pierce my stomach or what is this feeling in my gut…
And what in tarnation was that thing…?!
It left me here in the cold to suffocate on itself!
No matter what I do I can’t move!
This pressure is killing me slowly but surely!
I can’t take this much any-longer!
I hate that I can’t do anything about this above everything!!!
Can I please not die here alone! Please-! Please. Please…
…”sobbing”
…Why?
Why do I feel like this? Not just now… But all the time… Ever since… Pa…
I feel so cold and alone. Heh. I guess you can relate to that…
-I am so sorry snow.
SFX: … Inhale…
Page 59.
Naivi: Maybe I am Snow's only friend... It was in the end my only one… Maybe “Snow“ didn't want to be left alone this summer... It was late after all… Maybe it just wanted to tuck me in for the night… Like a loving parent covering a sleeping child… with a soft blanket... Maybe my parents are just a shovel away from reaching and rescuing me. Maybe I can rest my eyes just for a bit… before I’ll… Be free…
Narrator: During the long and cold night, Naivi found peace.
sfx: long exhale… and inhale.
Page 60.
Narrator: As the morning sun rose,
A hand pulled Naivi out of the snowdrift.
Shadowy Figure: Who are you playing hide and seek with boy!
SFX: Wooosh!
…
Visual: Naivi laying on the ground unconscious.
…Oh
…He is visiting El Diablos doorsteps. Zeh!
-Better not get mixed in with this matter and let the kid pass the spiritual line in peace.
-Even if I tried to help, the boy would suffer for the rest of his life with that pulverized body.
-This world has no space for the broken ones…
(Visual: Shadowy figure is about to continue on its way.)
Page 61.
Naivi: HELP MEEE!!!
Shadowy Figure: !? (shocked that Naivi was conscious)

• I HAVE TO SEE THE WILD WORLD! I CAN’T DIE HERE!!!

Shadowy Figure: You scared the living out of me… Not many humans have managed to do that.
Visual: Naivi breathing heavy with a immense look of determination in his eyes
SFX: PffPfff!
Shadowy Figure: Consider my curiosity peaked! Tell me kid, what could possibly make a child’s final wish desire to travel to the most dangerous place on earth?!
Naivi: The stories I've heard... Cough Cough! My throat iTs FROZEN… Cant speak. Cough cough!
Page 62.
Shadowy Figure: Keep going.
Naivi: Ghhh!

• Wild World might be the only place in the world where I can find a solution to my mothers illness. Or maybe I'll just dig up so much gold that my mother won’t have to worry about me anymore. Maybe… -Cough Cough- Maybe I’ll find out what happened to my father there!

Shadowy Figure: Ahaa…Yawn… So very chivalrous of you kid. ( in a sarcastic bored tone )
Cough Cough! But what I want the most…-Cough Cough Cough!
Visual: Shadowy Figure: ( eyes start to glimmer as if he heard the reason)
NAIVI: IT IS TO!!!!-
Page 63.
Panel:
SHADOWY FIGURE: -That's enough, frozen child!
It’s bad business to spill your ambitions of the future with your competition. You never know who's listening…
-I can see your true character now! Save your breath and hear what I’m bound to tell you.
Panel:
Naivi: Cough! Agh! It hurts so bad everywhere…

• Tell me about it, kid! Been there and done that. But! Now you have the perfect chance to rebuild your whole body. Make it strong and flexible, so you can wrestle with beasts larger than life!

Panel:
Naivi: My eyes… vision… blurring….
-That’s even better! If you want to experience the wonders of the wild world, you’ll have to lose sight of this familiar shore. It’s the only way to discover majestic new seas!
Panel:
Naivi: I promise! Cough cough! Besides, I hate snow, I don't want to live in this cold and dark place anymore…
…
Shadowy Figure: Gee… I guess it’s useless trying to preach to a child… Stop crying about things outside of your control!
Panel:
Naivi: ?

• Don’t get me wrong. You faced something where death was certainty and you could have done nothing about it.

You embraced the deadly outcome with unconditional love that is how one escapes even death.
Those are few who can face their demise and fall in love with it.
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

• One half wit once told me that…

Naivi: cough…
Page 64.
Don't forget your time buried under the snow! For in that place, you've reached a power that the mightiest of men try to seek their whole lives… Preserve your connection with nature! Don't bear a grudge against it! Remember this and a day will come! When you’re ready to take on the challenge-
of taming the whole wild world to your imagination!!!
…
-Are you following me frozen child???
…
-You’re sleeping aren’t you!? Where the f I’m supposed to take you now??
(Visual: Shadowy figure carrying Naivi on his shoulder while snow is gently coming down. Third figure appears walking towards them. They cross paths without saying anything to each other. Next page we see that the third figure is Naivi from the future. Naivi Is much older now. He has become a young man)

Hi, last Friday I had a root canal performed on #37 molar (my last molar on the left side - never had wisdom teeth if any way relevant). The reason being that I had an infection on that tooth 10 years ago, had a root canal following and 3 years ago part of it broke so now I need a crown so I don’t lose it. So the dentist recommended retreatment and reconstruction for the crown. On the day of the procedure, the anaesthesia numbness slowly went away in approximately 5 hours and I started feeling some throbbing so I took ibuprofen. The next morning when I brushed my teeth I felt a sudden electrical shock on my cheek going down to my chin. Then, I realised that my inner cheek feels a little numb and when I touch a certain part of it with my toungue towards the back I can trigger the same sensation. Later on I realised that my gums and small part on the side of my tongue are numb a little. When I’m just sitting doing nothing from time to time I feel weird sensations on my cheek, on my jaw down to my chin on the outside, similar to vibration and tingles. I am planning on asking for an xray tomorrow when I’m going for a crown related consultation, but I wanted to ask if this may be something serious or it might go away on its own after a while. Also trying to ease off some anxiety. *I don’t smoke or drink, and I don’t have any medical conditions. Thanks! 🙏🏻🥲

I have an irrational anxiety/phobia which causes the dentist to be unbearable and I have not been in 14 years I’m 24 now, and have have a problem with my gum behind my top two teeth it is swollen and hurts to press on. I injured my gum reefing on a clogged vape months ago which caused a lesion somewhere between my teeth and my gum. It recently flares up when I drink too much. I freak out from past experiences of having the needle forced into my mouth and I wouldn’t be able to do a needle let alone be able to walk in to the office. I don’t really have a choice now my gum has swollen to the point I feel it most of the day, its getting pretty bad to the point I need relief. My anxiety is through the roof, I was forced against my will and carry trauma when I think about having to go to the dentist. I can’t do needles. I would do the numbing gel though. My main problem is my inability to trust the person. I don’t have tooth pain it’s in my gums, and only between the teeth where I had that injury. I get relief from mouthwash and daily brushing and light flossing. I have suffered with this irrational but extremely real fear which to this point has made me look for any single way to avoid going in. The biggest thing is I can’t do needles. Right now im making lifestyle changes because I keep irritating the location and it gets more and more swollen, now the surface has some dead skin or some kind of blistering because I was pressing on it with my nail.(terrible idea) I will leave the area alone as best I can now and I stopped drinking alcohol and sugars from this day forward. Do you think I could go to the dentist for the lightest cleaning in the world and to resolve my swollen gum? I need calculus removed from my bottom teeth. I have lost a lot of calculus from just brushing with anti tartar tooth paste but I’m having trouble getting all the tartar off myself. I get weak at the thought of going and light headed to the point I almost faint and throw up. The hardest thing I’ve gone through and worried about. The biggest problem I face is the needle itself not even the tools. I can’t do it. I would rather die. This has brought me to the point I’m at with overcrowded teeth and swollen gums but it could be worse. I just don’t want to lose teeth by the time I’m 30. If you took the time to read thanks. I know you guys are there to run a business at the end of the day and I feel most won’t want to be bothered by a patient like me.

Hi, last Friday I had a root canal performed on #37 molar (my last molar on the left side - never had wisdom teeth if any way relevant). The reason being that I had an infection on that tooth 10 years ago, had a root canal following and 3 years ago part of it broke so now I need a crown so I don’t lose it. So the dentist recommended retreatment and reconstruction for the crown. On the day of the procedure, the anaesthesia numbness slowly went away in approximately 5 hours and I started feeling some throbbing so I took ibuprofen. The next morning when I brushed my teeth I felt a sudden electrical shock on my cheek going down to my chin. Then, I realised that my inner cheek feels a little numb and when I touch a certain part of it with my toungue towards the back I can trigger the same sensation. Later on I realised that my gums and small part on the side of my tongue are numb a little. When I’m just sitting doing nothing from time to time I feel weird sensations on my cheek, on my jaw down to my chin on the outside, similar to vibration and tingles. I am planning on asking for an xray tomorrow when I’m going for a crown related consultation, but I wanted to ask if anyone had a similar experience, what could be the cause (trying to ease some anxiety). Thanks 🥲🙏🏻

I am on day 14 after my removal, and wanted to share my story for those who may be scared. There is nothing to fear.
I had intense anxiety prior to the surgery and on the day of. I kept thinking of all that could go wrong, and was afraid of the operating equipment, and drills. Especially since I was going to do local anesthetic.
I was worried for NOTHING!
The dentist who did my extraction was really patient, and kind. He numbed me up really good, and always asked if I was okay while he was working on my teeth, stopping sometimes if I was scared.
I felt no pain, and when he got the first tooth out, I was really surprised how fast it was and my anxiety was gone after that.
Over all the surgery was only 15-20 min in total, for four wisdom teeth to be removed (one impacted)
I had little to no pain after the surgery and healing process.
I am back to eating solid foods, and all my previous pain from the teeth are all gone.
Please do the surgery if you can, it will save you grief later on. There is nothing to be scared about, fear sometimes is an illusion.

11/20/2017
Log book of Det. Ryan Snow
Case #2798: The Appalachian Murders
The past couple of days are events I pray no one else ever has to go through what Kate and I had. I had her and Mr. Raines cleared of all charges, having found the proof we all needed to end this case and find the true killer. Kate no longer has to go into witness protection and I had given the police a good enough lie to keep myself from looking insane in the eyes of my co-workers. I know no one will ever know the true story or believe it, but I’m writing it out here. It at least needs to be known written somewhere. Even if my and Kate’s eyes are the only ones that will ever read it written out and forever imprinted in our memories.
The morning Kate had run off to the mountains on her own, I had made my way to the Blackwell home where I was immediately met with Mr. Blackwell charging at me and wrapping his large hands around my neck. He was shaking me and blaming me for getting his daughter killed and not doing more to keep her safe. The police who had been called to examine the scene and read Kate’s letter had to sedate Mr. Blackwell to get him off of me, lying him down on the couch, his head resting on Mrs. Blackwell’s legs. Though the woman was distraught and begging the police to bring her daughter back, she still took the time to shoot that cold, death glare my way. The ice in my chest growing. I couldn’t tell these people that this thing had come after me to get to Kate. I knew it wouldn’t change anything. If anything they’d hate me even more for keeping it to myself.
The sheriff was there and he pulled me away from eye sight of the Blackwells, trying to tell me that this wasn’t my fault. But I couldn’t help but blame myself. I should have done everything I could to keep Kate as far from those mountains as possible.
There were no signs of a struggle in Kate’s room and the letter was definitely written in her hand writing. Her father’s rifle missing from the study, a backpack and some food and supplies gone as well. She had only grabbed one set of clothes from her drawers, showing she did indeed have plans on returning after only one night in the mountains to confront whoever or whatever the killer was.
I told the sheriff to keep any police from going up to the mountains without first allowing me to go up there first to find Kate. He of course argued, telling me that he couldn’t break protocol based on any hunches I may have had. However, I told him that I could get Kate back without her putting up much of a fight, whereas she may struggle with a group of cops who didn’t understand the situation she was in. I was close enough to this case to have built a trust with her after all. I was mentioned in her letter about ending this case for me.
It took a good hour to get the sheriff to eye the Blackwells, Mr. Blackwell beginning to stir from his sleep, and allow me to go to the mountains to find Kate. He didn’t bother to call off the search to the police that had already begun making their way to the mountains, but did radio to tell them to not try getting Kate home without first allowing me to speak to her. He then gave me twenty-four hours to find her to which I told him I’d only need at most ten.
Without telling him about the disturbing scratches on my car, I sped to the mountains, taking the same path Kate had that day she took her friends on their trip. The route, as the sun began to rise was scenic. A drive that may have been a sign of a bright future ahead with a beautiful week in the mountains of nothing but nature, was now a reddening sky of horror. I couldn’t understand how Kate felt, going down the same roads that led to her only friends’ fates to avenge them, but the feeling of guilt did weigh heavy on my chest as I saw the signs of the Appalachian Mountain trails grow bigger on the horizon. Guilt for not doing more to prove Kate was innocent, for allowing Mrs. Mayfield for getting killed right before my very eyes, and for Liam for not being lucky enough to save him.
When I finally arrived to the cabin, there didn’t seem to be any change since the first day I was called to the crime scene, the only thing out of place being Mr. Blackwell’s truck parked precariously near the cabin. The police tape was still up, the cars of Kate and Mr. Woolfe still left where they were, the tires still slashed, the door wide open from when Kate, Ms. Greymoore, and Mr. Woolfe ran out of the cabin upon Mr. Billings was killed by an unknown force. All the bodies had been found and were now being prepared by their families to be buried or cremated. Only one body of the five still roaming around to avenge each and every one of their deaths.
I called out for Kate as I made my way into the cabin. The Ouija board was still on the coffee table, the white line of where Mr. Billings had been found lying face first on the floor with his head bashed open remained on the spot. The planchette was still missing. I kept calling out for Kate as I made my way up to the attic, the door left unlocked, using my flashlight to shine down on the white outline where Mr. Steele had been found completely torn apart. To think Kate had done such a thing, I now realize made me look like a complete dumb ass for believing it.
When I couldn’t find Kate in the cabin, I made my way out the cabin, still calling for her. I called out to her, promising that she just needed to come back home with me and we could solve the murders together. I knew it was a lie and that the sheriff would immediately have her take away to some secluded place where the killer couldn’t find her, but it was all I could think of to try luring her out to meet me. Still, she never appeared.
The sun was soon beginning to set as I tried retracing the very steps Kate and Ms. Greymoore had taken to outrun the killer. I had passed the small shrine of flowers and the pictures of Mr. Woolfe where the boy had been found, his face permanently remaining nineteen forever in the photos of him with Kate and their friends. I kept going, trying my best to follow the same path to the cliff where Ms. Greymoore was found, calling for Kate along the way.
It wasn’t until I found the place Kate had buried her best friend that I found Kate. She was on her knees before the rock where she left her bloody handprint, sniffing as her head was lowered, her dad’s rifle in her hands.
“Ms. Blackwell-“ I began as I took a step toward her. I was immediately cut off as Kate jumped to her feet, raising her father’s rifle at my head. I jolted back, raising my hands up to show her I meant no harm to her. “Ms. Blackwell, it’s me, Det. Snow!”
“Detective…?” She gasped, slightly lowering the rifle, but keeping it on me. “P-Prove it!”
“I’m sorry?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I… I thought I saw Sonja…” Kate breathed between tears, the rifle shaking in her hands, “it… It was wearing her face… It had her voice… How… H-How do I know you’re really Det. Snow?”
“You… Saw Sonja?” I asked as gently as I could with a terrified woman pointing a gun my way. “She spoke to you?”
“Prove you’re Det. Snow!” Kate demanded as she stilled her arms, readying the rifle as she pointed straight between my eyes.
“Alright! Alright!” I kept my hands up, backing up slightly as I tried thinking of how I could prove to her I was really me. “I… I, ah… I have… Had a brother… We went to get ice cream together once and… I dropped a dime and went to grab it… I was five… I followed it out to the road and despite how trafficked it was, I didn’t get hit. I grabbed the dime just as a truck was speeding my way and it swerved just before hitting me… Seeing how close I was to death, I dropped the dime and it rolled into the sewer. My brother called me Lucky Dime since then… Saying the dime was lost to me because it did its job in protecting me… I haven’t seen my brother since I was seven and I haven’t spoken to my parents in…” I looked at my watch. “Five years… No one else calls me Lucky Dime… Not even the people at the station know that was my nickname.”
With this, Kate lowered the rifle, her eyes softening from her furious fear to a more melancholy terror. She looked to Ms. Greymoore’s grave marker, her hand print just barely visible In the approaching darkness.
“It… It looked just… Like her…” She sniffed, “it had her voice… Why did it have her voice… Why did it look like her…?”
“Ms. Blackwell,” I soothed, relaxing now that there was no weapon in my face, “we need to head back, your parents are worried about you and the police are looking for-“
“I can’t go back yet!” She snapped at me as she spun to look at me, tears in her eyes. “That thing is still out there and will kill again unless I end it!” She held up her dad’s rifle as if to show me how she meant to “end it.” “I’m not leaving until I end that… Thing that had the balls to wear Sonja’s face and have her voice!”
“Ms. Blackwell, we will catch the killer, I promise, but right now, we need to get you home before your dad ends up killing a police officer for keeping him from looking for you.”
“I told him in my letter I’d be back tomorrow! I’m twenty-years-old, he can’t force me back home if I don’t want to! I just want to stop this thing before it-“
A howling in the distance cut Kate off. Coyote from what I could hear. If I couldn’t get Kate home, I’d have to get her somewhere safe. I turned to begin talking her down and taking her to one of the other two cabins for shelter. However, when I looked back at her, her face had turned to a bone chilling terror I’d never seen on a person before. She looked like hunted prey that had been found by its predator. She gripped her dad’s rifle to her chest tightly, her hand reaching for the trigger.
“Ms. Blackwell, it’s just a pack of coyote,” I tried telling her calmly, “let’s get to one of the other cabins and-“
“No, no, no,” She stopped me as she stepped back, looking around for where the howling was coming from, “I… Heard that same howling just before I saw Sonja! I thought it was far away, but she… She was right in front of me… She… Something was off, but it looked just like her!”
“Ms. Blackwell, you didn’t see Sonja,” I assured her, “I don’t know what you think you saw, but it wasn’t-“
“Lucky… Dime…”
I froze. My blood turned to ice. The fear on Kate’s face grew as she began backing away, her back hitting the grave marker. I spun around to see a figure in the darkness limp toward us, a scratched and garbled familiar voice coming from it.
“Lucky… Dime…” It wheezed, “You brought her… Back… Give her… To me…”
I whipped out my gun, pointing it at this thing that had his voice. I stepped back to stand directly between this thing and Kate.
“Stay back!” I demanded. “Don’t come any closer!”
“Lucky… Di-“
“Shut up! Stop calling me that! Who are you? Not another step or I’ll shoot!”
The thing stopped limping toward us, its body shuddering in place as it stared us down. I took the safety off of my Glock, ready to blow this thing’s head off if it got any closer or even dared using that voice on me again.
“Kate…” It turned its attention to Kate, a completely different voice coming from it, another male’s voice. “Kate… I’m cold…”
“J-Jasper…” Kate began to sob, “Please, stop using their voices… Please stop!”
“Kate… Kate why did… Did you leave me…?” Another male voice asked. “I… I was in so much… Pain…”
“Shut up!” Kate cried out.
“I thought we… Were friends… Kate…” A female voice. “You said you… Loved me… Why won’t… You let me have… Your warmth…?”
“I said shut up!” Kate screamed as she pointed her rifle and shooting at the creature. She had missed, but the thing still let out an ear piercing shriek as it dodged out of the way of the bullets Kate was shooting. It ran off into the darkness, but Kate kept pulling the trigger of her rifle.
“Stop!” I shouted as I snatched the barrel of her rifle, shoving it to the ground before us. “It’s gone, you scared it off, get to the cabins, I’m right here with you!”
I began shoving Kate back toward where the cabins were, the sounds of that thing screaming out in a symphony of different voices ringing out throughout the woods. I shoved Kate into the first cabin we had arrived to, Cabin #1 I could only assume as I slammed the door shut behind us. It smelled God awful, like the smell of the corpse I found on my first murder case, and it was getting darker as the sun began to sink behind the trees outside.
“Detective, it smell terrible in here!” Kate cried out, covering her mouth and nose, but the tears still falling from her eyes were still visible as they rolled down her cheeks.
I pulled her close and kept her behind me as I took my gun and flashlight out. “Stay close to me,” I ordered, leading the way through the cabin, “do not run off or use that rifle without may say so, understood?”
Kate didn’t answer, but I could feel the heat from her body following after me as I made my toward the smell. It was getting worse as we inched closer to a closet door in a hallway that connected the living room to the kitchen. The door was locked, but after a couple of kicks I was able to get the door to swing open, the smell blasting us in our faces making us gag and nearly throw up on the floor. I fumbled around the sides inside the room to find a light switch that I was able to find to the side of the entryway. A yellow light flickered on, revealing the door led to a staircase. I led the way down the creaking steps, Kate close by as she kept her mouth covered with her shirt.
Once we had made our way to the bottom, Kate dropped her dad’s rifle and let out a scream as we stared at what was waiting for us at the bottom of the steps. In a large pile at the corner of this basement room were nothing but skin and bones of humans and animals covered in maggots and flies. Some of the human bodies being small and child-like in size. The missing people who were never found after vanishing when they came to Cabin #2.
I grabbed Kate’s rifle off the floor and began pushing her back up the stairs, her screaming and sobbing all the way back up to the cabin. I slammed the door shut behind us and pushed Kate to the front door.
“We need to leave,” I had told her, trying to calm her down as we made it outside, “we need to get you home and away from here as soon as possible.”
“N-No… No!” She began fighting me, trying to escape my grasp on her. “No! That… That thing is still out there! You saw it! You can’t say you don’t believe me now! It even called you Lucky Dime! It said you brought me back!”
“I’m not saying I don’t believe you!” I shot back. “I do, I saw exactly what you saw, but it’s way too dangerous for you to be out here while you’re the one it’s after!”
“I escaped it once, I can do it again!” Kate pointed out as she struggled against me while I tried getting her into my car. “I’m not running away this time, I want to kill it!”
“God damn it, Blackwell, we’ll let the police handle it! Just because you have a weapon doesn’t make you safe or ready to handle something like… Like that… That thing!”
“It killed my friends! It wants me! I’m going straight to it so I can blow its head off! It’ll come right for me!”
“I came here to bring you back home, not let you accomplish some stupid ass revenge plot! Get in the fucking car, unless you want to end up like those bodies down that-“
“D… De… Detect… Detective…”
A scratched and moaning voice cut me off. Kate and I both froze at the sound of something approaching. I turned to see a police officer stagger toward us from the tree line. I could barely tell who he was or who he used to be, his head held low and blue uniform covered in blood.
“H… Hel… Hel… Help… Help me…" It croaked as it stumbled closer.
I held up Kate's rifle. "Stay back!" I barked. "Not another step!"
The thing that stood before us wearing the cop like a full-bodied suit stopped in place. It swayed where it stood, blood water falling from its head and down to its chest.
"It… It… It's inside… Inside me…" It breathed painfully. "I… I can't… Help… Me…" Its voice then changed to that familiar voice that made my skin crawl. "Lucky… Dime… I… I'm so… Hungry… Give her… To… Me…"
I pulled the trigger of the rifle, hitting the creature in the head, the rest of it staggering backward from the blow. Still though, it remained on its feet, turning itself to look toward us once again.
"Give… Her… To… Me…" It wheeze, blood and brain pouring from where I had shot it, it beginning to stumble toward us once again. I continued shooting, hitting it in the shoulder, the arm, the leg, the head again, but it just kept coming toward us faster, demanding I give Kate to it.
I was about ready to ram it with the rifle, having run out of bullets, when a voice off in the distance made the creature freeze just an inch before us.
"I'm here! I'm here!" It called out in an almost sing-songy way, using the voice of a little girl. "I'm here! I'm here!"
"I'm… Here…" The creature repeated as it jerked its body to look to where the voice was coming from. "I'm here… I'm here… I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!" It began shrieking in a high pitch wail. It sounded like a mixture of different voices ranging from child, to woman, to man. Keeping flat on its feet, its upper body fell forward onto its hands before speedily crawling off like a spider.
We stood in shaking silence for a moment, Kate digging her fingers into my arm while I was too numb from shock to care about the pain she was unknowingly inflicting. It wasn’t until the radio from my car buzzed to life that jolted us back to whatever reality was at this point. I scrambled to the driver’s side, swinging the door open as I fell inside to grab the intercom to respond to the voice yelling for me over the receiver.
“Det. Snow, what the hell is going on up there?” The sheriff’s scratched voice called out over the receiver when I could barely get my name out of my mouth.
“Sh-Sh-Sheriff…?” Was all I could respond with, still trying to wrap my head around what I had just seen.
“Y-Y-Yeah,” he responded in mock shudder, “what the hell is going on up there? I’ve tried radioing every man I’ve got up there and am constantly being left on red! Do I need to send back-up?”
“No!” Immediately, I returned to full reality, finally understanding the severity of the moment and putting that knowledge into my tone. “Landon, do not send any more men up here, call everyone back immediately! I don’t know what this thing is, but it’s too dangerous! Call everyone back, we’re heading back to the Blackwell house now!”
“We?” The sheriff questioned, skepticism in his voice.
“I found Ms. Blackwell, she’s here with me.”
I was met with statice before the voice of Mr. Blackwell blasted over the intercom.
“Bring my daughter home, right now, you son of a bitch!” Mr. Blackwell demanded. “You bring her home this instant before I decide to kick your teeth in!”
I opened my mouth to respond, but the radio was snatched from my hand from Kate. “I’m not coming home until I kill this thing!” She snapped into the radio. “I don’t know what it is, but I at least know I’m not crazy and that it needs to die before it kills anyone else!”
I grabbed the radio from Kate’s hand, beginning to tell her off when a agonized scream erupted from the intercom. I dropped the radio to cover my ears as Kate did, the scream piercing from my car to throughout the forest around us. The voice screaming and crying for help sounded male and it seemed to echo all around us.
“GIVE HER TO ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” A mix of the screaming voice and Mr. Blackwell’s hissed out after a good five minutes of screaming before the radio short-circuited and puffs of smoke flowed out.
After allowing my ears to adjust to the sudden silence, I grabbed the radio once again and tried calling for the sheriff, for the cops with us in the mountains, for anyone. When I was met with more silence, I slammed the radio back down on the holder and cursed loudly, hitting the wheel as if it were the source of all my problems.
After a moment to take some deep breaths, I told Kate to get in the car as I placed her rifle in the back seat.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she shot back. “I’m not-“
“Damn it, Blackwell, we have no idea what we’re dealing with, it can mimic peoples’ voices, and it just ran off like a fucking black widow!” I snapped, stepping out of the driver’s seat to glare down at her. “The last thing I’m doing to leaving you here alone and I’m not staying here another second until I can wrap my head around what the fuck I just saw! So, you either get yourself killed out here while I try talking you down this hero complex high, or you’re going to do what I say and get in the damn car!”
We stood in heated silence, glaring each other down before Kate huffed and stormed over to the passenger side of my car and slamming the door shut as she climbed in. I jumped in after her and began driving away from this nutty nightmare I had found myself in.
We drove down the trail back to civilization in silence, Kate staring out the window and trying to keep her tearful sniffs quiet. I had finally begun calming down and was starting to feel bad for snapping at her. She had only gone there to avenge her friends by killing that thing that had most likely killed a whole bunch of cops to find her. However, I still couldn’t just let her stay to hunt it and I didn’t want to stay out in those mountains with some kind of creature that could take the form and voice of someone I knew. I still couldn’t understand what is was I had even seen.
“Wendigo,” Kate whispered, breaking the silence in the car first. She had said it as if she had just remembered something important.
“What?”
“A Wendigo,” She repeated, turning to look to me with wide scared eyes, “that’s what that thing is! It’s a Wendigo!”
“Slow down, what’s a Wendigo?”
“It’s… Oh, just forget it! You wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
“Ms. Blackwell, I just saw a cop being used as a puppet and then run off at inhuman speed on all fours; I doubt I’m not going to believe a single word that comes out of your mouth now. What’s a Wendigo?”
Kate eyed me for a moment before releasing some of the tension from her face as she took a deep breath and began explaining to me. “They’re a Native American myth; it’s believed they’re the spirits of people who would lose themselves in the woods and would end up eating other people to satiate their hunger. I think that’s what that thing is. They can mimic the voices of people who died and use it to lure people to them, they can take the form of that person too.”
“Why does it want female hearts?” I asked, not realizing I had yet told her what my mysterious caller kept asking for when they called me.
“It… It wants my heart?” she asked shakily.
I cursed to myself before letting out a frustrated sigh. “I think this thing wants hearts, but it only wants female hearts. Why? I don’t know yet. But the only other person to be found after killing someone in those cabins was found with his partner’s heart missing to which he was blamed for taking out of her. Recently, I’ve been getting calls from some… Thing wanting me to bring you back here so it could take something from you. It would have taken Ms. Greymoore’s, but you hid her well enough that only the police could find her in time. Now, I’ve been getting calls asking for you and to get something from you.”
Kate looked to me in shock before a wave of guilt twisted her face in pain. “I… I’m so, so… So sorry, Detective!” She cried out. “I… I had… I had no idea you were being… Harassed by it! Had I known it wanted me back and was demanding you brought me here, I never… I didn’t… That’s why it said you brought me back! Oh, I’m such an idiot!” She pressed her hands to her face, grabbing at her hair between her fingers and tightening them around her eyes.
“No, no, no, stop, stop that!” I ordered, screeching the car to a halt, having to bring it to a crooked stop so I could stop her from hurting herself. I snatched her arms from her head and pinned them to her lap, tears flooding her face. “It’s my fault for not telling you sooner! I was too focused on trying to solve this case with the most efficient evidence I could, but that just kept me looking to you as a suspect. I should have stopped thinking you were the killer the moment I got that first call. There’s no way any of us could have seen… This coming… Except people who probably already believe in that kind of stuff or don’t stop to assume a more rational explanation like a cult… I’m… I’m sorry. But, I won’t let it take anything from you, not anymore. I’m going to get you home and then I’ll deal with this with the rest of the police department. You don’t have to deal with this thing anymore, it’ll be my burden from now on. You need time to finally get some rest and mourn your friends with your and their families. It’s already fucked your life up enough, I won’t let it go on making it worse.”
I stopped her before she could argue with me with a wave of my hand. “Your friends’ deaths shouldn’t be your burden to handle. I know you want to be the one who kills that thing and do right by them, but that’s not what they would want. They’d want you to remember them and continue living. They know you didn’t do it, so stop blaming yourself and stop acting like you’re the one who has to make it up to them. I will put an end to this die trying, but you need to go home and be with people who are happy you still get to live.”
Kate looked down at her hands that I kept down on her lap before nodding weakly and letting out a broken “okay.”
“Good, now let’s get you home before-“
My words were cut off when the honk of a car barreling toward us echoed through the woods. The headlights were fast approaching and I barely had time to grab the gear shift to put us back in drive as the other vehicle hit us, forcing us back and forth in one violent motion. It took me a moment to check myself to be sure I hadn’t hit my head on anything or got whiplash from the crash before I immediately returned my full attention to Kate who was kneeling over holding her head. I gently grabbed her shoulder and pulled her up to examine her head. It didn’t appear to have been busted and bleeding, but she was holding the front side of her forehead.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, prying her hand away from the spot on her forehead, seeing that it was beginning to bruise. “Can you hear me? Blink twice if you can understand me!”
“I… I’m f-fine…” she mumbled as she looked to her hand to check if there was blood on her palm, “I… I think I just… Hit… Hit the w-window…” She then blinked twice in my direction before looking to the car that had rammed us.
I turned my attention as well to the car to see it was a police van, it’s front crushed into the left of my front. I quickly jumped out my vehicle and stormed to the van, yelling at who ever was driving the van to come out and explain what the hell they were doing.
The driver’s side of the van swung open once I was near enough and a man in an orange jumpsuit climbed out, staring familiar daggers at me. The moment realization set in, my mixed emotions of confusion, frustration, and fear turned to fury.
It was Leighton Raines.
“Jesus, you really are a shitty detective.” Was all he said to me before reaching into the can and retrieving a rifle out from the passenger seat.
[END OF PART 1]
Part 6