Today  I had my 4th dental procedure with Dr. Tony Stringfellow. The doctor  had planned on removing the bottom 5 center teeth and tooth stubs and  save my back right wisdom tooth for next week. When I arrived at the  office, the first words from the receptionist's lips were, "Mark, you  are in trouble!"

Turns  out that Dr. Stringfellow had been taking his time with my extractions,  but to get the prior authorization from the state to get my new  choppers, I had to have all my extractions completed today. In  actuality, it was suppose to have been completed by last week with my  first impression for the mold conducted today. I had no clue about the  schedule and apparently neither did the doc.

So  instead of the 5, I am now completely toothless. Plus in addition, the  dentist found 2 more tooth stubs in the bottom that needed removed as  well. The first 7 just popped right out with no effort and took less  than a couple of minutes. My appointment was for 3:30 and I was in the  chair. After the local anesthesia, doc started work on me about 4:10  p.m. I finally got out of the chair at 5:20 or so. That back wisdom  tooth took over an hour to extract.

Get  home with aches all over. I began chilling. Knew I had a fever. Last  night I was feverish as well with lots of pain across the center of my  back. After the night sweats, I woke up with the pain only in its usual  place around my right rib cage, which my pulmonologist, Dr. Ajay  Deshpande, told me was just part of life for me from now on.

Iohn  had to run to Sullivan and pick up a few groceries. While he was gone  the chilling got worse. I put on a jacket. Turned off the air  conditioning. I continued to chill. I covered up with a blanket. Finally  I sent Iohn to Dollar General to buy me a thermometer. Turns out I was  running a high fever for me at 101.27 degrees. My normal temperature  runs between 96 and 97 as it did the whole time I was in the hospital  following my surgery.

The fever did finally start to go down awhile ago. But I am going to continue to monitor it through the night.

I  can already feel the pain in my lower right mouth, primarily from that  wisdom tooth. I have taken my pain pill and a couple of hours later  ibuprofen. In another couple of hours I'll be taking another pain pill.

Prior  to and during the procedures, Dr. Stringfellow has remarked about no  infection in my mouth. It is the infection brought on by my genetic  condition that was breaking away and destroying my teeth that my surgeon  and pulmonologist blamed for the loss of the use of my right lung.

Tonight,  in addition to the blood and the normal productivity from my coughs, I  starting tasting that familiar taste of abcess or mouth/gum infection. I  began spitting and coughing that out as well. Theaspiration of the  infection was directly targeted as I said by medical doctors.  Apparently, I believe, the infection has been bottled up under the gum  in around the back wisdom tooth that the dentist had to cut away and  eventually extract this afternoon.

For  the past hour and a half, I haven't had the taste, nor have I spit any  more up. Also since it stopped, the fever has broken. I still have the  sharp pains in my right side, but as my doc told me, it's part of my  life from now, though it may eventually subside.

Knowing  the pain that is lurking around the corner in my mouth and the  temperature that continues to fluctuate, if I seem a little absent from Inside My Mind or From the Cornfield or CNN's iReport for the next day or so...you will understand why. Also if you are not  seeing any tweets from @k3vsDad on Twitter, you will know why.

From  Mark's Den, moving back to my recliner and hoping the night is as  pain-free as possible with dreams I will wake in good spirits come  Friday morning. In the meantime...guess everyone will be calling me Ole  Toothless...LOL.