Thanks everyone,

After posting I conked out in my la-z-boy the rest of the afternoon with my kitty. She is, as always, a devoted carer who's more than happy to make sure I have company while napping.

Alaina - thanks, I am glad I had a frank discussion with the oral surgeon about my surgical history, nerve injury and the need to minimize pain signaling. He was interested, respectful and supportive. That made me feel better about having the procedure. It helps that he is both a DDS dentist AND an MD.

Marleen, that sounds awful on your tooth. I can't imagine. I am deciding that I am going to get very comfortable with asking for good anesthesia or blocks.

Bio, thanks for that info. I would like to replace the tooth and am hoping that works out. I have never had any sort of metal placed in my body. I think that's what makes me nervous about it since I tend to be hyper-reactive, but I am told titanium is pretty neutral.

So the teachable moment came with the assistant before the surgeon came in. I was asked if I was getting anesthesia for my single tooth extraction (insurance only covers it for multiple teeth) because I was "just so anxious" about the extraction. When I said no, because I had chronic pain he said "well everybody's pain tolerance is different". Both statements felt snarky to me and I had to make an effort to remind myself not to feel slighted and that he just really didn't understand pain conditions. I told him I'd had a devastating nerve injury and repair and multiple operations, that my pain tolerance was insanely high, but we needed to prevent further changes to my system by minimizing pain input. The whole scenario reminded me of the kinds of prejudice out there against pain conditions and the need for education about how acute pain can contribute to chronic pain. My doctor got it and I'm grateful for that. Hopefully, the medical field in general will catch up on this in time!