10 lessons I learnt from terrible toothache this week: it’s a big FQ problem and a real chance to learn about yourself
“Ah, yes, I can see quite clearly on the x-ray that the nerve is basically dead; I’m surprised you’ve been handling the pain so well, you’re going to need Root Canal Surgery urgently…”
That is not something anyone wants to hear from their dentist on a Tuesday morning, let alone a Tuesday two weeks before Christmas when it’s freezing cold outside and the UK-wide train strikes have meant that you’ve had to get up exceptionally early to trek across town to see your dentist, freezing your proverbial ‘nuts’ off.
I suppose I should be grateful though because, as luck would have it, my dentist could squeeze my root canal surgery in that very afternoon. So, apart from having to quickly rearrange my working day (and having to hand over hundreds of pounds), it was actually a good outcome to resolve a problem that had, quite literally, flared up 10 days earlier.
You’re probably thinking, “So what? It’s only 10 days.” But, I assure you, the experience across those 10 days was so informative in so many business and personal related ways — I’ve somehow packaged it all up into 10 lessons I learnt along the way.
Let me take you back to 10 days earlier
It had all started when I was having a cup of tea; I had just made a fresh cup as part of setting myself up for success to dive into designing a change programme for a new client, I took my first sip and suddenly I was in agony.
A sharp, intense pain shot through the top-right of my mouth and it felt like my own tooth was trying to single-handedly eliminate me. I immediately rushed to a mirror, opened my mouth as wide as possible in the naïve belief that I could identify what the problem was [Lesson 1: despite your self confidence, you’re not an expert at everything and best to get an expert involved —a lesson heavily influenced by a similar one from the summer in fact]
Although, stood in front of that mirror, I couldn’t identify the problem, I did have a flashback to the summer when I last made a trip to the dentist, and remembered how precarious that had been.
Normally, in these instances, I would typically shrug off the pain as a temporary thing or I would at least tell myself to ride it out a few days before doing anything about it, but I was no longer that person [lesson 2: I was proud that I could change my standard behaviours].
Nope, for the first time in my life (when it comes to my health), I went on the front foot and immediately booked in an appointment with my dentist.
“My tooth hurts, when can you fit me in?”
“We have an opening in 10 days, I’ll book you straight in,” said the receptionist when I rang.
“It really does hurt, could you do any sooner?” I replied
“If it’s a genuine emergency then I’ll see what I can do, are you saying it is an emergency?” he asked
“Er, no, it’s ok, I’ll take the appointment in 10 days,” I said
[Lesson 3: Apparently my underlying dislike of confrontation can surface even when in agony; perhaps I haven’t changed as much as I thought I had]
For the next 10 days, I self managed the pain. I took paracetamol; I gargled regularly with warm, salty water; I brushed my teeth 4 times a day (this bizarrely seemed to help) and I used mouthwash to counteract the sting.
The pain would come in waves, sometimes super intense to the point that I had to stop whatever I was doing and find ways to distract my brain (ironically the best way to do this was overload my brain with other things such as focusing on complex problems or doing intense exercise).
Over the 10 days, this sharp pain changed to more of a constant dull ache but in many ways this was worse as this seemed to distract me more.
[Lesson 4: The pain (and all the solutions I adopted) was a massive distraction for me and my business; my productivity levels went down not just at the moment of the pain but also the anticipation of the pain and the time needed to implement one of my many solutions. I’d say all in all, my focus (FQ) was down a good 30–40% because of these — for more on FQ, read this, this, this or this].
However, by the time my actual appointment came round, I had either got used to the pain or something else had happened as I was able to accommodate it. It turned out that the nerve in my tooth was practically dead by that point and infection had begun to take hold (the nerve dying being the reason I felt less pain).
[Lesson 5: Don’t just trust one data source otherwise you are likely to make a wrong decision]
My initial appointment was in the morning but my surgery was not until late afternoon so, as previously mentioned, I had to quickly rearrange my day to make space for it. Meetings and client calls got moved around; most fortuitously my dentist is only 10 minutes away from my parents’ house so I headed there so as not to lose more time in the day (and had the added bonus of getting to spend time with the darling folks too).
[Lesson 6: Make the most out of any bad situation]
The flip side was that because I wasn’t expecting to be spending all day at my parents’, I hadn’t actually brought my laptop with me. Still, I had my phone and so, rolling back the years, I sat at my old desk in my old room and whittled away the hours working until my surgery.
[Lesson 7: With a bit of lateral thinking, you can work from practically anywhere]
The procedure itself took 90 minutes and my dentist did an excellent job of explaining every step of the operation in such a way that I actually weirdly enjoyed it (the 4 massive injections followed by wild dribbling and jaw ache aside).
[Lesson 8: Even the most obscure activity can be made fun and interesting with a bit of creativity]
How are you feeling now?
It’s only been 36 hours since the surgery but I am definitely feeling a lot better; there’s a bit of soreness but I think the surgery did the trick. Certainly I was able to work with much higher levels of FQ all day yesterday.
That said I haven’t quite taken to eating rock cake as yet.
[Lesson 9: Don’t get too over-confident based on a little success]
In fact, after 36 hours, it’s almost easy to forget just how troublesome the last 10 days have been. At times I felt close to tears, eager to rip my own tooth out but now I feel a little silly even thinking like that.
[Lesson 10: In hindsight many things are never as bad as they seem (I should probably blog soon about one of my mantras which is “Would you use your genie on this?”) but equally don’t dismiss things that are no longer a problem now but were once upon a time — phew that’s a long lesson]
One added silver lining is that this whole episode has made an excellent topic for this week’s blog and quite a tale to tell.
[Bonus Lesson 11: You can literally make a blog out of anything ;) ]
Right, I hope you all enjoyed this week’s blog and consider me having taken one for the team to share these lessons with you so that you don’t have to go through the pain yourselves.
No need to thank me; have a great week!
P.S. If my friends and family are reading this (particularly the nephews), there’ll be no Christmas pressies this year due to all the money I had to splash out on the tooth. Don’t blame me, blame the dentist…
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness.
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
