Listen up folks..............................

Yesterday, I actually practiced what I have been preaching. I listened to my body, and I am very proud of myself.

For lunch yesterday, I had deli turkey. As I was chewing the first bite, I felt something stick in my back molar and I started to get grossed out about it being that sometime tiny bit of bone or whatever you discover in your piece of meat. This is why I prefer to not eat meat, but I was lazy yesterday and needed to eat something so I would have energy for my race.

After brushing my teeth I could still feel it. Normally I would dig around and try and pry out whatever, but for some reason, brain was telling me to leave it alone, and brain actually listened to herself. I was experiencing mild pain (maybe a two on a zero to ten pain scale) right in the area of the tooth, and then in the front of my forehead on the side of the tooth, following the facial nerve patterns. Isn't it interesting that it skipped my eye. The eye is intervated with different nerves.

Anyway, it was certainly not painful enough that I couldn't deal with it. I always have pain, and most of the time I ignore it. That is also why I am proud that I didn't do so this time.

Having scheduled someone to come in so I could go out and run, I called my dentist and he was able to get me in at the end of his day. Now, I gotta tell you, going to the dentist is NOT on my top five-hundred fun things to do list," but I do it on a regular basis because I have seen first hand how crappy it is to eat with dentures. Listen up people............ Even if you don't have dental insurance, figure out a way to take care of your teeth so they are still with you when you are old and one of the few pleasures you still have left is food! You WILL be glad you did!

That small town living thing, I have known my dentist for years, and in fact provided child care to his son's that are now in their late twenties. That fact helps get me in the door, and after we talked about our kids, and what races we had coming up, he got to work and informed me that I had just the slightest bit of decay starting in the area of an old filling and that what was causing my problem. My question to him....... Not how much will it cost, but how much will it hurt? It is a carry-over from my childhood I guess. As he began to replace the old filling, and I was practicing my deep relaxation technique, (For me, the only place better to pratice deep relaxation than a dentist's chair is a child birth room, and I haven't been able to do that in a while) the memory of my last visit to his office appeared. He told me at that visit, that he was questioning the tooth he was now working on, but I talked him out of doing anything with it at that time, and promised him that I would come in at the first sign of trouble. Even my subconsious looks out for me, as I had totally forgotten my promise. Pretty cool hu?

This many paragraphs later, are you still trying to figure out what my point is? Call me the wanderer if you want, but blame it on brain! My reward for listening to my body, was being able to get in right away, instead of waiting until I was in real pain. We all know that if you are in bad pain you can't get an appointment for a week. Do you think that is our bodies way of saying,"Told you so..... Listen to me next time."? Though the dentist said I may still need a crown on the tooth some day, I don't today, saving me not only money, but the time of having to make two more trips to see him. (And all that drilling....... Gosh I hate that drilling. Really I hate anything that vibrates my head, UGH!)

My point is our bodies are there for us. Not just to house our parts and hold our food, but to let us know when something isn't right or needs our attention. If we can learn to check in with our bodies, our days will be much better for it. Pay attention the next time you come down with a cold. While you are laying there all miserable, with a sore, red nose and an overflowing basket of germ filled tissues, (that I will be picking up if you are any relation to me!) back track and see if you can't recall any signs that you were getting sick. If we can learn to zero in on these signs before we become truly ill we can save outselves a lot of stress and strain. Remember:

If you don't take care of your body..................... Where will you live?