Ouch, My Teeth!

Wow, so I guess it's been over a month since I posted last.  I was thoroughly lost in Malora.  I finished my complete revision of the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy, and now I'm 2/3 of the way through my Mayfly Requiem revision.  I generally have to stay up until 2-3am to work on anything without interruption, so I'm fairly sleep deprived.  In the past two weeks alone, I've dealt with flaring TMJ from an old broken jaw, a double ear infection, a concussion, and a scratched cornea, and that was just on me.  My germ-wielding toddler decided to bash me over the head with a toy, which knocked me out for about 30 seconds, and then he followed it up the next day by trying to gouge out my left eye.  Now all three of us are fighting off yet another cold, so maybe I'll get a little bit of a break and finally be able to think about something other than fantasy apocalypses and fallen immortal time-keepers.

Due to my narcolepsy, I have more vivid dreams than most people.  They are usually a full-sensory experience complete with smells, tastes, and even pain.  Last night marked the triumphant return of the painful lost teeth category of dreams after a long absence.  I think it has been two years or so since my last one.

I was sitting outside in a park when all of a sudden I felt a series of pops in my mouth.  I tried to open my moth, but it hurt too much and my gums felt swollen.  I swept my finger around the side of my mouth and pulled out five teeth.  I panicked and shoved the teeth back into my mouth and walked to the dentist's office, which turned out to be in the middle of a bustling mall instead of its usual location.  I tried to open my mouth to show her, but my jaw was nearly locked.  I felt more pain and more crackling pops, and spit out a bunch of teeth onto the table.  I tried to use my tongue to feel around for the empty spots, but my tongue and gums were numb.   The dentist got out her books and was trying to figure out why something like this would happen to someone with previously healthy teeth.  In the meantime, I kept losing more and more teeth, and soon there was a small pile of teeth on the table.  People kept stopping by to look at the teeth, but I refused to smile at them because I knew I was missing a bunch.  The dentist kept talking about being able to do something for me once my gums were healed.  The pile of teeth now contained more teeth than I could have possibly started with in my mouth and there were bits of wire that the dentist insisted were from the braces I had in high school.  I was really anxious because I had hardly any teeth left and I didn't know how I was going to be able to eat.  My mouth hurt horribly and was still popping and dropping teeth, and then I woke up because my toddler was whimpering.

Weird dreams are nothing new to me, but the teeth ones are always disturbing.  I wake up and immediately check my mouth to make sure nothing is missing or loose.  Thankfully, I still have all my teeth, even though I have some issues with them because of suffering through nine months of morning sickness.  My husband thinks I'm nuts when I tell him my dreams, but he sleeps so deeply he hardly ever remembers his dreams at all.  Maybe I am nuts, but right now I am too busy watching the praying mantises crawl across the wall to really think about out.  Oh, wait... hypnogogic hallucinations.  Again.  I guess it is nap time.