.craziest week of my life.

this is the story all about how my life got twisted turned up side down i'd like to take a minute just sit right there i'll tell you how . . 
i nearly died in Ireland. 


some background ... about two years ago i had a root canal on the exact toot that that started giving me problems.

wednesday 23. juni 2010

i boarded an airplane scotland bound, but noticed something with my number three canine was not right. it hurt. not terribly bad ... there was just a subtle, annoying, constant pain that kept . . . getting . . . w o r s e. wednesday night david gave me a bottle of 24 200 mg. ibuprofen tablets. 

thursday 24. juni 2010

the pain in my tooth increased, but was still bearable at this point, probably because i prescribed myself 800 mg of ibuprofen every 4 to 6 hours. by friday morning the ibuprofen was gone. it didn't even help that much so not only is my tooth still in incredible pain ... i'm easily on my way to a stomach ulcer. 


the ibuprofen helped enough for me to function in scotland and actually enjoy myself.

friday 25. juni 2010

10:30 ish: arrive in dublin, ireland. 

i like to think i have a high tolerance for pain. as the youngest of five siblings you have to ... especially when two of them constantly beat up on you. i usually just tough it out when things hurt, but the pain in my tooth was so bad i could barely even stand it. the severity went in and out. sometimes it was terrible other times it subsided a little, but the throbbing was always there. 

11:00: check into hostel

i'm so lucky i have friends who force me to do things i don't want to do ... like go to the dentist. ok the truth is i wanted to go, but i didn't want to be a drag because we were in ireland so i didn't say anything but mamma kendra brought it up and took me. :) 

16:00: dentist appointment. 

smiles dental ... how ironic. It cost me 50 euro for the appointment which was the dentist tapping on my tooth asking me if it hurt. of course it hurt idiot ... that's why i came in here. it cost me another 15 euro for an x-ray. the x-ray showed a small infection at the end of the root canal [where the end of my root would be if it was there]. i was prescribed antibiotics and told that within 24 hours the pain would go away.

this was perfect ... i would just get a different pain killer and then take the antibiotic and be fine. i was so relieved. 

17:00: wander the streets of dublin

                 

i think at this point i was so glad that all that was wrong with my tooth was a minor infection so i perked up a little bit ... and actually enjoyed myself. that adrenaline didn't last too long though by 20:00 i walked back to the hostel and went to bed. the pain was getting worse. still.

i was hoping sleep would help. we had to get up at 6:45 the next morning to catch a bus. we bought tickets for a tour bus that would take us all around the landscape of ireland and eventually end up at the cliffs of moher. 

saturday 26. juni 2010

7:30 on the bus. (viel spass ... im bus)

my tooth wasn't doing to bad. i thought the day would be fine. especially since we would spend most of it on a comfy bus.

9:00: ... pain increases

11:00:  ... not getting better

13:00: i'm curled up in a ball in the back of the bus in tears because my tooth absolutely killed.

i managed to take one picture though:

14:00 pause

the bus took an hour lunch break at a pub. it was the only building we had seen for miles. and it was in the middle of no where. tracy asked the bus driver if there was a pharmacy or someplace where I could get medicine but there were two problems with that ...

1. wie gesagt ... we were in the middle of NOWHERE

2. i had already taken so many pain killers, so i knew those really wouldn't do the trick even if we found more.

the bus driver had a brilliant idea:

yes that is whiskey. no i didn't drink it. yes it was disgusting.

the bust driver told us that if we got a shot of whiskey and i put it in my mouth and just let held it on the tooth that hurt it would numb it right up. man was he right. after holding it on my tooth for 30 seconds it felt like i had a shot of novocain. it was amazing. i was pain free after approximately three days of constant pain. [you might as well drink warm nail polish remover if you want to drink whiskey, because that's what it tastes like ... but nail polish remover is cheaper]

this round was on tracy ...

 

we put the rest of the whiskey in a water bottle that had a snapped open and shut and brought it on the bus. when my tooth started to hurt i just numbed it up and spit the whiskey out into a different water bottle. i smelled really great after that. the irish man in front of us on the bus told me i was missing the best part by not swallowing it! with almost no feeling in my mouth i was actually able the enjoy the rest of my day ...

everybody in the club gettin' tipsy

       

       

wouldn't that be great if that were the end of the story? 

get comfortable, cuz it's not.

20:30: on our way back to dublin

kendra [lying upside down on a seat in the bus staring at my face]: "ha ... from this angle your face looks swollen ..."

kendra [sits up]: "wait ... your face is swollen."

21:00 return to dublin

we didn't think it would be great idea to carry around whiskey so we got some stronger pain killers at the pharmacy in dublin. as it turns out they sell ibuprofen with codeine in it ... over the counter. it.  was.   awesome. worked like a charm. (don't forget i never actually consumed whiskey ... so don't think i was mixing pain killers with alcohol.)

22:30 skyped my family

i tried to call my parents through skype ... but they didn't pick up so called my sister. (kristen ranzenberger, D.O yup she's a doctor) I told her the whole story, which she found hilarious until I told her that my face was swelling. apparently that's a bad thing ... ? She got a hold of my dad (also a physician) and made him answer the phone when i called him back. according to both of them i had what was the beginning of an abscess. a tooth abscess is pus enclosed in tissue. sick. my father and sister thought i should get to a doctor immediately just incase the abscess spread to the rest of my face and possibly eyes and brain. yeah ... freaky. problem with that; we were getting up at 5:30 am to catch a flight back to berlin.

i was freaked out. [understatement] when i told david and brigitte it might be an abcess brigitte mumbled under her breath "people die from that". comforting.  

the pain was gone [thank you ireland and your over the counter codeine] but i was terrified. my sister acted like i was going to die and my dad wasn't as calm as he usually is. normally when i freak out about something he's very rational and tells me to just be patient and to let medication do it's job [i was still on antibiotics] but for some reason when he talked to me about it ... there was a little bit of uncertainty in his voice and it scared me. a lot. 

 so basically I had a cheek full of puss, that could potentially spread all over my face and brain and kill me, and a decision to make: either find an emergency room and get to a doctor  ASAP... or fly all the way back to berlin and then finally go to an emergency room once i got there.

sunday 27. juni 2010

1:00 kendra and brigitte talked me into getting a blessing, but david was in bed. i hate asking for blessings. anyway ... kendra woke him up for me. we were sharing a room with six other strangers, and couldn't really find a quiet place to do it so we walked outside ... around a dark alley ... still really could find a place so we went back to the hostel and ended up using a tiny empty bathroom in a random hallway. my favorite part about this moment was kendra, tracy, david and i crammed in this bathroom with brigitte outside to stand guard. after the blessing we were all hugging when brigitte timidly says "you can come out now." probably one of those had-to-be-there moments, but it was funny. 

2:00: decision made.

i was going to stay in ireland and go to an emergency room. this is why: IF my condition was as serious as it potentially could have been, i wanted it taken care of immediately. so I decided that when my friends left for the airport at 3:30am i would go to the hospital instead. i didn't want to spend forever on a plane and then forever in the emergency room in berlin and then explain my situation in german. my german really isn't that great. in ireland i had the english language as an advantage and time was on my side. my dad supported my decision which made me feel like it was the right one.

3:45: arrive at dublin ER with a face looking like this:

        

 had been crying for the last few hours, i was all alone,  i didn't know a single soul in the entire country, i was terrified to find out what is wrong with my face and the exorcist is BLASTING on the T.V.  when i walked in to comfort as I wait in the ER. great. that made me feel really good.

4:51: a drunk bum was wheeled into the ER. he was completely oblivious, mumbling, and slobbering,  and keeps slumping forward. the security guard kept trying to make sit him up and kept repeating "DON'T LAY DOWN" ... but failed. the drunk bum fell forward, out of the wheelchair and onto the floor.  

i felt like a little kid, I haven't ever wanted my parents more in my adult life. i wanted nothing more than for them to be with me. they didn't even know where i was. my only form of communication with them was through skype and i didn't have internet access in the hospital. the room smelled like smoke and alcohol and i was beginning to feel ill. 

5:30 drunk bum is gone.

5:45 i found him. he was laying on a different chair ... passed out. i guess the security gave up.

hours pass ... i tried to sleep, listen to my iPod, read ... 

9:49 ... still waiting ...

i was able to use the phone and talk to my dad.

... apx. 7 hours later ...

10:25 i FINALLY got in. i was put in what looked like supply closet, extra toilet paper, syringes, cotton balls and boxes of rubber gloves were everywhere ... oh and a mop was in the corner. at this point i didn't even care.

10:45: i am finally seen by a doctor

the doctor (the irish doctor with with an irish accent ... made me feel a little better because he was so nice ... looking.) basically he told me that i had an abscess that needed to be drained. thanks, i didn't know that already. but they couldn't drain it there because they're not dentists. but he prescribed me a more powerful antibiotic. and sent me on my way. 7 hours of waiting to be sent to a dentist. 7 terrifying, lonely, painful hours just to get more antibiotics and be sent back to the dentist.

12:30 smiles dental should be called stupid dental.

the dentist told me there wasn't enough infection to be drained.  seriously? can you see my face? it's the size of a basketball. i was given yet ANOTHER antibiotic and told to go back to berlin.

i didn't really know what to think. i couldn't force the dentist to drain the infection out of my face ... even though it was abnormally huge and my father AND the ER doctor said it needed to be drained. So i left. i went back to hostel lobby because i had free WiFi there. 

13:15 berlin here I come ...

while skyping with my dad i purchased a plane ticket. he put money in my account so i could afford it. luckily i found a 38 euro ticket to berlin from dublin with ryanair on sunday the 27th. I would arrive at 21:00 pm. It was perfect. almost too good to be true.

15:00 tried to print off my boarding pass at an internet cafe...

too good to be true indeed ... turns out the 27th is on a sunday in june and september. SEPTEMBER!!! i bought a ticket back to berlin for SEPTEMBER 27, 2010.

may i just remind you that i had been awake for 31 hours, consumed who knows how much codeine, and i was sick, and tired, and hungry and alone, and certainly not in my right mind. [but it's still kinda funny]

i immediately started bawling and frantically tried to find another flight,  but they were all outrageously priced. i lost it. absolutely lost it. i don't think i have ever cried so hard in my life. i called my sister and tried to explain to her what happened in between sobs. i finally calmed down a little bit when kendra and david beeped in through skype. i told them what an idiot i was and kendra had the brilliant idea to just go to airport and see what kind of flight i could get on. so i shut my computer and headed toward the airport.

i ran to the bus stop tears streaming down my face, a huge backpack on with flip flops tied to if flapping behind me. i'm sure i reeked. oh and my face was still HUGE. i got to the bus stop and asked a woman with luggage if she was also headed to the airport and i if i was in the right spot for the bus. she told me i was, but also said she was taking a cab ... noticed i had been crying and let me share it with her. bless her soul. then t cried more because It was so happy that she let me share her cab. she didn't even make me pay for it. the world needs more people like her.

16:30 arrive at dublin airport.

i asked ryanair if there was anything i could do about the missed flight that morning. The lady behind the desk told me that i if i payed 100 euro i could switch my flight fro that morning to monday morning [the next flight they had to berlin] i almost handed her my credit card ... but then took it back and said "can i talk to a manager?"

stacy i think was her name. again ... wonderful wonderful person. i told her i was in the emergency room and that's why i missed my flight and she just switched the flights . . . just like that! i didn't have to pay a cent. 

17:30 pay 15 euro for stupid internet

couldn't get a ahold of my parents, but i logged into facebook and my brother rocky was online. GOD BLESS FACEBOOK. he called my mom and then skyped me. the plan was the sleep in the airport until monday morning and catch my flight to berlin. but my mom didn't want me to do that so she gave my brother her credit card number and had him hook me up in a hotel only ten minutes away from the airport. so i hopped on the shuttle and headed to the hotel. 

i was the only girl in the shuttle ... everyone else was nicely dressed business men. calling it awkward would be an understatement. 

18:45 check into the Radisson hotel [110 euro per night ... no worries]

oh my gosh i can't believe how long this post is. if you're still reading this i'm impressed.

ANYWAY ... i was greeted with "are you staying with us?"

yes i am - so where is my room?!

the lady at the front desk wouldn't check me in because i didn't have verification of the credit card ... until i started bawling [again]. i explained to a different lady my situation and she was way awesome and cleared it anyway.

17:30 FINALLY in my hotel room. i got to take a bath!!! and the internet was FREEEEE. i felt sick, i had chills, probably a fever, my head felt like it was going to explode and i think my face could have it was sooo big by now. 

i was done. i wanted to go home. Nnot berlin home ... not even utah home. kansas home with my mommy and daddy. :(

arrangements started to be made for me to fly home to kansas as soon as possible. my professor was contacted and that was it. i was missing the two week bus tour around Germany with my group, but at this point i didn't care because i felt like death. 

21:30 Bbed time in the most comfortable bed ever. or at least it felt like it after sleeping in hostels and waiting rooms.

monday 28. juni 2010

6:45 wake up

my face had gone down 75 - 80% and I felt a billion times better! sleep is amazing for the body. i still wasn't sure if i was going to go home. i was still pretty set on it ... but i was getting better and fast. 

7:15 go to airport

9:30 flyyyy to berlinnnnnn!

11:20 LAND.

i felt way more comfortable in berlin than in dublin. 

here's the thing. the BYU bus tour started on monday the 28th. we would be in a different city for the next ten days driving in a bus to get everywhere. they left at 9:00. i missed them by two and a half hours. so now i was stranded in Berlin. i made my way to the church building. and luckily it was open. so I camped out there. kendra, david and tracy were awesome and packed up my apartment and all of my stuff was in the church waiting for me. 

i still didn't know what to do about my face/tooth. i needed to get to a doctor or dentist wether i was staying or not. they either needed to clear me to fly home, or clear me to stay in germany for two more weeks. i didn't really know who to call but then my mission president's wife came to mind. after all she did help me when this tooth originally gave me issues and i had to get a root canal on my mission. luckily i still had the number memorized so i called her. when heard. "sister ninow?" i wanted to cry AGAIN! but i didn't. i was soooo happy to hear her voice.

she gave me the number to berlin mission president who gave me the number to an LDS dentist in Leipzig who takes care of all the berlin missionaries. and it just so happened that my group was going to be in leipzig the very next day!!! I called and set up an appointment ... now I just had to get a ride from berlin to leipzig. 

in the mean time my awesome friend Michael left the group in dresden to be with me in berlin so that i wouldn't be alone. THANKS MIKE THAAAANKS! [he really likes it when people thank him a lot ... and talk about what a nice guy he is.] no but seriously ... really awesome thing to do.

22:45 meet michael at dunkin donuts at potsdamer platz [many many memories at the place, might as well add another]

23:40 arrive at kasia's house. (really awesome girl from america staying with an american family who let us stay with her) 

dienstag 29. juni 2010

10:30 carpooled to leipzig 

michael and i had to sit in the back of this ghetto van with no A/C i felt like a mexican on the way to work. we both fell asleep on the way there and had to peel our skin off of the fake leather seats.

12:30 MADE IT! 

i was finally REUNITED WITH MY GROUP!!!! i was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy to see them again. really.

14:00 michael notices my face is back to normal ...

17:00 dentist appointment annnnnddddd.....

i got to stay in GERMANY!!!! i just had to have a painful procedure done when i get home but in the mean time the antibiotics were working. the dentist in leipzig was LDS and didn't charge me. he was so awesome. he told me all the different antibiotics i got were a great combination and were the reason the infection went down.

so. what have i learned from this experience. i'm not sure. i'm still trying to figure that out. one thing is for sure .. i have amazing friends. :) (you guys really rock thanks!) and a freaking awesome family. who knows why I thought I should stay in ireland, maybe it would have been bad if i went to berlin when i was supposed to and maybe it would have been better. i guess, we'll never know.

so i finished the tour in germany and had a blast! i will post pictures soon. i'm now safe and sound in provo ... boring, little, wonderful, safe, healthy, provo.