Numb

I have never been in a fight...but my face feels like I have been. The left side feels twice the size, tingling, and so numb from a nerve block and novocain and I was told it should feel like this for another four hours. If you haven't guessed already I was at the dentist today having some work done. :)

 

Before and during my visit I prayed asking Saint Apollonia, patron saint of dentists and toothaches for her prayers. (Yep, there's a Saint for that). I love our saintly friends, more and more and I am finding myself drawn closer to them. As I sat in the chair trying not to swallow my tongue as the drill grinded away, I looked up at the ceiling and began to pray. What exactly I don't know. It was a mix of the Divine Mercy and then utterances of St. Apollonia pray for me. Then I thought it was kind of cool to look at the ceiling tiles that were white and the frames that intersected them were brown, so I focused on one, and envisioned it to be a cross. So there I laid in the chair looking up at my makeshift cross that I was under and prayed as the drill grinded-on half expecting a nerve to be hit suddenly...but the pain never came, praise God!

 

Before my appointment today I only knew  St. Apollonia as the patron of dentistry and toothaches and that she had all her teeth pulled. I decided to read more about this saint while waiting for my face to "thaw-out". There's actually quite a bit about her online. I learned she was a martyr and her last words uttered to her persecutors were,  "I am a Christian and I love and serve the true God." Upon her death many pagans converted to Christianity. Her feast day is February 9th. Saint Apollonia, Pray for Us to be as heroic as you in in all ways be it in defending our faith, at the time of our death or simply in the dentist chair!