Eluding Tuonela

Had to visit a dentist today after one of my teeth started aching pretty bad. Turns out there was a deep cavity that required root canal treatment. The procedure was surprisingly fast and went really smooth, I didn't really have time to worry about it before it was all over. The good: the visit didn't cost me anything (Thank You awesome Finnish public healthcare), the bad: my next appointment to finalize the treatment stretched out to March (Thank You overloaded Finnish public healthcare).

Due to total lack of sleep and pretty severe pain before and after the treatment I had to bail out of any training today. I'll count the couple of kilometers of walking as an active recovery. Hopefully I'm feeling better tomorrow.

This episode got me thinking about my health more deeply. The dentist was very professional and informative, and told me that it was good that this happened now because I have a gum infection that needs to be treated immediately if I want to avoid further serious damage. My life has been pretty chaotic and unhealthy during the past ~10 years. Keeping up with my physical health and stuff like a healthy diet and oral hygiene has been so low on the priorities that getting back on top of normal everyday things is still a process for me. But I need to start looking at my health more broadly and make long-lasting changes. Not tomorrow, today.