Funny enought I just went today to get a root canal procidure done on one of my back molars.

It wasn't bad!

Other than numbness, I just feel a little pressure from the teeth.

That sounds absolutely terrifying but I'm glad your okay! :)

Keep healing!

Ian, dude that is crazy but I'm glad you were able to get treatment and are doing better. Wish the best for your future health.

Everyone else: Dental issues can get quite serious. I've had my share of dental work over the years and I can tell you that stuff is no joke. A lot of my issues came from being in a place in my life where I thought I couldn't justify the cost of going to the dentist (no insurance for several years). That was a mistake. It's cheaper and easier to go for cleanings, exams, and minor filling rather than getting a point where something like a root canal or extraction is necessary. Think some people think the worst is the potential for pain but the issues can go way beyond that (infection, anxiety, depressions, etc.).

If you haven't been to a dentist in quite some time and are afraid what they might tell you I'd urge you to reconsider. Even if it's bad news you're doing yourself a favor by accepting it and getting treatment underway earlier rather than later.

Awesome it isnt cancer and hopefully this is you done with all operations on your brain. My father had pancreatic cancer had a huge operation got his gnarly scar (across the stomach) healed up quickly and easily yet 9 months on cancer came back and was terminal, so yeah you keep doing as you do and no need to worry about your brain any more hopefully cos man that is some crazy stuff to go through and still be ok after it. Enjoy your next what? 1000000 years of life?! ha!

glad your ok man! and thanks for sharing!

Glad you're okay duder! One question, since I'll never be able to experience this in my life, all things willing: what the hell is it like to not be able to read, after learning how? Aside from being terrifying of course.

good job living and take care of your brains folks

@onekillwonder_:Hell yeah! I can hardly wait for Doom 4. There are a lot of games coming that I'm excited about, but Doom will always be my special love.

@gaspower: Dude, that Witcher 3 character looks awesome! Reminds me of like... Connor McGregor (The MMA fighter) with a crazy skull bit.

So basically, I'm not 100% sure how long I had an abscess, it might have been in my brain for a long time and just got bad enough this month to where it became something that really screwed me up. I started having intense headaches in the beginning of October, which I thought were just tension headaches because my neck hurt as well, but after a week or so I started forgetting words. When I finally went to the hospital, it got to the point where I couldn't even remember peoples' names. I couldn't even remember my girlfriend's name, and that's scary as fuck. I was thinking it might be cancer and I might die. Got lucky it was just an abscess, they put me under and opened my skull up, got all the gross crap out, and now I'm feeling much better. Remember my girl's name and all that. She's amazing, she stayed next to me at the hospital for days. I know everyone's making jokes that I can get laid easily with cool ass scars, but I've that angel in my life and we've been dating for almost two years. She's been the best during all this.

@onemanarmyy: It's very weird, man. My personality is... slightly different. I mean, I'm still very much me, but I feel less depressed now. And I'm suddenly MUCH quicker at basically telling people who are full of shit that they aren't worth petty crap. I've dealt with a few people, including one of my old managers, the past couple weeks. I just can't deal with assholes now.

@ssully: Glad you and your girlfriend are okay after teeth abscesses! It can get real bad. I had a few years ago even before all this, it sucks. Make sure your teeth are okay! It's important!

Dope as hell, duder. Shit's keeping me healthy.

WE LIVE, WE DIE, WE LIVE AGAIN. SHINY AND CHROME. Thanks other Ian!

I had like, prolifically terrible dental health as a teenager. It's kinda fucked me over a bit, I've had like three molars removed. Could be worse, though.

Long as your mind is healthy, man! I'd hate to see any of you guys have to deal with something similar. It could be worse, but man, it's super scary and scary shit sucks.

I'm feeling much better, but woah! I'm really sorry to hear that about your sister, I hope she's okay and recovers, because that's awful! Godspeed to her, medical stuff has gotten really good, I hope she gets the best and bounces back.

Glad you're okay fellow duder! Might I recommend a classic PS1 game. Omega Boost. It is really simple with not much to offer from a modern stand-point, but a solid game. Hope you stay feelin' okay!

@punkxblaze:

Sounds intense!. I had (have?) an abscess in one of my lower molars. The pain got so bad that even after taking way more tylenol than you are supposed to, the only way I could get any type of relief was eventually to punch myself in the jaw repeatedly. I eventually got over my doctor anxiety enough to go to a dentist and they said it was infected and gave me some antibiotics. I've always been the type of person to just deal with stuff like that instead of fixing it (for a variety of stupid reasons I tell myself) but after reading this, I'm going to make it a bigger priority to get these shitty teeth dealt with finally. As far as games to play, may want to give Marvel Heroes a try if you like loot grind Diablo like stuff. It's free but the monetization is not gross, they've made a ton of improvements since it launched and there are a billion different heroes to play (though at the end of the year when the Danger Room mode is implemented, that's when it'll get super awesome IMO).

@demonknightinuyasha: just be real careful with it, man. I had a couple infected molars years before all this happened and one of them was so infected that none of the numbing worked when they had to take it out, so I felt the whole tooth pull, it was, believe it or not, way more painful still than anything that happened to my brain stuff. You definitely don't want that! So yeah, be hella careful man!

Oh, and I think I might try marvel heroes! I love marvel, and i've heard some really good stuff about that game. Even Jeff said pretty decent stuff about it.

Wow, that's super crazy. I have problems with fainting upon standing up and blurred vision sometimes, hearing what you went through makes me sort of paranoid about what that could be. I think I'll get it checked out. Anyways, I'm planning on playing either Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, that awesome Level-5/Studio Ghibli JRPG from a few years ago, or Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, my favorite game ever, over Thanksgiving break so maybe give those a try? I don't know! Best of luck on your recovery, and cool scar!

Shit, dude. It's good to hear that you're okay.

Sending you well wishes, man!

@punkxblaze:

Yeah, it was pretty rough at launch, but it's in a pretty great place now. They'll be doing the whole 2016 relaunch thing at the end of the year, which will bring the Danger Room and a new Story Chapter with their take on the Skrull Invasion into the story. If you do decide to give it a shot, Look for Batman Batman Batman Inc. which is the current Giant Bomb Super group :D

@vasta_narada: Is hard to say. Terrifying is the obvious description, but when you get to that point you also have a very hard time remembering bits from that sort of brain issue. It was strange suddenly being able to not only read words, but unable to write them, like suddenly you cannot quite pronounce letters and figure out how to create sentences. It's really bizarre. It also made me feel incredibly terrified that I was becoming stupider, which is something I worried about multiple times. Once the surgery is done, it still takes a while to get back to normal there-- it took me about a week to get back to being able to read more than a sentence at a time, and spell words normal. I wad immediately back to being able to speak pretty well after the surgery once ago the crap was taken out of my brain, but yeah, reading and writing have taken a little over a week to come back. I'm still forgetting certain words, I couldn't remember the word celebrity the other night, or the word compass a day before that, but in due time it all does start to flow again : ).

(PS, if there are typos in this post, that's because in writing it on my phone, not because I'm typing stuff wrong by myself. Lol.)

Hi guys! Sorry, I'm usually not the type to double post, but I made this little video showing how I take care of this neato PICC line thing in my arm, since a couple people seemed curious about this sort of thing. A PICC line is basically like a solid IV line thing stuck in your skin that goes basically from your arm to almost your heart. Doesn't hurt or anything, thankfully, it's just a thing to help keep from forming any new infections for a while.