How can something as good as popcorn have a dark side?  I made my fluffy paper lunch bag pop corn Friday night and I guess a hull got stuck up inside my gum.  I woke up Saturday with swollen and sore gums.  Flossing didn’t help and I wonder if it pushed the hull up even farther. This morning I woke up with a headache on the same side and even more pain and swelling.  I called my dentist’s office and left a message asking where I could go today for emergency hull extraction. She called back and said I was her second call this weekend for popcorn hulls (who knew?) and told me to rinse with hot salt water and put some Anbesol on it. I also took a Tylenol. It helped a lot, in fact I don’t know if the hull came out or if I’m just masking the pain and it’s still up there. That’s why I’m not big on pain pills because masking the pain doesn’t solve the problem.  You have to find the cause and fix that. If I could see it, maybe I could do something but I can’t see up there in the back. Well, I know this will pass but the bigger issue is what will this trauma do to my popcorn-enjoying experience?  Will I be overcome by anxiety? Will I hesitate before every crunchy bite?  Should I chew and floss between each bite? Should I eat it one piece at a time and first remove the hull? I LOVE popcorn.  Will life ever be the same? Will I have to snack on pudding?