Archive for August 14-20, 2000Musings of My Mind
Sunday, August 20, 2000
For Starters
I did a couple of constructive things yesterday: first, my sister sent me another journal entry for them. They're going to try to maintain a bi-weekly post until they go back on September 14; from that point forward, it'll be a weekly post. The second thing that I did was update their Support page-- they've got some great news on there!! They are grateful to everyone who contributed and by some of my readers visiting their pages, they feel that we've all had a bit to do with their success so-- THANKS!!!
Other things . . .
. . . I also did some painting of Christmas ornaments, mostly the ones that didn't necessarily require straight lines or perfect whatevers. I don't feel like my hand is very steady. I was doing well enough last night and all of a sudden my mouth started to hurt-- not the whole thing but just where the bigger bone graft was done. I suppose that makes sense but, it sure doesn't feel good. I took a Vicodin and tried to watch a 007 movie ("The World is Not Enough") with mixed success on both.
Today, however, I really don't want to take any pain medicine and, frankly, I want to stay upright as much as possible. I've got to go to work tomorrow so I need to be used to staying awake all day. The pain from the bone graft is really hurting though so I don't know how I'll manage the rest of the day.
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I may get a chance to check in later . . . In the meantime, have a good day!
Saturday, August 19, 2000Improvement
I awoke at 4am-- just as the Vicodin was wearing off so I got up and got another one along with a Motrin. The Motrin is important, as most of you know, to make the inflammation and swelling go away. It appears to be doing its job as the bone graft on the left side is smaller than it was yesterday. After letting the Vicodin sink in a bit, I went back to bed and awoke a few minutes ago. I have missed "sleeping in" on Saturdays; don't know why I got out of the habit but I'm glad I remembered how to do it.
I hate to be boring but, the only thing I'm doing these days is sleeping and watching really lousy Patrick Swayze movies on television. The good news is that when something like this happens, I remember why I work fulltime: we don't have kids to keep me busy so I'd have to watch television and, well, there would go all of my brains cells . . . right out the cable box.
ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!! If it weren't for the pain I'd be bored completely so I guess that says something, right? By the way, did I mention that I'm not good with pain? Some people can handle all kinds of pain from giving birth to Lord only knows what-- not me!! I'm a chicken!! Can't handle stubbing my toe (which I've done thousands of times!) so the fact that I'm not whining a whole lot more about all of this is truly a miracle.
Maybe more later if I find something to talk about other than pain and golf-ball sized swelling . . .
Have a good day!
Friday, August 18, 2000I'm here . . .
. . . it isn't/wasn't pretty but I survived. Okay, so after they called me yesterday morning, I called Brian and then got ready to go. I had to take two Valium an hour before I went in for the surgery and just barely made the cut-off of that timing. When I got there, unfortunately (or fortunately) there was no waiting; they took me back to the room and started prepping me. When the peridontist came in, she was very bright and cheery-- while that may seem annoying to some, I found it to be a comfort.
We started by giving me Novacaine all over the bottom of my mouth (they were doing the entire lower teeth so that made sense); when she got to the right side of my mouth, she found a nerve. Oh, boy did she find a nerve!!! When they peeled me off the ceiling, they gave me a tissue (yes, I was crying-- that hurt!!) and another Valium for a total of 3 Valium in my system now. We waited for the current bits of Novacaine to kick in and, especially where she had hit the nerve, hoping that she wouldn't need to repeat the process of hitting more nerves. She didn't and within a few minutes, I was numb all over.
The procedures (the details of which I will leave out of this writing) went along swimmingly, if that could apply (and maybe it doesn't but it sounds good to me!): one tooth extracted, peridontal flap procedure performed on my lower teeth and two bone grafts. Brian had expected the procedure to take no more than 50-60 minutes; two and one-half hours later, they let me go.
I came home, started taking Vicodin, Motrin and ice packs and here, we are 24 hours later and I'm about to try something along the lines of hot food for lunch. Should be an interesting experiment. I'm not taking Vicodin today during the day (unless lunch proves to be a bit much) but the Motrin itself is dulling my senses quite well. It is a struggle to type considering that my mind is going one way and my fingers another-- I've proofed this post but if you find something else, let me know. If its big enough, I may fix it.
Thanks to everyone who has called or written-- I really appreciate it!!
Have a good day, or what remains of it for you!
Thursday, August 17, 2000
(Update at 10:07am)Pretty Neat People
I hang with some pretty neat people, y'know that? This Netwidows "gang" (and, yes, we've pretty much earned that title by now) has really turned into a nice bunch of friends. I've received greetings, privately and publicly, from them voicing their concern for me for my oral surgery planned later today. I don't think I could get any luckier or have better friends! Thanks, Ladies!!
Speaking of Which
I'm home from work today because I was advised that with the Valium in my system (as prescribed) last night and Motrin going into my system this morning, I would be in no shape to go to work, much less "operate a vehicle". I thought this was a little silly until I slept until almost 9 this morning!! Even then I had to drag myself out of bed; the valium didn't do much about keeping me asleep though. I remember waking up at least four times to look at the clock-- anticipation, I guess.
I do have to participate in a conference call of our staff meeting later this morning. Unusual but, since the bottle says "Do not Operate Heavy Machinery" and the phone weighs considerably less than my car, I thought it best to do it this way.
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So I'm able to put this post up, obviously much earlier than my usual posting. I doubt that I'll be back later, but ya never know!
Have a good one . . . I know I will (oh, yeah!!)
I just got a call from the Dentist's office-- the procedure has been moved up to 11:30am!!! ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I've got to run-- I have to take more valium at 10:30 and I have yet to get my shower!!!! ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, August 16, 2000Pal Joey
My pal, Joey, came to work today!! He is a 10-month old Golden Retriever with the sweetest Baby Browns!! He really liked to be petted and, of course, I loved every second of petting him! Joey apparently likes toes and, with my sandaled feet, he had a hey-day! What a cutie!! I'm also now his "Godmother", a role that I will happily take on with Christmas looming in the future. He got excited when told him to be good and said the words "Christmas present" since he apparently knows what Santa does best!!
A Wreck!!
I am not dealing with my impending surgery well-- there is no general anesthesia (that I'm aware of) so I'm just thinking about being in the chair with my mouth hanging open for however long it takes tomorrow. THEN, of course, there's the impending pain afterwards-- not good at all!! I'm sure I'll be fine, once I get past scaring myself half to death!!
White Oleander
I finished the book tonight after work-- a good read although, in my interpretation, it had a kind of weak ending. Less than expected and certainly not befitting to the balance of the book which carries you along fairly rapidly.
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Chinese take-out for dinner tonight, a few bills to pay, and "How To" night, I think, on PBS. Then, my two valiums and I'm off to LA-LA-Land (and I don't mean Los Angeles!).
Have a good one!
Tuesday, August 15, 2000Why Pay More?
This morning I got a call from the dentist office about my surgery later this week: they still hadn't heard from the insurance company so I may have to pay less for the procedure than the dentist office wants to be able to charge me. Lost yet? Brian is, too, so don't feel bad. The dentist office has approval for the procedure to be done at the UCR of $XXXX. (Yes, that is four digits!) They want it to be for a fee of $1,000.00 MORE. If the insurance company approes that, it is going to cost us that extra $1,000.00 because of the limitation of my insurance benefit. Oh, yeah, I'm excited about the approval of the insurance-- NOT!! I hope that they don't approve the second figure, needless to say-- its to my advantage if they don't, obviously. Just in case though, I have to be prepared to pay upwards of an additional $1,000.00 for this procedure which I am not thrilled about, needless to say. I am paying money for pain-- man, I'm really a sick puppy, aren't I?
20-21
I did five miles on my bicycle this evening-- its kinda hot and I haven't cycled for awhile so admittedly, I laid off a bit. The good news though is that I did it in 20 and 21 all the way. It was much harder work to get started from a dead stop so I still feel like I got some great exercise in on the shorter distance ride.
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Its hot here again tonight so, of course, Brian doesn't want to eat anything "hot" or any type of balanced meal. I'm on my own for dinner but don't have a clue of what I want for dinner either. Needless to say, when its hot like this, not a lot of cooking happens around here-- at least not on the stove!! ;>)
On that note, I'm going to go off in search of dinner since I can't eat at 10pm like Brian. Take care and have a happy evening!
Monday, August 14, 2000Can't Trust that Day!!
Not a fun day, that's for sure!! The first day back at work-- never a good time to be had by anyone as far as I could see. Add to that the fact that a lot of things happened at work-- things that I hadn't planned for and no warning happened prior to the occurrence while I was gone. There were a lot of functional changes that I didn't get made aware of in a progressional pattern which is how everyone else in the department learned of them. I got hit with all of them at once! Always a good time, for sure!!
Anyway, there's a ton of work to do especially to be done in three days; I've got some dental surgery on Thursday that is threatening to put me out for the week so I'm going to try to cram 10 days worth of stuff into 3 days-- don't you wish you had my job? So do I, now that I think of it!!
Correction
THanks to Barbara Thompson for her feedback-- the Shipshewana flea market link is fixed now. This is a reference link in my trip report from our Michigan vacation; she thought it was her browser but it turned out to be my typing. Thanks again, Barbara!! I've only said I was a fast typist, not perfect . . . ask Brian, he'll be more than happy to tell you!
Dental Surgery
On Thursday afternoon, I'll be having some dental surgery so I won't be posting on Thursday-- maybe by Friday . . . I've got to have Valium on Wednesday night and Motrin on Thursday morning, along with more Valium on Thursday afternoon, before the surgery. The good news is that I won't be driving myself-- Brian will be taking the afternoon off to get me there and home again-- the bad news is that I have to have the surgery at all-- but I won't go there now.
Anyway, that's just a heads-up that there probably won't be an update on Thursday.
Tonight?
Well, I've got my crafts to work on these days so you know how I'll be spending 75% of my free time for the next few months, eh? Its like I said though-- I enjoy it so I shall get to it now, too!
Have a good one!
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