Tag Archives: dentist

MORE Teeth

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Spotted in Willow’s mouth on Friday: the tips of teeth 11, 12 and 13. Yes, at once. That makes five teeth that have partially emerged but aren’t completely out of the gum, no wonder she’s been fractious and not taking naps this week.

JSR is between jobs now, and I thought that would mean lots of time together (and opportunities to get the odd thing done by myself in the day) but he’s been sleeping from breakfast until dinner so… it’s actually like he’s at work seven days a week instead of five, and I have to sleep alone as well.

I have absolutely no news, apart from finishing my last session at the dentist. Nice to have it all done, but ouch, another $590. I am consoling myself with the thought that I hadn’t been for about eight years, so the total of $1600/8 is $200 a year… that’s probably what checkups and cleanings would have cost anyway? (Not to endorse slack attendance, I do plan to go regularly from now on, as I’ve been scared with warnings that two of my teeth have been filled very deeply and may need root canals if they go wrong again.)

It’s only 7.40am, maybe I should go back to bed even if I don’t get any more sleep. I might be able to entice a cat to join me. Otto’s usually quite obliging, he loves to knead my blankie with his big smooshy lion paws and he has a lovely comforting purr.

Hectic

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These last few days have been… hectic!

JSR had to go to Christchurch on business last Thursday morning. I was not impressed at his work for sending him into the seat of a national emergency, but he returned safe and sound on Friday night. Being sole charge of Willow for a couple of days isn’t much different from my usual schedule (because JSR works hard and often long hours, not because he isn’t helpful when he is here!) and Otto kept his side of the bed warm, but I miss him even just for one night.

I also had more dental work on Friday, top cleaning and two fillings. 45 minutes, $550. Is the dab of stuff they put into my teeth really that expensive?! This session was much better than the last, and the only really unpleasant bit was feeling very faint and shaky after the injections. I don’t normally have a problem with needles but my body seems to have endless capacity for unpleasantly surprising me. Now I only have one more appointment to complete my treatment plan, and I won’t let my teeth get this bad again.

Saturday was Amy and Ross’s wedding. JOY! The weather was very wet, but as they had a church ceremony and restaurant reception it didn’t matter at all. I feel so bad for people who have their hearts set on outdoor weddings that are spoiled by rain! Amy and the bridesmaids were beautiful, I got a little teary at the speeches, and I hope they are very happy with how the day went because as a guest it was lovely. The only photos online so far are on facebook so I can’t post one directly here, but you can click through to the happy couple. (I hope that link works!)

On Sunday Amy’s parents hosted a friends and family lunch, which we were kindly invited to. Afterward Annie came back to our house to visit Otto, and I hope she was pleased with how he is settling in. He and the other cats are getting along well now, he goes in and out the cat door without wandering off and getting lost, and he seems very relaxed. He visits me in bed each night to do some serious kneading on my blankie, and he loves to climb on our shoulders despite being Quite A Big Cat Indeed. We love him so much already!

Otto and Monty asleep
Otto snuggles the disapproving monkey while Monty occupies the beanbag.

Dental Griping

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Yesterday’s dental appointment was HORRIBLE. I lasted through perhaps half a minute of cleaning before the dentist stopped, asked if I was okay, and I burst into tears. The cleaning tool might have been manageable on its own, but I have super-sensitive teeth, and combined with the cold air and water spray it was not good at all. So she decided to do the cleaning in two sessions with local anaesthetic, bottom half first.

Even with my lower jaw numbed the cold air bouncing off onto my top teeth was unpleasant, but I got through with the help of the relaxation techniques I use to go to sleep. (Simultaneously relax my muscles as deeply as possible, count very slowly from 1 to 100, visualise my breath flowing in and out as a sheet of silky blue fabric, and focus any remaining thoughts onto a point in 3D space a few inches in front of my forehead. Now I write it out it sounds insane, but that’s what I’ve honed over the years and it works…)

Afterwards I could barely speak. She didn’t mess around with the anaesthetic, my EARS were numb. I felt very weird so I took a nap, and woke up feeling like I’d been kicked in the face with a splitting headache through the back of my head and top of my neck. I struggled to eat dinner, and curled up pretty sadly for the evening. I’m still sore today, but thankfully the headache has gone.

Of course now I have to go back in a fortnight to have the top teeth done. I also need four more fillings, on top of the one I had last week, and I need to pay them $1600 for the pleasure, which is just great. I’ve got my Cintiq listed on Trade Me at the moment, and I was going to use some of that money to get a little video camera to take better videos of Willow, but now it’s all going to go in my mouth. (Ah well. Hearing my American friends talk about their health bills I’m still extremely grateful I got 14 nights of hospital treatment, two surgeries, a host of other procedures and lots of medication for free last year; and I know we’re very fortunate that an unexpected bill like this can be managed with some extra thrift.)

Lesson learned : GO TO THE DENTIST REGULARLY, YOU IDIOT-HOLE.

Full monkey mode

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When the bean gets really upset she produces a hysterical shrieking cry we call monkey screams. Until recently it’s only tended to happen when she falls over, or occasionally in the middle of the night, but we have a bit of a problem, because now she does it… when JSR and I laugh. Something funny happens, we burst into laughter, and the next moment she’s shaking and screaming and thrashing her limbs. She gets so upset she’s virtually unresponsive until she manages to calm down. It’s horrible, and we’re not sure what to do. We have a very happy house! We like funny things! We laugh a lot! Argh!

I assume it’s one of those baby phases she will get over, until then I will try and chuckle more quietly…

On Friday I had to go to the dentist as the top right hand side of my mouth was getting tender. I was worried it was tooth #6, as I was told last time it was worked on that they had gone as far as they could with regular fillings and I’d be heading into root canal territory next, but fortunately that one is still fine and it was tooth #7 causing the problem. I had it filled, and it feels much better now, but they made me book in again for next Friday to have a full checkup and cleaning. I have terrible teeth, but now I’ve found a pleasant local dentist I plan to go for annual checkups and maybe I won’t have so many problems in future.

After that appointment I went out to our usual Friday after-work coffee with friends, but had to leave pretty quickly because Willow wasn’t happy. Usually she is very good at going out, but she’d skipped her afternoon nap and it didn’t go well. Come to think of it, she started to get upset when Lily was telling an amusing story, so perhaps it was laughter that set her off that time too! (I didn’t notice the link until JSR pointed it out yesterday.) Still, even though it was a brief visit I got to see a lot of our friends and eat a piece of chocolate brownie :)

The weekend has been quiet so far. I tried to run some errands this morning, mostly unsuccessfully. Shops had moved, they didn’t have the things I wanted, traffic was bad, it’s incredibly hot outside, a frustrating experience all round. Remind me in future just to order everything online. Less fuss, and more packages to open. I love packages. But I did impulse buy two lovely balls of Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe yarn in a light duck egg blue – one of my favourite colours – called Beach Glass. It might make its way into a crochet blanket one day, or maybe a baby sweater. Or I could just snuggle the balls for a while. (Heh heh.)

Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe yarn