Are root canals contagious?

I had my first root canal starting two weeks ago. I say “starting,” because this lovely procedure requires three appointments. The first one to try and get to the roots and clean them out. The second one to, once again, try and get to all the root branches and clean out the twisty little *#(#!*.  My third appointment is scheduled for Friday to go in and replace the temporary filling with a permanent one. It was my first root canal. I’m hoping it will be my last. I’ve had many many dental procedures in my life. Extraction of adult teeth. Extraction of wisdom teeth. Braces. Cavities. I’ve endured all of them quietly without complaint. I usually sit still in the chair.  Last week’s endurance appointment was the last straw. I squirmed. I grunted. I may have growled. It’s really hard to lie in the chair seeing tools flying, listening to my dentist talk to his assistant about twisting roots, listening to the drill, feeling the drill, and not wonder how sideways the procedure was going without my knowing. The longer it took and the more tools that went flying above my nose tried my patience to its final end. The dental assistant could tell, I think, I was DONE. I politely paid my portion of the bill, bid everyone a good week, and told the front desk staff I didn’t want to see them again for a long long time after this week.

I lamented my experience to one of my co-workers this week. She put me in my place (kindly) by sharing her experience of multiple root canals, followed by a tooth abscess. My experience cannot compare to hers. I sympathized. I appreciated her support. Today, she sent me an email. A routine appointment for her to (I think) replace a filling unexpectedly resulted in, guess what?, a root canal. ACK!  How is that possible? Am I contagious? It’s like getting called for jury duty. The strangest things seem to be contagious in a small office. I warned a couple of other co-workers to stay away from me. The root canal syndrome is spreading. I’m contagious.  I’m not even finished with mine yet. Maybe Friday’s appointment to fill the tooth will cap off the cavern of pain and stop the root canal germs from flying through the air and infecting everyone else. I’m so sorry, world!

Read Full Post »

I’m a self-destructive idiot

I had to leave work a little early today because my stomach was recoiling against its very existence. I’m not sure what cause this unhappiness. I had soup and bread for lunch, which I thought was rather innocuous. But no. My stomach was highly offended by something. Dinner was ok. I took it rather easy and ate leftovers, as did Mike and the kids. I was about to head to bed because I’m exhausted and feel like I’m going to just tip over. Then, I thought to myself, “Ginger ale! I’ll have a sip of ginger ale for my stomach.” I went to the pantry shelf in Mike’s office and grabbed a small can of ginger ale. As I grabbed it, my eye caught a glimpse of that orange and red bag that the kids and I purchased on a whim this weekend. I tried to walk away. But it pulled me back. I tried not to think of it. But not thinking of it just made me think of something else in the fridge that I was suddenly inspired to pair it with. What a crazy idea! I told Mike. He told me, no. I ignored him. Long story short, I just ate some Fritos with Laughing Cow cheese. And ginger ale. It was heavenly. (I love cheese.) I am now going to run to bed before the pain in my stomach knocks me over harder than my exhaustion.

Did I mention somewhere that I like food? To my own detriment, it would appear. Ow. But yum. Buy, owwwww.

Holidailies #4

 

Read Full Post »

Yeah, I swam in this ocean today…

…..and I have the scrapes and the headache to prove it!

Read Full Post »

Tie me up, tie me down, Part 2

In my ongoing effort to be the most unattractive and awkward sleeping partner in the history of this planet, I tied my legs together last night.

OK, I didn’t really do it just to look weird. 

It’s related to my new “oh crap, I’m old” ailment – my hip has been killing me.  Particularly when I sleep, I have for several months been waking up with pain in my lower back and hip.  On my left side, the pain is so great in front and in back that I can barely turn over in the middle of the night. I talked to my doctor about it and about the fact that my left knee is crap.  We agreed to start with an x-ray of my knee.  Maybe get one of my hip.  In the  meantime – more pain.  And then I realized that, while I sleep – my right leg is fairly straight but my left leg tends to get quite askew in the middle of the night.  It moves out and twists. 

I was suspecting this could be the cause of my mainly nighttime pain.  So, last night I grabbed my trusty bathrobe tie and knotted it loosely around my legs right above my knees.  My legs were able to move a tiny bit but it kept my left leg from straying too far during the night.

Night 1 of Operation Tie Legs and – Sweet! – no waking up at 4 a.m. with excruciating pain in my back and left side.  hmmmmmm……I like this.  Sweetie told me one night of no pain doesn’t prove anything.  I agree.  I’ll try it for a few more nights and see what happens.  I’m hoping I can train my leg to stay put all night on its own.  Seemed to work for my arm, I think.  I haven’t been throwing it over my head a lot since I tied my arm down during the night. So much for doctors – I’ll figure out how to make my body stop hurting it I have to mummify myself to do it!

Kudos to Sweetie who puts up with the ties and knots and extra pillows and mouth guards and ear plugs and all the other signs of my advancing age. 

Read Full Post »

Headaches and Hiking

Last week started out pretty crappy but has ended up quite nice.

Monday and Tuesday were the bad headache days.  I had been working on the computer during the day on Monday, then was watching the news.  I was working out while watching TV.  It took me a while to figure out the problem with my TV screen was not really my TV, but my eyes.  I was seeing some areas that seemed strangely pixelated and kept trying to clear up my focus.  I actually called Sweetie at work to find out how late he would be working.  I was feeling unsteady and my head was starting to hurt.  Sweetie got home and I tried rubbing my head around my right eye.  This just made it worse as I then had stabbing pain behind my eyes.  I started blubbering – not so much because of the bad pain but just because it was freaking me out a little and then I felt rush of emotion after I rubbed my head.  Strange.  Noises sounded a little weird to me.  Sweetie said something and I asked “What is wrong with your voice?”  I lay on the couch for a while but was determined to cook dinner for us.  So, I finally got up, made dinner, ate dinner and spent the rest of the evening on the couch and in bed.

So Tuesday rolls around and I tried to stay away from the computer during the morning.  I was trying not to focus too hard on anything.  Makes for a boring morning for me.  I jumped back on in the afternoon.  I turned on the 5 o’clock news and everything just went haywire in my head.  I held up my left hand, put it next to the side of my face, and started waving it all over the place.  But I couldn’t see a thing.  I had lost all peripheral vision on my left side.  I was seeing some spots again and tried to go lay down in bed.  That didn’t help as I got completely nauseous.  I grabbed the phone and went to sit down on the floor next to a trash can.  I called Sweetie again and he asked me how I was doing.  I told him it was much worse than Monday.  I asked him if I had a migraine since he gets them and knows the symptoms.  He said yes and that he was coming home from work (it was after 5 anyway).  This was good to hear because I felt like I really needed some water and a little bit of bread to chew on but I was now sitting on the bathroom floor and was too nauseous and in too much pain to walk out to the kitchen.  Sweetie came home, brought me some bread and water, and got me to go back to bed.  He brought me a damp cloth to put on my head.  But it smelled strange to me.  Everything smelled bad.  I told him everything smelled weird and he said that was part of the migraine too.  I chewed a few bites of bread, took an Advil and finally managed to fall asleep.  I woke up a couple hours later and managed to eat some chicken noodle soup.

I went to see an optometrist on Wednesday and got a new prescription for my glasses.  That should help a little bit.  This new optometrist figured out what my old doc learned long ago – my brain is stubborn (that’s how my old doc put it).  I am very farsighted in my left eye.  And there is a big difference in the prescriptions for my two eyes.  But, my brain won’t accept all the correction it needs for my left eye.  So, instead of relaxing and accepting the lense’s help to see clearer, my brain fights really hard to try and focus on its own.  This puts more strain on my brain.  As the years pass, my eye muscles will relax and my brain will accept more correction.  This new doc said she is giving me a prescription slightly stronger than my brain seemed willing to accept, but that I should get used to it and it will help my brain relax a little. 

Is that what caused the migraines?  It could be a few things.  I think eye strain probably contributed.  I think I haven’t been sleeping enough lately.  We also had pretty bad vog at the beginning of last week.  It comes over from the volcano on the Big Island, across Maui, all the way to Oahu.  The air was just thick with vog on Monday and Tuesday of last week. 

Anyway, I’ve felt my eyes get very tired this week, but no major headaches, thank goodness.

And!  The vog finally left with our lovely Maui winds and Sweetie and I managed to get a hike in on Sunday.  Hooray!!  I’ve been wanting to hike more.  Hard to do when Sweetie works 7 days a week.  But true to his word – he told me “Just plan it and I will be there.”  So, I picked a trail-head on the northwest side, we packed up my backpack, found the trail, and away we went.  So nice to walk outside for a while.

So, to end on a good note, here are some pictures from our hike this weekend.  Aloha!

 

 

Waterfalls!

 

The trail was very muddy.  It was a little comical watching us try to get back down the hill.  There were very steep parts at the top of the hike and we slipped a lot in the wet clay mud.

 

A great view of Kahului at the northern end of Maui’s isthmus.

 

 

 

Sweetie has to get his close-ups.

 

 

Read Full Post »