Liralen's Adventures Through Life

There was mixed news at the dentist. The bite is just fine, it's that this is at least the third time this particular molar has been drilled into and there is some chance that the nerves and veins, the pulp in the tooth, is just going to die. There is some chance it will just heal on its own, but the experienced dentist here said that he thought it less likely than it failing eventually. The good news was that the X-Ray showed no deterioration along those lines, yet, and I've done this before, where the dentist was sure it was going to die, but it came back with time and being careful to not mess with it too much. It was oddly good to know that there really wasn't anything I could do for it other than wait. And it was really good to get confirmation that my dentist at home is entirely competent and that I can trust him with whatever does happen next. We headed out because it was supposed to be raining all day, and the turquoise house in the photograph was across the street ...

I've decided that if I'm going to blog about a trip, now it's only going to be the highlights and pertinent details of the day instead of doing the exhaustive and exhausting list of Everything that happened and Everything we ran into and Everything we did... That said our start to the trip to New Orleans almost didn't happen this time around. A week ago I'd had to have a crown replaced because a cavity had crept under it, and the bite just wasn't working. I'd already gone back once to get it fixed and was in considerable pain last night and despairing. I usually need a couple of weeks after a crown to get the bite to work again. I don't know why, exactly, but they never seem to get it right at the very first, other than one really lucky time. But John called them this morning and they had an early morning Emergency slot and they fit me into it. The bite got adjusted again and I asked for the Big Guns of something to get the nerves to calm down. It's ...

Huh. When I left it at that cliffhanger, I didn’t think that would come back to bite me and give me two other medical things to “deal with” in the interim. So. I’d best write before anything ELSE happens on top of all the house stuff. Best of good news with the house things: we closed on the old house!  The new owners met with us for the signing with their adorable baby boy and it was a blast. The new house is going well, and John’s checking every day, there’s a photo album of the daily progress here. The original medical thing was that my doctor’s office called me after my blood test and told me that I had the very first signs of pre-diabetes, and they just said that I should watch my carbs and get a bit more aerobic exercise and get another test in six months.  I immediately cut out the donuts and milk tea mornings on Mondays and also nearly all the candy, cookies, and treats I snuck when I was bored. Most of all, it meant that I couldn’t finish off the dregs of hon...

I think the most frustrating thing about trying to heal from overuse problems is that the list of things that I can't do basically makes up most of the "therapy". Given that most of my life has to do with what I can do, not with what I can't, it puts the focus on the wrong thing for me. And sometimes things affect the central condition that had nothing to do with video games. So, I have a better understanding of what exactly is happening, but that doesn't make it any better. I seem to have a combination of tendinitis issues in the left wrist and hand (and forearm and elbow and shoulder (top, back, and front)) along with a cervical curvature problem in my neck that is pinching the nerve bundle that goes to my entire left arm. When the narrowing in my neck gets bad, my entire left arm hurts. This also means, however, that when I ice my neck most of the pain in my left arm goes away. Except, of course, the pain that is actually due to the tendinitis. All of this ...

The hard part about resurrection is having to die first. I seem to be in the that Easter frame of mind, and my body has taken matters into its own hands. Around March 10 my left arm felt like it was on fire from my fingertips all the way to my neck, and I stopped playing all my video games. The week before I had been playing frequently, on the order of 6 to 8 hours for many of the days. There were just so many people I wanted to play with, so I was playing with the European guys in the morning, some of the night shift guys in the afternoon before they went to work, and then with Jet and his friends in the evening. Sometimes, if I was feeling restless, I would hang out with the late-night crew as well. I would take stretch breaks between matches with people, and I usually took the weekends off, other than when Jet wanted to play. Yes, that is a lot more hours than I have played for quite some time. But on the most part, I thought I felt good. I was icing and staying on top of the te...

Today was one of those days.... I was added back onto the roster of my old 6's team, I got my bee allergy shot, I helped plan a siege defense, I got to play Rainbow Siege Six for the first time with my son and his friend, I had a last minute dental appointment with my periodontist that was nearly foiled by my GPS, and I might have a mild eye infection as well. But I got Dairy Queen and good gaming. I think I'm a little tired.

Lots of things have been happening, some of them looked bad when they happened, but some of it has turned out all right. Our 20-year-old Passat died a complete death, I've had periodontal problems, and my old overuse problems with my hands and arms have come back with the competitive video gaming. None of those things were particularly surprises, per se, but they haven't been that much fun.

I had a Day, yesterday, which I was glad I finished. I work up with more tooth pain in the relatively new crown, and I was really unhappy about it. It's been happening for the last three weeks, so I finally broke down and called the dentist and got an emergency appointment at 2pm. It was amazing how much relief I simply got from having made the call, at least I'd know what was going on... So I went off to my 8:15 chiropractor's appointment with Brian, and he was careful not to jar my jaw, which was very nice of him. He commented that I finally had a curve to the top of my spine again. When I first started seeing him at the beginning of the year, the stress from the stuff happening at the church had all gone to my shoulders and neck. The muscles and tendons had been under so much tension there for so long, that they'd frozen into place and were pulling my head and shoulders forward into the classical old lady hunch. This was inline with the fact that I was pretty ...

The dentist had noticed that I had some significant bone loss around a few teeth, so he scheduled me for an extra-long session with the hygenist. I was not looking forward to that, either... but went in today to get it done. Lucky for me, the bone loss is mostly from my habit of grinding my teeth. Even with a toothguard, the loss has been pretty significant, but it's not periodontal disease, thank goodness. I don't have the inflammation, nor do I have significant plaque buildup, and my gums are healthy as can be. The hygienist was amazingly thorough, delved into places that she was even surprised she was able to get to, and ended up finishing half an hour early. She also cut the bill to just two-thirds the original quote, simply because I didn't need anything more than what she'd done. She also gave me the usual goodie bag of brush, floss, flossers (for my bridge), and toothpaste. Plus, she gave me the added assurance that my bridge was on solid, and no worries there....

I had a crown that had a hole in it and I was NOT looking forward to replacing it. At all. But I went into the dentist this morning and they took off the old crown. There was a small cavity underneath it, which they quickly removed. They built it all up again, and then took an impression of both the inside and the outside, and then made me a temporary crown and put it on. It hurt doing it, for all the doctor did a great job of applying the novocaine, to the point where I couldn't feel my tongue or that side of my mouth; but now it hurts a lot less than I thought it would. They adjusted everything beautifully, and for all that they tore up my gums pretty good getting it in and clearing out all the old stuff, the tooth itself doesn't hurt as much as it used to or nearly as much as it did when the old, badly made crown was put in place. I suspect that the cavity was starting to affect it a little, and having it covered up well, now, makes it happier. There were a lot of small ...