Note to self

Try to find info on dave frasier on KTAR. The traffic guy.

Anyone want to help in the mean time? I'll tell you why later. Rushed now.

Good Luck or Bad?

So, today I went straight in to our HR office and asked about the new dental policy. It's so new to us that we don't even have cards or a group number yet. (But at least I'm not the guy that works on his feet all day that is now walking around in a cast that I ran into while I was in there -- but I digress!) So, our "HR girl" gave me her last packet on the current policy (good for 3 more days) and tells me the link to the new one if I can't get an appointment right away.

As luck would have it, MY dentist is on the current plan! YEAH! I give him a call and he's on vacation this week. BOO!!! And, he doesn't take the new plan, so it's time to look around. Boo!!!!

I hate looking for a new doctor ALMOST as much as looking for a new job! (Yup, you guessed it! Boooooooo!!!!!)

I figured, what the heck -- just start at the top of the list and call to see who can get you in. At this point, it almost doesn't matter. Or does it?

The first few offices had only answering machines on the phone, so I assumed they were closed for the holidays as well. Then I decided to at least NOT choose a dentist that was WAY far away and TRY to find one close to home or work. The next one I called, I got a VERY professional and pleasant girl on the phone and she asked if I could get there by 1:30 that very same day!!!! Yeah!!!! What great luck!!!!

I mean, Wooo hoooo!!!!!!!!

I'LL TAKE IT!

But, as soon as I hang up, I wonder why they are able to get me in immediately. Does the dentist suck? Boo?

I don't think he does!!!! Yeah!!!!!

BUT.

Wait, that should be a BIG "BUT!"

The thing is, my tooth was NOT hurting when I went in to see him. Perhaps I could have (hypothetically) lived an entire year with my pain-free broken tooth like those that offered me (very welcomed!) solace when I voiced my anxiety over the broken tooth situation. But, in the PROCESS of getting it fixed, something is now exposed that was not before.

NOW it hurts! I mean, it really hurts!!! Boo!!!!!

BUT, it's not a BAD kind of hurt. It's the kind of dull pain that I can DEAL with! Yeah!!! Not that stabbing throbbing pain that I had feared prior to heading in to the drill master. ;) (That's a hypothetical Boo!!!!)

BUT! they warned me that the temporary crown may not last through the weekend! WTF?!?!?! Boo!!!!

BUT! at least they WARNED me about that and I can avoid it! Yeah!!! Poor Marti was young and dumb and completely unwarned when he got his first crown and decided it was a GOOD idea to eat gummy bears or hot tamales (he can't remember) and lost his first crown. (Ya think?)

So, in the time it has taken me to turn on my PC and form at least THIS part of this post, my pain has subsided! YEAH-DI-FREAKIN-YEAH!!!!!!!! Yes, people, Excedrin KICKS ASS on dental pain! You know how they say certain pills work better on certain types of pain? Well, put Excedrin down for dental pain!!! I don't even know it exists right now! And, I knew to do this because last time I had dental pain, it also worked like a charm. Excedrin is my new "ass kicker" if I ever have dental pain! I'm just sayin'!!!!

So, anyway, I got the tooth drilled down today (yeah?) and got a temporary crown put on until they can get a permanent one molded and matched at the lab. YEAH! And, the temporary one is white and not silver! Yeah! BUT, I wonder, after I TOLD the girl that I didn't CARE if the temporary crown was silver, if they will bill me for the difference? Insurance will surely not cover the extra cost on something that will be thrown away in a week or so. Boo!

The thing is, it turns out that I finally have come to the realization (at 40 years old!!!) that I seem to have some sort of weird immunity to Novacaine! BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! (I see I'm not the only one with this problem: Novocaine Issues ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~...........~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ And yet another link, just to convince myself that I'm not crazy...

We started at 2:05 pm after he gave me my first shot. He let me sit there about 15-20 minutes maybe to let it take effect. I don't ever remember a dentist letting me stew on it so long, so this was a welcome procedure! (Uh, YEAH!) I was feeling plenty swollen by the time he returned, but as soon as he started drilling, I knew I was in for it again. Just as I always fear, I got the huge jolts of pain when he hit certain areas of my tooth. He calmly told me to relax, but how can I???? (Uh, BOOOOO!)

So, after about 3 major jerks away from his drill, he concedes that maybe I need another shot. He gave me one in the front of my jaw and another in the back where the first one was. And then, of course, I wait.

He returns and the drilling resumes. Do you want to guess what came next?

You're right! A big BOOOOO!!!!

I can still feel PAIN and by now I'm actually, for the first time in my conscious memory, crying in the dentist chair! (Well, boo.) I don't even remember crying as a child!!!!! (And I got a LOT of fillings as a child!)

So, as I wipe my eyes and tremble, he backs off and gives me another shot, then allows me to stew for a little longer. An over an hour has passed and he's barely started because I keep needing more shots. (No fault of his own, but boo.)

He worked around the sensitive spot and then after my 4th dose, we mutually agreed (in unspoken "suck it up and let's get this over with" terms) to just blast through it.

He did his best to avoid the area (I could feel where he worked, so I know he was doing this) until the end and then I just clenched every muscle in my body and let him have at it. It still hurt like a mother, but when he said he was almost done, it was what I needed to hear and we were soon done. (Boo for the pain, but yeah for the done!!!!)

I swear. Next time I visit a dentist when drilling is a possibility, I am SO shoving a piece of coal up my ass! I will surely have diamonds by the time everything is done! ;)

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Side note:

As much as I hated every moment of what happened today, I am SO thankful to the guy for getting me in and patiently working through the procedure with me! It must SUCK to have a job where you literally make people cry when trying to help them! What a thankless job that must be!

To every dentist out there, I offer my humble thanks. For every tear of pain I've shed in your chair, you have, no doubt, saved me hundreds of tears in the privacy of my own home, I'm sure.

Merry Christmas, Lisa...

My tooth broke today. And, my grandma died on Christmas Eve. I know the part about my grandma is not "all about me" and that is not the point of this post. What happened to her is just one of those things, and the family is doing fine. Per her son (who was doing his best to do what he thought she would have wanted) we carried on with Christmas Eve dinner that night. She also wanted to be cremated, so we didn't have a memorial service yet.

Here's where it becomes my disaster.

For those that don't know, I am in accounting. We're coming up on month end, as well as year end. My boss and I are basically the entire A/R department, so if either of us are gone at key times, it begins to suck. I already took Christmas Eve off (a normal work day where I work), and will be taking Friday off after the New Year's Day holiday. The first day of the month after the end of the month is kind of sort of the biggest day of all for getting this closing thing done.

SO... Did I mention: my tooth broke today! I will post a picture at the end, so don't scroll down if you don't want to see it. I put it in black and white so it's not as graphic.

About 1/4 of my tooth just fell off when I was chewing, exposing some pretty darn fleshy material inside. I'm petrified of the stabbing throbbing pain that I just know is coming if I can't get in to see a dentist soon. There was a filling in the middle, so there's not much left of the tooth now that it's all filling and the "good part" has begin to fall apart.

What makes this suck in so many ways is that my insurance changes at the first of the year, so I don't even know which dentist to see or how soon anyone can take me in.

I've already taken all this time off work and have been trying to stay caught up so it won't have as much of an impact, but now it looks like I will have to just "take off" for yet another thing.

Oh, and did I mention I need to schedule this around a memorial service for my grandmother? Just my luck, someone will be able to get me in, and it will be when I'm supposed to be at the service.

And, I didn't mention that the reason I'm taking off the first and second of January is because we're supposed to take a trip for the long weekend. That makes scheduling an appointment, uh, sort of inconvenient.

How can one little tooth have the potential to screw up SO many things? I guess it's a good thing I'm not pregnant, because that could really throw a wrench in this thing, too! Oh, wait, I guess there is a 1% chance that I maybe could be if there was a MAJOR fluke I didn't track right. Nice.

Well, as promised, here's the picture.

Broken Dreams

Men, consider yourself warned. While not at all graphic, this one is about female functions and baby making!

Without getting too much into the gory details, I thought there might be a chance I could have gotten pregnant this month! Well, that was short lived, and I see the signs that I thought meant my cycle was off have changed back into the normal range and I'm probably still waiting to ovulate. (Side note for those that don't know: I take my temperature almost every day and unfortunately chart to avoid getting pregnant now, when that started as a way to try to GET pregnant.)

Marti is a typical guy in that he doesn't always listen very well. I showed him an ovulation monitor gadget this weekend that indicated I would probably ovulate soon. Then, that night he asked what day I was on, to which I replied, "7 or 8." Well, turns out I was really at the end of day 9 (I couldn't remember on the fly like that and underestimated), so really, I was sneaking up on that magical "day 14" that hopeful mommies live for! The next day he said he thought I said "4 or 5" rather than "7 or 8" when he had asked! HUH!?!?!?! Because it interfered with a trip we were taking last weekend, he knew when I started my last period as much as I knew when it was, and he's even better with numbers than I am!

Also, the very next day my temperature was elevated, so I thought that was going to indicate I ovulated early this month. Alas, that was just a fluke and I'm back within normal range again. :(

I was so excited at the possibility of trying and really enjoyed considering it for those couple of days that it seemed like it could be a real possibility! Dang it!

I even imagined giggling with another little girl someday about how she got here. Of course, the little girl would be grown up and we'd be sharing a bottle of wine by the time I'd share THIS kind of story with her! Ha ha! It would have started with, "Your dad doesn't listen very well..."

Anyway, it was all just stupid me hoping and now I know it's not going to be true. As much as it bums me out, I guess it was fun while it lasted.

I often think about how I deal with NOT getting pregnant now and sometimes get additional insight into what I feel that maybe I hadn't THOUGHT yet. One of my latest thoughts was in relation to Abby playing. When it's time to go, we need to tell her she has a couple more minutes or else she gets upset. I GET this. She wants to finish what she started or have a chance to do something she hadn't gotten around to doing yet, and THEN leave. If we give her a heads up that we're leaving soon, things go MUCH easier!!!

This is kind of how I feel. I think I would let go of all of this if I had a chance to try this one more time before just walking away. We wanted two kids. Last time I got pregnant would have been our second kid, but that didn't work out. After that, I always thought we'd try for another one -- and to some degree we sort of tried, but it was always half-assed. It was half-assed because with my job and the insurance situation, things didn't align perfectly. At the time, I was sort of OK with half-assing it because I always thought that there would BE a time to give it my all later. When Marti finally said he was tired and decided we were done, I didn't have a say in it. I respect his wishes, as I would expect him to if I didn't want another one, but it ultimately is not my choice.

So, when this happy accident almost happened, I took it as my last chance. If I got pregnant and lost another one, I would at least have gotten that "two minute warning" and made the most of it. I never got to say, "This is the last one" before I was taken out of it.

Just for the record: I'm still not over this. I deal with it better now because I find the positive things about having just one, but I still long for one more.

Abby Swims! (Sort Of...)

We got Abby into swimming lessons not too long ago, and she is now officially sort of swimming. ;) I wouldn't toss her in the pool and expect her to find her way to the edge just yet, but she did jump off her platform, make her way over to her teacher, and then roll over to take a breath all on her own yesterday! Woo hooo!!! I got a tear in my eye just watching it. She did it over and over and over. You can see the teacher in this video looking up for us to see that we caught the moment. It was not to be missed!!!

I'm so proud of my little one!!!

Click this link. Abby's First Swim

The pool is behind glass, so you can't hear the class noise. All you can hear is the noise of other parents. (Oh, and just disregard that reflection -- that would be the big window we get to watch through!)