Once upon a time, the coming of March was a source of much angst around here.  But I think it’s safe to say that March and I are on good terms now.  No hard feelings and all that.  And now… March is just another month.  And hey, at least the weather is still (usually) cool in March.  So far, July and August are looking pretty stinky in comparison.

Side note: anyone that can find my husband a job at a university or college in Oregon gets my undying love and adoration.  Actually, this probably goes for any state in our great nation save for Arizona, New Mexico and perhaps most of Texas (for obvious reasons).

Cuz, you know.  The love affair with Reno was over probably ten years ago.  Perhaps more.  And yet… we’re still here!  Fancy that.

I went to see the dentist yesterday.  This is a guy that Kile went to go see about a year or so ago.  And who was supposed to be the one pulling my tooth but we decided that we couldn’t wait that long.  So I went somewhere else.  And they hurt me.  (Let’s not speak of it again, shall we?)  This office was really nice (they had a Keurig!  That’s aces in my book!) and high tech and everyone was so friendly it bordered on creepy.  But that’s okay.  And I’m going back next Tuesday for a cleaning and a filling.  Yep, we have a game plan for my mouth.  Which isn’t as intimidating as I was expecting because apparently (save for that tooth that had to be pulled, obviously) my mouth is in pretty good shape.  Considering.  So yay!   Go me.

I also got a new pair of glasses yesterday!  SO EXCITING.  Well okay, that’s probably not fair.  My old pair broke a few weeks ago and we had a temporary solution in place until the new pair could arrive.  Which they did, yesterday.  They look a lot like my old pair.

But whatever.  I’m not a big one on change, apparently.

I’m still pretty pleased with how I’m doing these days.  Today is a little difficult and I’m at a loss as to why, but for the most part, I am not having a hard time at all finding the happy in each day.  Considering where I was at even a few months ago, that is HUGE.  It’s one of those things, where you never really realize just HOW bad something was until you’re better.  And then you look back and go, “DAMN, that was messed up.”  I mean, I knew it was messed up at the time.  Now, I just know HOW messed up.   So lets all cross some fingers that I don’t go back THERE.

It’s just a little apathy.  I’m sure it’ll pass with the day.

Then again, it could have been not having coffee this morning.  What the heck!  I better have two cups tomorrow just to make sure.  Snort.

Happy March!

You know, aside from that whole “tooth thing”, this has been an awesome month.  I’m almost sad to see it come to an end.  Because March is up next and even though March and I have made up, it’s a new entity and I’m rather fond of February right now.  But, the good news is: I’m willing to bet that March will be awesome too.  Because I will MAKE IT SO.

See that?  Right there?  That’s called “Progress”.  And I’ve made some.

Go me!

See… I may have a few extra pounds I’m battling.  My facial skin may be doing really weird things and kinda freaking me out whenever I look in a mirror.  I may have days where I want to pull every single hair out of my head from the frustration of my daily life.  But you know what?  It doesn’t matter.  Not really.  It’s all just background noise and how I feel is pretty much more important than all that petty stuff.  I can rise above weight, flaky skin and frustration.  If today is a bad day, well… tomorrow is a chance for a better day.  And I can make it so by not letting the stupid stuff get me down.

I’m going to be going to the dentist and taking care of my teeth because I never ever want to be back in that chair, waiting for another tooth to be pulled.  That was awful.  That was not fun.  That was not cool. My appointment is on Monday.

You know what else I’ve decided?  I’m a pretty rad person.  And yes, I just used the word “rad”.  And it’s not even 1986!  Seriously though.  If someone else doesn’t agree with my level of “rad-ness”, then that’s their deal.  Not mine.  I’m pretty cool just the way I am, faults and all.  I am who I am and plenty of people think that’s awesome.  So “bugger off” to those that don’t.  And a high five to the ones that do.  No angst, just the truth.

Also:  I look pretty decent when I wear a black top.  I need to wear more black tops.  Also also: I need more good bras.  I bought two recently and I need more because believe it or not, they help too.

So I feel pretty good today.  And I just wanted to share it.  This good mood could perhaps be partially because I ordered a lot of awesome yarn this morning.  I’ll never tell!  (But awesome yarn DEFINITELY helps.)

So… after I posted on Friday about how good things are.. things became… worse.  Isn’t that funny how that happens?  But I really felt AWFUL.  I mean… AWFUL.  And I had felt awful for days and was getting so tired of feeling awful when I really should be feeling much better.  I mean, the antibiotics were supposed to to help, right?  Why did I feel AWFUL?

So, I did what any sane person would have done days ago and googled the antibiotics I was taking.  DING DING DING!

Yeah… turns out that if you’re throat swells up and is painful and you feel weak and tired… those are BAD things to experience while on these antibiotics.  HUH!  Who knew?  So I sorta worried.  I told Kile and he didn’t seem terribly concerned.  I went to take a nap after I laid the kids down and honestly wondered if I’d even wake up from the nap at all.  I was feeling a little dramatic, I guess.

Anyhow, I DID wake up.  And Kile brought me home a new prescription for amoxicillin so I could stop take the demon antibiotics (cephalexin, for those of you who are keeping score).  He also got me a bumped up extraction appointment with a different dentist for 11am Saturday morning.

GULP.

He found me an oral surgeon, in hopes that this might increase my chances of getting more than just Novocaine in the way of anesthetic.  He needn’t have bothered.  Because Novocaine was all I got.  And yeah, it went about as well as you’d expect.  For example: I nearly passed out as they were trying to extract my tooth.  I had to gargle something about “feeling woozy” (though I’m sure it came out more like “sfelseelingh fwshooosssie” or somesuch).  The assistant tole me later that I scared her, how white I was.  They laid me back right away and gave me a few minutes to collect myself.  I think it was because I forgot to breathe.  I was so nervous and tense and on edge that I was holding it all in, including air.  So yeah, that would make a person feel a little lightheaded, don’t you think?

They went at the tooth again, and this time I made a point to focus on breathing.  When I wasn’t manually timing my breaths, I was willing the tooth to come out.  Because if it didn’t, the dentist was threatening to send me downtown to get it surgically removed.  Which, I figure, would mean general anesthesia which YAY but that’s something that I could have used a half hour ago.  Now that I was in the middle of it, I just wanted the stupid thing over with.  It was a nightmare.  So that tooth had to come out.  IT JUST HAD TO.

And it did.  The dentist cracked a joke about how it nearly broke her wrist.  We won’t say how my jaw feels now, DAYS later.  Because even hopped up on ibuprofen, I can still tell my jaw is a wreck.  Sore doesn’t quite begin to describe it.  As she pulled the tooth out, I could feel it on the other side of my face.  That can’t be good, right?  At the very least, we’re talking some good bruising.

But whatever.  The tooth came out.  I laid back in the chair until Kile came to fetch me.  Then I beat a hasty retreat out of there, hopefully to never return.  Oh, I will be going to a dentist.  Just not THAT one.  I already have an appointment in with Kile’s dentist for a week from today for a follow-up appointment and a care plan for all the other trainwrecks waiting to happen in my mouth.  Believe you me, I decided in that chair Saturday afternoon that I NEVER, EVER wanted to have to go through that again.  So help me God.

So Saturday was pretty much a wash.  I took a nap, I packed my mouth with tea bags (they totally help, yo), I watched movies and ate a Wendy’s frosty.  And somewhere in there it started to snow.  I wasn’t really expecting that.  I don’t think anyone was expecting that.  It was 60 degrees out just a few days ago.  Now snow?  What the heck? By the time we went to bed, it was getting seriously deep.

By the time we woke up, it was deeper.  Kile figures we must have gotten about 2 feet of snow out of it.  So much for any plans of leaving the house on Sunday!  Which was probably okay because if we stopped anywhere to eat, it’s not like I could EAT anything.  And that would just be depressing.  But being cooped up in the house sucks too.  All in all, I will say, it was a rather lame weekend.  For a month as awesome as February has been, I expected a little more.  Boo.

But hey, at least I got some purty snow pictures, right?  Yay.

So yeah.  This tooth of mine.  It’s gotta go.  That’s all there is to it.

I have an appointment with Kile’s dentist for next Wednesday morning.  Yank, yank and it’s a done deal.  OH that makes it sound SO EASY, doesn’t it??   But you must remember that I got into this predicament in the first place because of my distaste for visiting the dentist.  So while getting this tooth the FREAK out of my mouth is a very appealing notion indeed, it doesn’t really mean I am 100% at peace with the whole thing either.  Because I’m pretty sure they aren’t planning on using general anesthesia.  And anything less is liable to result in some serious anxiety on my part.  Because, HELLO, they’re going to yank a tooth out.  I don’t care how much nitrous oxide I’m hopped up on, that’s bound to freak me out just a TOUCH.

Still.  The tooth and I are no longer friends.  Nay, I daresay we are enemies.  And the sooner we are parted from each others company, the better.

Isn’t it funny?  This last weekend, I had pain.  Persistent, throbbing, sometimes stabbing pain.  Tuesday was a weird wash of Vicodin and mile markers across Nevada.  And yesterday.  Oh, yesterday.  That is when I learned about tooth pain FOR REALS.  Because before it was just playing with me.  Now it means business.

We had a frantic morning, as Kile was having a procedure done on his leg to rid him of a particularly nasty varicose vein.  So the kids and I had to tag along so we could drive him home afterwards.  And this meant eating breakfast on the run.  Which was a bagel.  And you would think that my mouth being as sore as it was that morning, would prevent me from even TRYING to bite into that bagel.  Even from the other side of my mouth.

You would be wrong.

The pain was such that I burst into tears.  I’m not even remotely kidding.  It was awful, awful, awful.

Eventually my ibuprofen and coffee kicked in and I felt remotely normal.  I just knew that I really needed to stay ahead of the pain.  The swelling started to set in yesterday and now, today, I have a goose-egg underneath my jaw.  Tender and lumpy and painful to the touch.  Eventually I’m sure these antibiotics will start doing whatever it is they’re supposed to do.  And I’m hoping that causing that swelling to go down will be one of those things.  As it stands, I feel like I have a sore throat when I swallow.  Even though I don’t.  And that sucks.

So pain is my life.  For the next several days at least.  I’m not good with pain, for the record.  So, you know, if you’re a praying sort, you might want to toss one my way.  I think I might need it!

The trip to Elko itself?  Very nice.  We had a good time with Kile’s family.  Sunday was a big highlight for me, as the day was practically CROWDED with good times.  I love days that are crowded with good times.

But, and of course there is a but because that is exactly the sort of luck I have, it wasn’t perfect.  By a long shot.  Because I neglect my health.  In this particular case?  My dental health.  I’ve mentioned before that I need some work done on some teeth.  And that I’ve been clenching my jaw at night causing already unhappy teeth to be even unhappier.  But it was never a major problem and as such, was easy to ignore.

Hoo boy.  Folks?  Don’t ignore pain when it involves your teeth.  I know, I know.  Smarter, prettier and awesomer people than I have said this.  At the time that I read that post, I had pain.  But it wasn’t OMGKILLMENOW pain.  And while I knew that I was glimpsing down the road at my future, I still ignored my own pain.  Because, hello? DENTIST.  Nuh-uh.  I can be an immature brat when I wanna be and when it comes to the dentist, I am an immature brat of monstrous proportions.

So when I tell you that Sunday afternoon I said, “FINE, take me to a dentist and have them KILL IT,” that should tell you how bad it was.

Of course, in full accordance with Murphy’s Law, this pain didn’t really set in until we left town on Saturday.  As we drove towards Elko, the pain in my jaw persisted.  This was aggravating because I had taken four (count em’: FOUR) ibuprofen before leaving home for this very reason.  And to have those FOUR ibuprofen not do diddly?   GAHHHH!

We arrived in Elko in good time, but not in good spirits.  Besides my pain, the kids had been horrid.  Mostly: Liam had been horrid.  Letting him out to run and play at McDonald’s in Winnemucca had helped substantially.  But the fact remains that when Liam is bored, he is ornery.  And he was very bored. (Note to self: next car MUST have a dvd player.)  So to say we were frazzled is probably a big understatement.  And my jaw… oh my jaw.  OH MY JAW.  I took more ibuprofen.  I applied a heated gel pack.  Rinse and repeat for the next several days.

Have you ever tried to knit and hold a hot pad on your face at the same time?  Probably not.  Because it can’t be done.  So I did get SOME knitting done.  But not anywhere near what I wanted to get done.  But it is what it is.  And I could live with it if it meant no more stabbing pain in my jaw.  Yep, we’d progressed from ache to OMGKILLMENOW.  The combination of the ibuprofen and heat helped considerably, but nothing abated the pain entirely.

Of course, by the time I finally willing to give in on the whole dentist thing, the dentist was closed (this was a 7day place that was also open on Sundays).  So we resolved to call in the morning.  In the meantime, I wanted to enjoy the rest of my Valentine’s Day.  Kile took me out to a very nice dinner at the Nevada Dinner House, which we later learned had gotten a “bad rep” in town for the new management’s shake-up of the menu and prices and such. But we loved it.  In fact, we may like it even better now.  No, check that, we DO like it even better now.  I had a chicken parmigiana that puts all other chicken parmigiana’s to shame. TO SHAME.  It was so good.  And yeah, a little pricey.  But you get soup and bread and salad and Basque-style beans and french fries with your meal.  And all of it is DELICIOUS.  We even got some wine with our meal and we loved THAT so much that we bought a bottle to take home and enjoy on our anniversary this summer.   I’m so glad we picked there to eat.  Best meal I’ve had in a long time!

The next morning, Kile called the 7 day dentist place and they were booked.  They promised to call if there was a cancellation but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.  So he found another dentist who could fit us in at 4:30pm.  I wasn’t terribly encouraged since that was hours and hours and hours of pain pain pain away and being that was the end of the work day… what could they really do for me in a half hour?  Kile and I both predicted pain killers and antibiotics.

Which… is what happened.  BUT… I think that would have happened at 9:30am too.  Because my tooth is alllll messed up.  (For the record, its the back tooth on the lower left side of my jaw.)  The size and placement of the cavity meant that a root canal just wasn’t going to work.  There would be no where to put a crown that would be secure enough.  The dentist recommended extraction.  And I was all for it because OMGTHEPAIN.  But first we have to get rid of the infection down at the root of the tooth.  I won’t go into all the reasons why but suffice it to say, that it’s hard to kill pain on a tooth that’s infected.  And I’m all about killing the pain.  So antibiotics it is!

I knew better than to even TRY to Vicodin I was prescribed until bedtime.  This isn’t my first rodeo and be it Percoset or Vicodin, I have no business taking either of those when I expect to be upright and/or coherent.  I woke up in the middle of the night… or actually it was 4:30am but that’s just as well as the middle of the night to a non-morning person such as myself.  So I took another.  And I believe that was my fatal flaw.  Because when I woke up about 8am, I was still firmly in the grips of the Vicodin.  And I was still in the grips an hour and a half later when we hit the road and I discovered that I could not knit in the car while on Vicodin.  Possibly, I cannot knit NOT in the car while on Vicodin.  But in the car is a DEFINITE no no.  A few hot flashes later, Kile got me a sprite and I proceeded to slouch forward with my head in my hands until we got to Winnemucca.  This was around 11am at this point, for those of you who are keeping track.  Kile took the kids in to play, eat and run off steam and I stayed in the car.  To sleep.  And I did.  (Anyone who knows me is probably picking their jaw up off the floor because I do not sleep in cars.) (Ever.)  I woke up feeling a bit better and definitely determined to not let this get the better of me.  Kile grabbed me a plain McChicken sandwich and between that and my Sprite, I was able to get some food on my belly in hopes of getting my strength back.  But first, apparently, I needed to nap some more.  So I did.

I woke up some where between Lovelock and Fernley.  And felt much better.  So I was actually able to try to knit.  By the time we had passed Fernley, I felt almost my old self again.  You know, at nearly 2pm in the afternoon.  TWO O’CLOCK.  Over 9 hours after taking the last pill.  Are you KIDDING me?  A half hour or more after that, I started to feel pain in my jaw again.  That was some EVIL Vicodin.

So we’re home now.  And I’ve taken some ibuprofen like a a smart person would.  Kile, meanwhile, is having a procedure done on his varicose vein in his leg tomorrow and picked up a prescription for that this afternoon.  Included?  Vicodin.  I told him to RUN AWAY.  It’s up to him if he actually listens to me or not.  Let my experience be a lesson!  STAY AWAY FROM THE VICODIN!!

How on EARTH do people ever get addicted to this stuff?  I never want to take another one again as long as I LIVE.  One less thing to worry about, I guess.

Aaaaand…. Liam is being a jerk which must mean he’s bored.  So I better go attend to that.  Or wring his neck.  You know, one or the other.   I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day and that no one else is anticipating getting of their teeth yanked in the weeks ahead.  Cuz I’m pretty darn sure that’s not going to be any fun.