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Crowned
Last week I had my permanent crown installed. It turns out the tooth I thought was getting a crown only had a filling replaced and the crown was the same side but upper jaw instead. At first I thought the lower tooth was better with regard to the food getting stuck. Today I think it’s as bad as ever and I don’t know why this is such a problem area if it wasn’t the tooth that was broken. There’s a part of me worried that it was supposed to be the lower tooth that was crowned and a mistake has been made. I would like to think that surely wouldn’t have happened and he’d have noticed the problem. The crown itself is fine. It feels rather odd at the moment but I guess I will get used it.
Last week I was also plagued with issues related to menopause. There were about 2.5 months between one period and the next so it was another of those ones that seemed to make up for the missed one and then some. Fortunately this one didn’t go on so long as the bad one last year. Still I should be taking those iron tablets and I have been slack since things settled down. This was the direct follow on from the sore throat/cold/cough that had hit the family the week before. I still have a bit of the cough but it’s not a constant thing.
I became a great-aunt last week when my nephew and his wife had a baby boy. He’s a cute little fellow and seems to be getting heaps of attention. It was an interesting case of lots of us keeping up with the progress of things via Facebook because the wife had been updating until she was induced and then my nephew kept a log during the labor. Now it seems to be back to the wife to keep track of everything.
After a bit of a break or a lapse in commitment, I have been working on a few MOOCs again. This time all three are on edX and all three are sort of biology/human body related. The one that got me going again is one about the anatomy of the upper limb. I did this course on Coursera a couple years ago and liked it. They have moved to the different platform for some reason and I have started it again. I’m enjoying it just as much as I did last time. I am pleased to remember quite a few bits but then there is plenty I have forgotten. Most of my time is spent watching videos on this one so that’s okay. There are two others that are self-paced, which works a bit better for me. One is an into biology course which I started once before but didn’t continue due to other factors at the time. It’s a fairly long course but the instructor is quite enjoyable and I think I will learn more this time around. The other is a human cell biology unit fhat’s done at an Australian university. This covers some of the stuff not included in the biology unit. My goal is to understand enough to try out the immunology courses there, which are also enjoyable. I just need to understand some of the basic processed better. It’s all quite a fascinating study for me, which wouldn’t have been the case back when I really was a student.
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Costly morning
I had the “pleasure” of sitting in the dentist chair for 90 minutes today while having a filling replaced along with the really exciting crown made for a broken tooth. I’d put off the crown from my previous regular check up due to some tight finances at the time. While our finances aren’t exactly rosy right now, there was no way to put it off any longer due to food constantly getting stuck in the broken tooth.
The first fun was having the anaesthetic injection. Not sure if it was the first or second injection that hurt going in but it wasn’t pleasant. Then further along I had another injection for the lower jaw and needed yet another before the work on the crown could progress because the numbness didn’t spread quite as far as it should have. Of course now it’s an hour after I finished and the numbness has really set in the last area.
After the numbing was the contraption to keep my mouth open. Just totally awkward all around, possibly more so in the non-numbed area since I could experience the full discomfort there. But to add insult, I was expected to open and close my mouth to varying degrees anyway. I don’t think I had this done when I had my root canal years ago although I’m sure there was something used to open up the mouth. Anyway, The work is finished and we are hundreds of dollars poorer, even after the insurance kicks in. I go back in two weeks to insert the permanent crown.
I will add that the dentist did give a discount to the service today and I’m not totally sure why. The only reason I could consider is I was asked to rinse my mouth and spit and ended up with water all over my clothes due to the combined effects of contraption and numbness. It did dry up by the time I left and I wasn’t that fussed about it…mostly a bit embarrassed at the time.
Our doctor’s office is in the same building as the dentist so I stopped in there to check on a new prescription for some medication that I’d requested online. I asked for it a couple of days ago but hadn’t heard anything so thought it easy enough to check while there, numbness aside. Turns out I needed to see a doctor for that particular medication. The receptionist had said I could get in to see another gp shortly and had me sit down. But happily my recent doctor was free and had me come in immediately and wrote my prescription out. No charge for the visit either. I really do like this doctor a lot. And I can make appointments online. I do fear she is going to become so popular that she’ll stop seeing new patients and I will end up in the situation of having to phone in each time again.
Funnily enough I went to the pharmacy straight afterwards and the lady who took the script from me was rhapsodising about the same doctor. I really should fear her becoming too popular. :)