not sure what purpose they serve....other than INTENSE mindblowing pain...
The Friday before Thanksgiving I HAD to have mine removed. "They" were impacted... and one had become infected.
Contrary to (my)LOGIC - you are NOT supposed to use ICE on an infection in your gums... (sure, my dentist had mentioned this...but while in pain...I did NOT care or even remember..ice felt NICE and kept the throbbing to a minimum)
I woke up the Thursday after our last class (you might have noticed the BIG cup of ice I was holding to my face) with a bright RED BLOTCH with fever in it on my right cheek. (Apparently, the dentist knew that it would cause the infection to MOVE - and "pool" in my cheek!!)
NOTE TO SELF...pay attention, Bekka
I was scheduled for surgery at 10 the next day and showed up NERVOUS (and a little cranky from NO COFFEE). I tried to be patient... I did NOT get up and harass the ladies at the front desk when I had sat there for an HOUR and had still not been called back for surgery. (its not like I had "plans" for anything else that day) I knew that it was NOT their fault that the surgeon was running late (AGAIN, I learned) but by 11... i was getting antsy...
By this point I was glad that I had chosen to be SEDATED for the whole thing. I was a wreck by the time they got the IV in! (but only for about 1 minute after!! :) )
I woke up in a recovery room, packed full of gauze, and REALLY relaxed...
I thought I was GOLDEN!
the pain wasn't too bad yet...I was relaxed and Mike got to sit in the recovery room with me... I was ready to leave, eat the painkiller that was prescribed and SLEEP!
Of course - that is NOT the way that it worked. I sat in the TINY recovery "stall" (I didnt realize at the time that Mike couldnt actually sit all the way down) for OVER AN HOUR waiting for the surgeon to come back and release me... an hour is MORE than plenty of time for the sedation and most of the lidocaine to wear off!
By the time the surgeon came in to say "did the nurses explain everything?" RW mumbles "wwwwwwwwweefff ee wwid" through the massive amounts of gauze "okay, have a good weekend" he says!! I was in TEARS (and ready to KILL SOMEONE)...
we were supposed to wait on someone to walk me to the car (YEAH RIGHT) Mike grabbed my arm to steady me and we were gone!
We made it home by about 2:00
(they had "promised" at my consultation that the surgery would only take 45 minutes and that I would be home and asleep by noon, again, YEAH RIGHT)
This is when the fun began!
I really thought that my face was going to explode! It took 3 doses of the painkiller to get me to SIT STILL! (literally, I paced my house for almost 4 hours)
My dad came by to check on me (and make sure that I had not KILLED mike) but left pretty quickly when he realized that I was in NO SHAPE for guests.
(I will admit, I am NOT a GOOD PATIENT. I was borderline HOSTILE and my poor dad has seen this LOVELY side of me after a tonsillectomy and knee surgery)
What I have NOT mentioned... is that I am one of those WEIRD people that gets WIRED from painkillers or cough syrup.... so by this point... I am in extreme pain AND I am ready to scrub my house with a toothbrush!
(I'm attempting to make a long story short here...)
We ALL lived through the weekend and went back to work on Monday!
(I was swollen like a chipmunk, still keeping an ice pack on my face constantly and had a purple/green/black/yellow bruise the size of a golfball on my cheek!)
For some reason...people think that when you have a bruise on your face and you are in obvious pain... that it is funny to make jokes about "Mike keeping me in line" ETC.ETC.ETC.
NOTE TO EVERYONE ELSE*** These jokes are NEVER funny... much less when you are in pain...
On Tuesday I went back to the surgeon to see if he would remove the stitches (they were driving me BONKERS...the knots had strings hanging that tickled...and my left side was pulling everytime I tried to smile) He removed ONE!!! (it happened to be the stitch that was attached to both my GUMS and my CHEEKS!! -- YES! MY CHEEK WAS SEWN TO MY GUM....I'm still crossing my fingers that there was a medical reason for this... ) He removed the ONE and I was pacified... at least I could smile again.
Luckily it was a short week at work (and NO CLASS) so I could go home and lay on an icepack as much as I wanted!
AND -- I was able to eat tiny bites of "mushy" foods by Thanksgiving!
(thank goodness for mashed potatoes!)
It has now been about a week and half... I am still a little swollen, I cant eat anything bigger than a CheezeIt, but at least the bruise is gone!!
(Oh - and when I went to my follow up appointment this morning.... the surgeon was "late" AGAIN.. I ended up leaving... I'll let the rest of the stitches dissolve on their own!! )
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
critters
Honestly, I am an ANIMAL LOVER. In fact - I generally like animals MUCH better than people. But lately...I'm PEEVED at all of them.
I started my workweek with a gruesome discovery... my mouse trap worked... but I am thinking it worked on Thursday last week (we had Friday off for Veteran's Day) By today -the smell was BAD...I mean reeeeeeeeeeally bad. And I had to BRIBE someone to come and remove the little mouse carcass from my office floor...
This after the LOOONG weekend I had with my own critters!
I have a Staffordshire Terrier, Taylor. She is a little over a year old- and is FINALLY starting to learn the rules-sort of. It has been at least a few weeks since the last time that she played tug o' war with my COUCH! (literally - I will come home- and the couch will be in a completely different spot... with the skirting halfway removed!!) And I recently aqcuired a Boston Terrer Mix, who we decided to call Gypsy (because she wandered into our lives!) I came home from PR class 3 weeks ago, pulled into my garage, opened the door to get out of my car, and in jumped the CUTEST little, underbite having, little bitty dog with personality galore. That is when the FUN started... (insert sarcastic tone there) Normally- I am a SUCKER for anything cute and furry. (I am highly allergic to cats- but will gladly risk my eyes swelling shut to play with a kitten! ) But that particular evening it was Mike that went outside with a bowl of food and came inside with that adorable dog... So now my 60 lb dog has what she thinks is a 15 lb dog treat! (I should have known something was weird when the little dog showed NO FEAR!) **Side Note*** I DID look for her family! Checked my neighborhood, posted her at the vets, and craigslist-- even asked the kids at the busstop!NO ONE was looking for her!**** The 2 dogs had a few spats - but became friends within a few days. THAT'S WHEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! My living room was know a WWF RING. I literally watched my coffee table get thrown across the room! Then the conspiracy started! (I thought that Gypsy would be the instigator...I was right!!) They were soon running sprints down the hall, through the kitchen, around my back yard, through people's legs, and back again! They jumped and "boxed" and the little one seemed to LOVE IT! Then they discovered that when the people leave for work-- they have ALL day to DESTROY everything--TOGETHER. The dog beds were shredded first... then the kitchen towels, ANY rug not nailed down, and lets not forget about SHOES! (dogs LOVE them as much as any woman!!) Then - they somehow figured out how to work together and get into the trashcan! (One dog has to step on the pedal - while one steals the stuff out of the bag!) I would have been amazed at the GENIUS of the plan-- if I wasn't looking at my living room covered in SHREDDED BITS of everything! I decided to "sleep in" on my day off on Friday... I made it to 8:30 before I realized that the dogs were NOT where they should be! I walked into the living room where they had DESTROYED my ET sleeping bag. Not just chewed on- they GUTTED IT! and had spread the "guts" ALL OVER THE HOUSE!! This is the sleeping bag that the big dog has slept on since the day she came to live with me! (I passed it to my "first born"... haha) The weekend SNOWBALLED downhill from there. I think I spent more time this weekend picking up bits, and chunks, and finely shredded pieces of things I used to own than I did anything else...
So now- 3 weeks into being a "multidog" family... I am POSITIVE that I will not have children any time soon!! These guys WEAR ME OUT... but as I look over and see them curled up together, sound asleep in one tangled ball, I realize that I love them... and at least I won't have to send them to college....
I started my workweek with a gruesome discovery... my mouse trap worked... but I am thinking it worked on Thursday last week (we had Friday off for Veteran's Day) By today -the smell was BAD...I mean reeeeeeeeeeally bad. And I had to BRIBE someone to come and remove the little mouse carcass from my office floor...
This after the LOOONG weekend I had with my own critters!
I have a Staffordshire Terrier, Taylor. She is a little over a year old- and is FINALLY starting to learn the rules-sort of. It has been at least a few weeks since the last time that she played tug o' war with my COUCH! (literally - I will come home- and the couch will be in a completely different spot... with the skirting halfway removed!!) And I recently aqcuired a Boston Terrer Mix, who we decided to call Gypsy (because she wandered into our lives!) I came home from PR class 3 weeks ago, pulled into my garage, opened the door to get out of my car, and in jumped the CUTEST little, underbite having, little bitty dog with personality galore. That is when the FUN started... (insert sarcastic tone there) Normally- I am a SUCKER for anything cute and furry. (I am highly allergic to cats- but will gladly risk my eyes swelling shut to play with a kitten! ) But that particular evening it was Mike that went outside with a bowl of food and came inside with that adorable dog... So now my 60 lb dog has what she thinks is a 15 lb dog treat! (I should have known something was weird when the little dog showed NO FEAR!) **Side Note*** I DID look for her family! Checked my neighborhood, posted her at the vets, and craigslist-- even asked the kids at the busstop!NO ONE was looking for her!**** The 2 dogs had a few spats - but became friends within a few days. THAT'S WHEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! My living room was know a WWF RING. I literally watched my coffee table get thrown across the room! Then the conspiracy started! (I thought that Gypsy would be the instigator...I was right!!) They were soon running sprints down the hall, through the kitchen, around my back yard, through people's legs, and back again! They jumped and "boxed" and the little one seemed to LOVE IT! Then they discovered that when the people leave for work-- they have ALL day to DESTROY everything--TOGETHER. The dog beds were shredded first... then the kitchen towels, ANY rug not nailed down, and lets not forget about SHOES! (dogs LOVE them as much as any woman!!) Then - they somehow figured out how to work together and get into the trashcan! (One dog has to step on the pedal - while one steals the stuff out of the bag!) I would have been amazed at the GENIUS of the plan-- if I wasn't looking at my living room covered in SHREDDED BITS of everything! I decided to "sleep in" on my day off on Friday... I made it to 8:30 before I realized that the dogs were NOT where they should be! I walked into the living room where they had DESTROYED my ET sleeping bag. Not just chewed on- they GUTTED IT! and had spread the "guts" ALL OVER THE HOUSE!! This is the sleeping bag that the big dog has slept on since the day she came to live with me! (I passed it to my "first born"... haha) The weekend SNOWBALLED downhill from there. I think I spent more time this weekend picking up bits, and chunks, and finely shredded pieces of things I used to own than I did anything else...
So now- 3 weeks into being a "multidog" family... I am POSITIVE that I will not have children any time soon!! These guys WEAR ME OUT... but as I look over and see them curled up together, sound asleep in one tangled ball, I realize that I love them... and at least I won't have to send them to college....
Monday, November 9, 2009
an honest question even the internet couldn't answer
Flag etiquette... not something I am normally overly concerned with... but this week is Veteran's Day...and I have a question... "Is it disrespectful to iron a flag?"
This is not a flag from a deceased family member, or even someone I know. It is a flag that I purchased - with the honest thought- to treat it with more respect than the guy I bought it from.
I never thought when I set out for a SWAPMEET in southern California that my one purchase of the day would be a flag...I wasn't looking for a flag- I had NO place to fly or even to hang a flag. I was a student - living in a somewhat furnished pool house with no air. But for some reason I was drawn to the fact that ANYONE would toss a flag into a pile and try and sell it for a few bucks.
Sadly, I had NEVER seen a "real" flag. A real life COTTON flag. The kind that fades, and becomes thin and worn in the wind. I had only ever seen the polyester kind that was supposed to be hurricane proof and sounded like wind pants whenever it touched itself.
I was appalled by the grungy guy that thought it was okay to SELL this flag with all of his other junk. I had no idea what he wanted for it -I really didn't care and I probably would have cleaned out my measly bank account to take it with me...Luckily the price was right! (meaning cheap enough for a college student with only a part time job) I took my "piece of history" home with me, folded it carefully into a bad triangle, and it has traveled with me to every place I have lived since. Eventually, my grandmother handed down my grandfather's passport, with his many stamps from his military service and a few crayon marks from another unmentioned grandchild, to the horror of my three uncles. Soon after, my parents gave me a small "shadow box table" and in it I keep my badly folded but prized flag, that passport and a few black and white shots of my grandfather with his hair combed exactly as I remember it. So- As Veteran's Day approaches this year, and I help to plan the second annual Blind Veterans Appreciation Luncheon. -I would like to display this flag, give it a place of honor, I ask "Is it disrespectful to iron it first?"
This is not a flag from a deceased family member, or even someone I know. It is a flag that I purchased - with the honest thought- to treat it with more respect than the guy I bought it from.
I never thought when I set out for a SWAPMEET in southern California that my one purchase of the day would be a flag...I wasn't looking for a flag- I had NO place to fly or even to hang a flag. I was a student - living in a somewhat furnished pool house with no air. But for some reason I was drawn to the fact that ANYONE would toss a flag into a pile and try and sell it for a few bucks.
Sadly, I had NEVER seen a "real" flag. A real life COTTON flag. The kind that fades, and becomes thin and worn in the wind. I had only ever seen the polyester kind that was supposed to be hurricane proof and sounded like wind pants whenever it touched itself.
I was appalled by the grungy guy that thought it was okay to SELL this flag with all of his other junk. I had no idea what he wanted for it -I really didn't care and I probably would have cleaned out my measly bank account to take it with me...Luckily the price was right! (meaning cheap enough for a college student with only a part time job) I took my "piece of history" home with me, folded it carefully into a bad triangle, and it has traveled with me to every place I have lived since. Eventually, my grandmother handed down my grandfather's passport, with his many stamps from his military service and a few crayon marks from another unmentioned grandchild, to the horror of my three uncles. Soon after, my parents gave me a small "shadow box table" and in it I keep my badly folded but prized flag, that passport and a few black and white shots of my grandfather with his hair combed exactly as I remember it. So- As Veteran's Day approaches this year, and I help to plan the second annual Blind Veterans Appreciation Luncheon. -I would like to display this flag, give it a place of honor, I ask "Is it disrespectful to iron it first?"
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
light at the end of the tunnel
So - its official - there is light at the end of the (seemingly never ending) SCHOOL tunnel! If I can continue at the current pace - I will graduate Dec 2010! (Finally a time frame that I can fathom!) At this point it is more about proving something to myself, and finishing what I started (what seems like AGES ago -- okay-- "just" 8 years on and off!!) than any of the reasons I started this insanely long journey! Sadly - I have determined that this "piece of paper" as I have come to longingly call it- will probably be LESS USEFUL than people seem to let on... SURELY the time, money, and effort will be worth something to someone besides just me....
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