Vacation Plans Go Awry

With a week off from work, I had a list of projects I wanted to get done around the house. Things that had been on the list for years, but had been neglected because I'd spent so much time in Minnesota helping my parents try to clean out their house. But that's another story. Anyway, we started on the office that first weekend. Then, on Monday, I had a doctor and dentist appointments, but that was one day. We'd pick up again on Tuesday.

Well, not quite. I've had knee issues all my life--okay, not quite, but I did see a doctor about my right knee for the first time when I was around 13, so most of my life. Since I've moved to Georgia, though, my knee issues have been getting worse and worse, and since December, my knee hasn't felt good at all.

I mentioned this to my doctor. She referred me to an orthopedist. Okay, one more appointment for the week. I was able to get in on Wednesday. And I was given an injection of steroids in my knee! And also referred to physical therapy for four weeks, twice a week. Sigh.

Then there was my dentist appointment where the hygienist discovered a cracked tooth. I knew what this meant because I'd had this happen before. Crown. And when the dentist came in, she agreed that it was a good idea to take care of this before the tooth broke. I've had a broken tooth and didn't want to go through that again, so it was decided.

I was lucky and they had an opening on Thursday. At 8am. Gah! But I took it because I didn't want to have to take more time off work.

So my vacation--which wasn't going to be fun to begin with--became a lot worse than expected. First, a needle in my knee, which didn't feel good for more than 24 hours after receiving it. And second, nearly two hours in the dentist's chair getting most of the crown work done. All that's left on that is the permanent crown.

My office remains a disaster.

Seeing the Outback By Camel

I've been lucky enough to travel to a lot of cool places. One of my very favorites was Australia. I loved it there and would have happily moved there until I found out about all the spiders and venomous snakes. ::shudder:: I spent four weeks down under and have a lot of great memories, but one of the highlights of the trip was something I didn't want to do.

When I went to Australia, I traveled with my parents and my dad did a fair amount of work setting up some of the tours. One of the things he arranged was a camel ride while we were in Alice Springs. I was not looking forward to this and I'm sure I complained about it. Probably a lot.

No one was more surprised than me when it ended up being a lot of fun! Well, once my terror subsided.

You see, camels have an odd gait. I thought I was going to fall off with every step. I was also worried that one of the other camels in the line would bite me. Camels have a reputation as not being the friendliest creatures ever. But once I felt confident that I wasn't going to end up in the hospital, I started enjoying the trip.We traveled through a dried out river bed--and yes, I did worry about a flash flood suddenly swooping down on us and whisking camels away.

The trip ended at a vineyard where we had dinner and tasted wine. Well, my parents did. I'm not much of a wine drinker. Then we got in vans for the trip back to the hotel. They probably didn't want guests on camels after the wine or in the dark.

I try to remember this when it comes to being open to new experiences. Here I'd resisted and groused about the camel trip and it ended up being an awesome time.

Vacation Fun?

I spent the last two weeks up in Minnesota, and since my parents don't have internet, that meant being out of touch online. My vacation wasn't quite as fun as I might have hoped. My first day back, I went to see my dentist because I don't have on in Atlanta yet.

I mentioned that I'd been having a little discomfort and the X-rays showed a cavity. An old filling had parted from the tooth far enough to let bacteria in. Because I already had a lot of filling, this mean I needed a crown. Okay. well, that isn't much fun, but it could be worse. I've had a crown before and it wasn't the worst thing ever.

And, my dentist said, this decay looks awfully close to the nerve in the tooth. If it penetrated we might need to do something else.

Silly me, I didn't understand what "something else" was. I found out.

Yes, after she got the old filling out and got rid of the decay, the nerve was affected. She couldn't finish the crown until I had a...Root Canal! ::gasp:: ::sob::

It wasn't as painful as I'd heard, but the endodondist (I think I spelled that right) said that it was a ticking time bomb. I guess then that it's a good thing that I got it taken care of while I was home. I have a dentist there that I trust and she referred me to the root canal specialist.

While the experience wasn't all that painful, it did mean that I had five different dental-related appointments and that meant I didn't get much of anything else accomplished while I was home. And having fun? No. :-/