Health Update--Kind of a Funny Story

Okay, actually, it's kind of a gross story.  I just e-mailed my mother with the gory details, so I'm probably going to paste that e-mail here because a lot of people have been so caring and supportive of my recovery from the concussion that I feel an obligation to keep y'all updated.

Also, it just gets more and more surreal and reminds me how lucky I am to be able to laugh at life since, as I've been saying a lot for the past week and a half, "Why does this sort of thing always happen to me?"

I've had a fair amount of pain medicine, so this might not be coherent, but here's the bottom line.

I went back to work on Monday.  I was soooooooooooo glad to see my students and my friends at work and stuff.  I was exhausted and headachy by the end of the day (and there was the barfing incident during third period), but I'd made a goal to make it through all of my classes, and I did it.  I went home fully expecting to get my grades caught up and go to bed and have all be right with the world.

Yeah, not so much.

As yesterday afternoon and evening went along, I got a ridiculous headache that sort of joined with some tooth pain I'd been having for a few days.  I've been pretty sure for a few days that I had an abscessed tooth, but I was going to wait until vacation (next week) to deal with.  I mean, in the great scheme of things health-wise, it seemed pretty small.

Yeah, that headache plus toothache kept me up virtually all night.  The pain was so awful that I was pacing the house and crying and going on Facebook to complain about not being able to sleep and ... yeah.  BAD night.

Needless to say, I didn't think going to work today was a good idea.  My original plan was to take painkillers until I fell asleep (stupid, I know, but lack of sleep is a huge problem for me under the best of circumstances, and ...) so I could actually get some rest.

Instead, I called the dentist.

To make a long story short, I had two serious problems.

First, when I fell in the shower and landed first on my face, I severely bruised most of my front upper teeth.  This would explain much of my continued pain.  Nerves are a funny thing, and who knew that tooth bruising would make your head hurt?  She was shocked that I hadn't felt pain in my teeth more directly as, over a week after the fall, the bruising was still pretty intense and showed up very clearly on the x-rays (dental x-rays are very cool, and so is my dentist ... she gave me a crash course in reading them today, and it was fascinating).

Secondly, and more significantly, the fall made whatever infection was going on in one of my back upper molars run completely amok.  Amok to the point where it had to be extracted.  Like, immediately.  Well, that's not exactly true--my dentist's office got me an appointment for an hour and a half after I left their office, which is pretty cool considering that, while I was at the oral surgeon's, people were calling to make appointments for extractions and they were booking into mid-March.

Yup, I was a bona-fide emergency.  How exciting ... (God, do I want my boring old life back when playing with my kids and hanging with Henry was how I spent my time!!!!)

So I had a tooth extracted today, fortunately a way-back molar that hopefully no one will notice until I get an implant.  The crazy part?  I think the pressure and nasty fluids swelling the now-gone tooth played a huge role in why I've been struggling with headaches and pain for this long.

I'm starting to zone out from the pain meds, plus the story's about to get a bit more graphic and disgusting, so I'm going to cop out and paste the e-mail I sent to my momma so you can get the details if you want.

Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, and love that people have sent my way ... I'm a lucky woman.

Hi Mommy,

It was horrible :-(  The doctor was really, really nice (like, if anyone had to have a tooth extracted, I would recommend him in a second), but it hurt so much!  The thing is, I don't know if you remember, but this is the first tooth I had a root canal done on and they had a really hard time getting it numb...I can still remember that from all those years ago, and let me just say that it's still not an area that is conducive to Novocaine, which I had to have in the roof of my mouth several times today.  Oh my God, Mommy, it was horrible.  Anyway, he'd get started, and then it would hurt, so he'd put more Novocaine in, then he'd do a little more, then it would hurt, and it was a horrible cycle.  He and the dental assistant/nurse person were really nice and patient, but ... owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.  He said a lot of it was probably because it was so infected, but ... yeah, owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.  And I took out the gauze when I got home to change it, and I can't get another piece of gauze in to fit comfortably, and ... did I mention owwwwwwwwwwwww?  I took two Vicodins that Dr. Myregulardenstis gave me, so hopefully they'll kick in soon because this freaking kills.

On a positive note, I'm almost positive that it's what was causing the horrible headache.  It hurts a lot where the tooth was (I think I mentioned that already ;-)), but there was a ton of pus and drainage and other lovely stuff, so hopefully I will be feeling better.  Ironically, other than the acute pain (I have to say it one more time ... owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww), there's almost like a huge relief of pressure in my whole head area.  In fact, I feel more like myself at this moment (on two Vicodins lol) than I have since I fell in the stupid shower in the first place.

I don't need anything at the moment (other than to figure out how to get the stupid gauze to fit, but that's something I'm just going to have to figure out for myself :-)), but I do have to get a prescription filled (more Vicodin, muahaha) and something to eat for the next couple of days.  Yeah, today we're talking liquid and that's it, tomorrow I can move on to yogurt and mashed potatoes for a couple of days, and then play it by ear from there.  Oh, and no straws :-(  Well, you and I WERE talking Weight Watchers, and it'll be hard to snarf down Big Macs and Girl Scout cookies in this state.  Every cloud has a silver lining, right?

I know you'll be home late, but do you know how late?  I am hoping to avoid the grocery story as I look like I got punched in the face and the bloody gauze hanging out is very attractive ... I'll drop off the prescription when I go to get the Fairy.

I think that's about it ... sorry this is so long.  Oh, also, I hid in the bathroom when the dog walking lady came.  Please don't judge ... I'm scared of her.  The funny thing is, Sonja and Mollie didn't want to go with her ... they were pretty much scratching at the bathroom door to be with me.  It should have been on YouTube, seriously ...

Love you,

:-) K
--- On Tue, 2/21/12, KLo's Mommy wrote:

From: KLo's Mommy
Subject: tooth
To: KLo
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 6:15 PM

Hi,

Glad you made it home…was it very painful to have it out?  Can you feel the difference now that the pressure is out of there?

Sorry for so many questions, I am just trying to make sure you are ok.  Do you need anything?  I am so sorry that you are going through this.

Love, Mom

Friday Fragments: The Weekly Catch-Up

Thank you once again, Mrs. 4444, for giving me the opportunity to do a fragmentary post catching up on the things that have gone on this week.  If you're a blogger and don't "frag", definitely consider it.  Visit Half-Past Kissin' Time to link up.

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I got to see both of my nephews on Sunday, which is a rarity.

My brother lives about an hour away, but he just recently moved into a new house and has been busy with that, plus he and his girlfriend work all week, so weekends are pretty much their only time together.  They brought Pete down for a day at the beach, though, and it was as always great to see them.

My sister and brother-in-law spent some time at their cabin in Maine last week, and they stopped in on their way back to Maryland.  It was wonderful to see them all, especially my nephew Eddie.  They only stopped in for a minute because they had to get the rental car back, but Eddie and Belle had a great time playing together.

****

I was so proud of my girls this week!

Belle has been desperately wanting to have a lemonade stand, and we've been putting her off.  After attending day camp at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) last week (she wants to be either a vet, a scientist, or a lion tamer when she grows up), though, Belle decided that she wanted to donate the proceeds of a lemonade stand to the SPCA.  

It was hard to say no to that ...

And I was very proud of Addie, who joined right in to help her sister out.

It's comforting to know that your kids really do get the moral lessons you try to teach them ...

****

Since my ex-husband fell into the toilet of alcoholism and irresponsibility, this week has been a tough one, considering that August 4 was the day we got married.  I still try to focus on the positives, but sometimes it's really difficult.

This is especially true when he gets it into his head to call and make me feel badly about how little he gets to see Belle (as though this is my fault), and I want to scream at him, "You're trying to make this about YOU, you SOB, and it's not about you at all ... it's about Belle and what's best for her.  Well, at least it should be!"

I was as polite as I could possibly be, and I asked that future correspondence of this nature be done through e-mail.

That stupid high road is a tough climb sometimes ...

****

Addie started marching band rehearsals this week.  When she left, there was a severe thunderstorm warning, and she had to drive through one heck of a storm.  

Although Addie doesn't mind thunderstorms (in fact, she actually enjoys them, something she certainly didn't get from me), she is still a very cautious driver.  

I was really impressed that she drove slowly and calmly.  I would have pulled into a gas station, hid in the bathroom, and cried until it was over.  

****

Belle learned to swim!

You might think that, growing up on the ocean, my kids would be strong swimmers ... but they're not.  

They have water awareness and know how to go underwater and to respect the tides and such, but actual swimming isn't something that inherently comes with ocean water.

Anyway, Belle was invited to a birthday party at a local outdoor pool.  As soon as she saw the water slides (and the lines of kids going down them), she asked me to teach her to swim (the water slides empty into 12-foot-deep water, and you have to swim a fair amount to get to the ladder or even the side of the pool)

She asked me to teach her how to swim and, after about half an hour, I felt she was a good enough swimmer to try the water slides.  She was a superstar!

Belle's the one flying off the blue slide here.

****

Summer school ended yesterday.  While I always enjoy teaching summer school, it is exhausting beyond words.  

I have three days to enjoy the summer, then I have a conference all next week, a two-day conference the week after that, and Addie and I are going up to UVM to visit the campus as soon as I get back from that one.  

What summer ;-)?

****

The summer of the dentist continues ...

Both girls went to the dentist this week, Addie to get an old filling replaced and Belle to get a cavity filled.  

Addie hates the dentist (well, not the dentist personally, just the idea of dentists in general), but Belle as always viewed it as an adventure ... and a chance to show off her truly unique personality ;-)

****

I've done a lot of reflecting this week, particularly about focusing on the positives.  When you have blessings like this, how can you not?

Friday Fragments--A Short Overview of My Week

I'm really into the whole "Friday Fragments" thing ... what a great way to do a quick catch-up on the week :-)

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So I got my hair cut last night.

It was kind of interesting because I went through a long phase of really not caring what I look like.  However, the grays were starting to get to me, and I realized that I'm 34 years old and, realistically speaking, the days when I can look really good are limited.  Plus, I'm single and looking, right ;-)?

My hairdresser was great ... I explained that I've decided that I want to start looking good (like, wear my contacts every day instead of my glasses and so on), so I gave her complete artistic license with both the color and the cut.  I'm glad that she didn't go far from my natural hair color, though ...

I was also reminded while trying to take pictures of it so that my friends could all see it via Facebook and Twitter how truly atrocious I am at taking pics of myself.

To wit ...

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On Wednesday, my mother brought Addie and Belle up to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew at their cabin in Maine.  My aunt and her partner were also there along with a lot of other cool people.  I was sorry to miss out, but I had to work in the morning and then had a dentist appointment in the afternoon (my life is currently revolving around dentists between Belle, Addie, and me).

Anyway, a good time appeared to be had by all :-)

On the way home, though, there was a very bad accident on the highway.  My mom and the girls were stuck in traffic for almost three hours ... they were about five minutes from home, but because the accident was so bad there was nothing they could do but wait.

Addie was especially shaken up by this because she is petrified of car accidents, particularly those involving big trucks.  My hearts go out to the victims of this terrible accident, and my thanks go out to whatever higher power exists for keeping my family safe.

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I am loving the summer school gig, even though I grumble about it from time to time.

Last week was especially exciting because I came up with an amazing lesson (actually, I totally stole an amazing lesson that one of my former colleagues did, but of course I adapted it a bit).

We'd been working on sequencing, following directions, and precision of language.  I felt like things were going well until I asked my students to write directions for how to make a peanut butter sandwich and most of the responses were something like:
1.  Put peanut butter on the bread.
2.  Eat it.

So I figured I'd try to come up with a creative way to get the point across ... and thus the robot game was born.  Basically, I brought in a bag of props (ranging from straws to a flyswatter to chocolate syrup), and the kids worked in small groups to give me, "the robot", directions for what to do with the props.

They loved it ... and also learned the very things (directions, sequencing, and precision of language) I'd been trying to get across.  To a child, they were able to articulate what they could have done differently and why some of the directions didn't get the results they'd envisioned because they weren't specific enough.

Regardless, I ended up covered with chocolate syrup, animal cracker crumbs, applesauce, and sticky garbage bags that were intended to protect my clothes.

Here's what happened  ....

Also, I figured I'd let the kids eat the animal crackers that were left over, and one of them found this:

Sometimes you just don't know whether to laugh or cry ;-)
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I noticed that there is a lot of bad stuff going on in New Hampshire this summer when I was reading through some of my recent Zelda Lily pieces.  I'm giving links and short descriptions, and I hope you check them out. Zelda Lily is a very cool site :-) (and not just my stuff, either!).

+ A 34-year-old mother left two bags of doggie doo and a nasty note on the doorstep of a kid her daughter was having problems with.  That sends a great message to a thirteen-year-old, don't you think?  The idea that some parents want to be "friends" with their kids ... it just scares me badly.

+ A little boy was found dead and abandoned on the side of the road.  It took several days before he was identified as Camden Hughes of Texas ... and that evidence points to his mother as the one who killed him.

+ A man was found guilty of the rape of a fifteen-year-old girl in his church congregation ... fourteen years after the fact.  In spite of the guilty verdict, it does not exactly give rape victims a lot of encouragement in terms of coming forward.  The girl's treatment by her congregation was dreadful, and this only underscores the myriad of difficulties faced by rape victims that go beyond the act itself.

+ An Amber Alert was issued for a four-month-old baby in order to capture his father, who was wanted for a crime; there was no evidence that the baby was "missing", and it was in fact known that the baby's mother was also with him.  The idea of such an important tool as the Amber Alert being used in kind of an underhanded way bothered me quite a bit.

+ A young mother disappeared without a trace, her abandoned (and still running) car with her baby daughter in the backseat puzzling the heck out of police.  Turns out the woman was killed as the result of a drug deal gone bad, and she went from a media darling to a publicity pariah overnight.

*  *  *  *
Finally, I got over my literary snobbery (again ;-)) and read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy (the other two books are Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) and Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3).  I highly recommend them and once again wonder why I am so reluctant at times to read books that "everyone" is reading; I almost always end up loving them!  So odd ...

*  *  *  *
Hope everyone's had a great week :-)

Root Canal :-(

This has been the summer of the dentist for the girls and I. I'm sitting in the waiting room of the endodontist right now, contemplating a very real problem.

I don't have dental insurance. Now, I have excellent medical insurance but, when it comes to the dentist (including the endodontist who will be doing a root canal on me shortly), it's all out of pocket.

I am fortunate--my mother is willing and able to loan me money for the dental dilemma should it become necessary (it hasn't yet, thank goodness).

I am feeling like the biggest jerk in the world, though, because I, from my orthodontically perfect smiling ivory tower, have made fun of a lot of toothless (or green-toothed) people.

It never occurred to me how lucky I was as a child that my parents had dental insurance.

This root canal is probably going to hurt a lot, and I kind of deserve it for my hubris...

Lessons Learned Today

Every once in awhile, I like to stop and think about everything I've learned over the course of a day ... and the manner of how it came about. It's thought-provoking and almost always either a real "pat yourself on the back" moment or a "How could I have handled this differently?"

So, my lessons learned for today ...

1. Rushing to charge your iPod on speakers twenty minutes before you leave for work is worse than just leaving it at home.
If you are my Facebook friend (and some of you are ... feel free to add me if you'd like, I suspect it's an entertaining feed at times), you might have noticed that my status yesterday involved lamenting how long the drive to work is without my iPod since I'd forgotten it.

I was determined not to make the same mistake again today, but of course I forgot to plug it into my computer, so I figured I'd do a quickie charge on the speakers in my bathroom while I got ready for work this morning.

I'll say this, I managed to have music for the ride to work. On the way home, though, the raw power of The Clash was silenced mid-casbah (which I was singing in full force). I was so in the mood for music, and losing it so abruptly was even worse than not having it at all.

2. There is a circle of life to middle school students.
Me in September: The eighth graders are the bane of my existence! They are so mean to each other, they are ridiculously disrespectful, and they won't stop talking loud enough for me to get any teaching done. Thank God for the seventh graders ... they are so sweet and willing to learn and kind to each other. Mornings are the bright spot of my day!

Me in May: Thank God for the eighth graders, who have become mature enough to handle class discussions that include virtually everybody. They're really starting to look out for each other and will rise to challenges that they wouldn't even have bothered attempting in September. Afternoons are the bright spot of my day! Why? Because the seventh graders are the bane of my existence! They are so mean to each other, they are ridiculously disrespectful, and they won't stop talking loud enough for me to get any teaching done.

3. Addie is far more resilient than I thought she was.
Addie had a dentist appointment this morning.

Now, she got her license in November but has been ... shall we say, reluctant ... to drive anywhere but from home to school and back again. I say all the time, "Isn't one of the payoffs of your kid getting a license (and a car) supposed to be that they can get a dozen eggs for you?" because this is very much not true of Addie.

She is a very timid driver, although she's come a long way. Well, she had quite a challenge put before her today when she was told that she would have to drive herself to the dentist and then to school. Now, her dentist is not exactly easy to get to, so I was kind of a wreck myself.

She made it, though, and with no problems (other than the news that she has to get her wisdom teeth removed ... blah :-()

4. Belle is incredibly bright ... and I think she has her father's brain.
Belle and I have a wonderful bonding experience every night when it's story time. She reads a book to me, and then I read a chapter or so of whatever "real" book we're reading together.

Our current venture are Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain (The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain Book 1), The Black Cauldron (The Chronicles of Prydain), The Castle of Llyr - Book 3 in the Chronicle of Prydain, Taran Wanderer (The Chronicles of Prydain), and The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain)), a series absolutely beloved to me when I was a child.

Belle realized when we started reading the second one that each book has twenty chapters (only the child of an English teacher is forced to "pre-read" text structures ;-)). Tonight, as we began the first chapter of The Castle of Llyr, Belle said, "Mommy, I just noticed something."

She went on to inform me that we were no officially halfway through the book, which was cool of course, but she'd made the same statement while reading The Black Cauldron. No, she kept on talking, that child of mine.

"We're halfway through the third book, so that means we're halfway through the series, too!"

While I was still kind of gawping, she noted how cool it was that this triumphant event transpired on a Wednesday, which is halfway through the week.

That kid is a trip, I tell you.

5. I get my self-destructive streak from my mother.
My mother is making a quilt. Wow, you might be thinking, that's pretty cool. Not everyone can make a quilt.

My mother is a heck of a seamstress, actually--her specialty is needlepoint, but she can quilt, cross stitch, knit, and all the other things you can do if you're crafty (and she's also hemmed every pair of pants I've ever owned, I think ... it sort of stinks being not quite 5'2"). The house is replete with beautiful works--everything from framed cross stitched pictures to pillows to quilts--that she has made with her own hands, and my siblings and I were dressed in gorgeous handmade clothes when we were little.

How she managed to raise a daughter who got an F in junior high home ec because she sewed her finger to the cloth (more than once) is beyond me ;-)

But anyway, the best way for my mom to clear the house has always been to say, "I'm going to make some curtains", or "There's a dress I have to hem", or "I started taking a basket-weaving class." I mean, the end result is always gorgeous, but when my mom is in "CREATE" mode ... beware.

Yelling, screaming, swearing, crying, long tirades berating herself for even trying to undertake some project or another, and snapping--sometimes inexcusably--at anyone who happens to be in her way ... yup, I think a huge part of my internal make-up was molded by Mommy's craft projects.

When she started taking a quilting class with one of her co-workers a month ago, Addie and I exchanged a nervous glance (Addie has experienced enough of Mimi's sewing spells to know to keep a low profile).

I have no pride, so I'll tell you the truth. I tried to talk her out of it. Tried hard. "Why would you do that to yourself, Mom?" I asked. "You'll procrastinate until the last possible second, then you'll be a psycho-bitch the night before the last class because you'll be up all night sewing." She said the work would all be done at the class, that it was just for fun, and that she's mellowed in her old age.

But I suddenly realized that my mother's needle endeavors are pretty much akin to me living life hard at times to be able to find both the material and the passion to write. We're adrenaline junkies, both of us, that are able to pull off veritable miracles by waiting until the last possible second, by pushing the envelope as long and as far as we can.

And ultimately, I am proud to know that my mother has lived her life daring to eat the proverbial peach, to part her hair behind, to listen to the mermaids singing knowing that somewhere they are singing for her. She has raised daughters who will never be women who "come and go, speaking of Michelangelo".

She has raised daughters that make a positive difference in the world every day in their own way.

My mother and I had an extremely rocky relationship until I was an adult (and even then sometimes), but I'm so glad that I've gotten the chance to understand her, to appreciate her, and to see the gifts that she has passed on ... even the ones that don't seem so bright and sparkly on the surface.

So what about you? What lessons have you learned today?