This past month was pretty rough for my teeth. My teeth and I have a very precarious relationship. I have not always taken the best care of them, thus they have made me pay for it since I was very small. Well, my parents paid for it then, but I have always paid in blood and pain. I HATED the dentist when I was younger. We didn't go very often to the dentist and every time we went it was the worst news. Back in the day there was no TV to watch during treatment and no toy after treatment. I have always hated the taste of the fluoride. I'm not a big fan of artificially strong flavors. I've always hated having my mouth numb. Now I don't even have that disgusting gel that they put on the spot to numb you before the shot. Trust me on this, it doesn't feel any different and you don't have that disgusting taste or barely numb feeling, skip it.
Since being a married adult I have gone religiously to the dentist, every 6 months. I brush daily and must admit that the flossing habit is new to me, but I have been consistent since January and inconsistent throughout the years. Starting in December I started feeling some pain on the left side of my mouth. I know this feeling, it means a root canal. Yes, I have had more than my fair share. I decided to leave it until my 6 month check scheduled for March. That's how much I love the dentist. I would rather feel root canal pain for 3 months. Finally in March it got so bad that I was living on ibuprofen, which is not good for you. So I called and they were very nice about trying to get me in earlier. I had an abscess that they told me about a year ago, but since it didn't hurt I chose not to do anything about it. Now here I was with a pain, "I told you so" all around. That is until I was leaving and scheduling the root canal. They mentioned that I was having the root canal on the right side. I was very confused. I told them that the left side hurt, not the right. You got it, they had assumed that it was the abscess from a year ago, but lucky me, it was a new one. They took another x-ray and scheduled me for a root canal, on the one that hurt, at the dentists and then a retreat(not a fun get away, but a retreatment, like a redo, on a previous root canal), on the one that didn't hurt, with an endodontist.
My experience with the two root canals were very different. The one at the dentist was the longest and most uncomfortable of my life. I did get to watch stuff, but it turned off in the middle and the assistant and dentist were both out of the room at that moment and I had a dam in my mouth so I couldn't talk and I started to panic. I used to have panic attacks when I went to the dentist. I did get it turned back on eventually. My jaw hurt so bad after holding it open for nearly 2 hours. I wanted to cry. I was numb from the top of my nose to down my neck. It was horrible. My tooth still hurt for weeks after. Just another addition to my great memories of the dentist.
Next, the endodontist is a root canal specialist. I asked to not have any shot of novacaine. I really hate it, but don't think that I am so tough. The tooth already had a root canal, so there were no nerves to feel pain. He said we could try it and if it started to hurt he could give me something. I felt a twinge a few times, but nothing that would make me want to have a shot. It was over in an hour and no numbness. Best root canal ever.
Right now my teeth and I have a tentative treaty. I tell you what though, if I keep flossing consistently and I still get cavities and root canals I am moving to Kentucky and pulling out all my teeth. Alright, probably not, I'll most likely just keep paying an exorbitant amount of money to have someone drill my teeth and then push metal things down into the root and make me cry. Great fun.
The boys in front of the Kodiac Bear. l-r Kenny, Theron, Taylor & Cooper.
The boys being afraid of the bear.
They have this cool new center display of a lion pride. Very cool. You can't see that the lion jumping has another 7 lions around him on the bottom.
I love this moose. He is one of my favorites.
I am Theron's den mother. This teepee is in the backyard of Bro. Scott Smith. He goes to mountain man rendezvous, and makes guns and knifes. He loves cub/boy scouts. He is very willing to help out scouts. We went to his house to learn about knives. After the lesson we got to go outside and sit in the teepee and make smores.
Bro. Smith showed us how to make a fire with a flint and steel. It was pretty cool. Theron is behind him to the right. Those four in the scout shirts behind him, two on each side, are my scouts.
Well, Theron, just keeps blazing through the belt colors in TKD. Here he is shaking hands with Master Flora during his belt ceremony. Congratulations to Theron.
These pictures are of the flowers that I received for my birthday. They lasted so long and were so beautiful. They helped me feel so good. The garden bunch above is from my children.
I can't remember what these flowers are called, but they were amazing. I loved them. I don't know who gave them to me. They were on my front porch on my birthday. So if you are reading this, whoever you are, thank you so much for these beautiful flowers.
This bouquet of roses was from my love, Kenneth. They were some of the most amazing roses I have ever had. They lasted a long time and were sooo beautiful. Flowers bring me so much joy.
This is my adorable son, Ian. He is 12 and the oldest. He is a wonderful kid. He's very smart and has always done well in school on tests and such. He struggles with homework and getting assignments handed in. He is the offspring of two people that did as little school work as possible, Don't tell him that. I've always felt that he was trying even though he wasn't actually changing. Does that make sense? I didn't feel that he was being rebellious or being lazy. I felt that he was trying, maybe not his best, but not doing bad on purpose. This is something that I can remember dealing with since his 3rd grade year. In regular public school I probably wouldn't have noticed that early. Anyway, we have struggled these almost 4 years with many things at home and school that were so trying for us and Ian. I've prayed and cried many times about what the possible answer could be and what we could do to help him. Since I didn't feel that he was behaving badly on purpose the only possible explanation was that we were doing something as parents that we needed to change. We tried many different things over the years to help him in school and at home, we really tried to focus on the positive, but sometimes it was so hard. I felt like we were always on him about something. I felt that he probably felt that he could never do anything good enough for us. I felt like we were ruining this kid.
This past month was pretty rough for my teeth. My teeth and I have a very precarious relationship. I have not always taken the best care of them, thus they have made me pay for it since I was very small. Well, my parents paid for it then, but I have always paid in blood and pain. I HATED the dentist when I was younger. We didn't go very often to the dentist and every time we went it was the worst news. Back in the day there was no TV to watch during treatment and no toy after treatment. I have always hated the taste of the fluoride. I'm not a big fan of artificially strong flavors. I've always hated having my mouth numb. Now I don't even have that disgusting gel that they put on the spot to numb you before the shot. Trust me on this, it doesn't feel any different and you don't have that disgusting taste or barely numb feeling, skip it.
