It's been weeks since my last post, on the shame sometimes associated with one's dental health. I left shortly after on vacation. Beloved and I camped on the Housatonic River for a week, and then, after two days at home unpacking from camping, doing laundry, and then repacking for a cottage-ette ( ! ), we left for Watkins Glen, NY, at the southern tip of Lake Seneca.
More precisely, we stayed in a tiny cottage-ette (that's what the owners call it) in Hector Falls. Beloved stays there when he is at the Glen on photo shoots. When I first saw it, after driving five hours, I was dismayed. What had he let me in for? But when we stepped inside this tiny, caboose-size former tool shed, it was delightful, charming. What a surprise!
The grounds were also charming - untidy grounds scattered with untended gardens gone wild, just the way I like things. I've gotten myself in trouble with more than one church when living in church owned housing, because I prefer untidy gardens. I have never been more rested on returning from a vacation than I am this time. I'm still able not to let people's anxieties and expectations hook me.
I know it won't last forever, but I'll take what I can get.
On the personal care front, however, this is the doctors-and-dentists month. Two deep, under the gum cleanings, two weeks apart, followed today by work on a cavity. A cavity! I haven't had one of those for over 40 years! Really! This one was between two teeth, so each of them had a part of it. I was in the chair for an hour. All I wanted to do afterwards was sleep.
The dentist, of course, is very good. And my mouth was very numbed up, thank God! But can you imagine having to drill down between the teeth, then drill out the cavity on the hidden surface of each tooth, then doing the restoration work, one tooth at a time.
Tomorrow I see my GP, who likes to see me every three months, God knows why. I also have annual tests lined up for this month - a DEXA scan for bone density, necessary because the post chemo pill I take leaches calcium from the bones, and another MRI, because a clean mammogram alone is not sufficient for post-breast cancer follow up when one has "dense tissue". The MRI itself isn't so bad; it's the placement of the IV for the contrast stuff, because I have fugitive veins and it takes up to half an hour to get the IV in, which is very hard on me.
So, good thing my vacation was so successful. Lots of practice photographing cars. Lots of time for drawing, and for reading a murder mystery per day. And the memory of the cottage-ette and Lake Seneca across the street to feed me, at least through this month of September.
Peace to all.
3 comments:
Maybe the feeling will hold on a little, maybe even until Advent. We have some 'good' stuff happening to keep it alive. And then Advent can take over.
Thanks, Barbara! And if it flags, all I have to do is walk outside and there's the labyrinth!
Lois, I know what you mean about the IV's. With all the changes in medicine, one would think that there would be virtual IV's or something like that. I've had many extended visits in the hospital and along with the receptionist reconizing me for registration on more than one occasion, along with several surgeries, the one thing that drives me up the wall are the IV's. Being a breast cancer survivor myself, like you I have only one arm, that is now down to only one hand to use, and I just hate it when anyone of my precious veins gets bitched up.
Blessings to you friend.
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