Taking the Scenic Route

Well, I feel better than I did feel. I don’t feel 100%. Yesterday our insurance kicked back in (YEAH!!!), so today I took my aching mouth to the dentist expecting a root canal. Nope. Needs to be pulled. The cavity is down to the bone. Probably why it hurt so much. The tooth next to it needs to go too..it was an old root canal that we couldn’t afford to cap and has now deteriorated past the point of repair. At least that one doesn’t hurt. I have been dealing with this tooth in agony for two months and I am SO HAPPY that it will be on the road to feeling better soon.

I also discovered, when the took the x-rays, that my sinuses are so full that they look like bone instead of clear sinus space on the x-rays. Walked over to my doctor, next door, and dropped off a picture of the x-ray and have an appointment for tomorrow, after the extraction. The dentist said that my massive sinus junk is probably aggravating the already horrible cavity even more. No wonder I felt like I was hurting so badly.

Potty training actually went backwards with Zane. He went from being ok with changing diapers, to refusing to let us change him and refusing to change himself (when it is just wet, of course). I had lined up a friend to watch Zora tomorrow and Wed, possibly Thursday so I could sit with him in the bathroom all freakin’ day with no interruption to try and get over the hump, but no dice. I am going to have to cancel tomorrow because of the tooth, and I am wondering if I am going to be able to handle potty training boot camp while I am trying to heal from all of this crap. I don’t know what to do. I want to make it easier for my mom when she watches the kids because she has gotten nailed with so much other stuff of late, but I am not sure that it is even possible.

Went to the travel store today and got luggage straps, locks, some electrical thing, and a fanny pack thing for Zach and a purse for me. The only purse I have opens on it’s own on a regular basis, which is bad enough locally, but a recipe for disaster on an international trip. Zach also went to Eddie Bauer and scored with a pair of Jeans for only $20. Now he has a pair that isn’t shredded at the bottom (his clogs eat his pants…he stopped wearing them with nice pants, but the damage was done)

My sweet little tornado girl.  Doesn’t she look innocent?

Still feeling a bit on the yucky side, so everything seemed harder than it had to be today.   Last night a cough kicked in and destroyed my night’s sleep.   I drug myself through Zane’s ST, then his Reading Explorers, then tried to take a nap (coughing still, so it wasn’t really successful), dragged myself to his ST for the evening, then came back home to a girl child who still hadn’t taken a nap and was acting like it.  I finally got into the shower this evening at 9, and while standing there I realized I was missing the Autism Parent’s meetup group and just about started crying.  Then, I put Zora to bed, fell asleep next to her for about an hour in an awkward position, only to wake up and have my shoulder and back throbbing.  As I was getting some ibuprofin for my shoulder/back, Zach informs me that we aren’t going to be moving out to the west coast because the place he was interviewing didn’t feel like they could “find the right fit” for him.  Now, I didn’t really want to move out to the west coast, but I did really want the job because he would have loved it.  So, there are mixed feelings about that.  I am just starting to get a little stressed out “what happens after May”.  *sigh*

This was inspired by a thread on one of the boards I go to talking about wierd quirks/sensory issues in adults.  The weird things that you don’t really tell people, but affect your life. 

Let’s just say that ds comes by his sensory issues honestly. 

• Texture, texture, texture.  All of my clothes are felt before they are really looked at.  There is many a beautiful outfit I won’t even put on because the material feels hellish to me.  Yarn is the same way.
• Food must be eaten off of white or off-white dishes.  They can have things on the edges, but the part where the food goes must be white.
• Coffee mugs must be white on the inside.  I might cope with a solid light color, but I can’t drink out of a mug that is dark on the inside because I can’t tell if it is really clean.
• Bare feet on carpet & socks on carpet.  The feel/sound makes my teeth hurt.  I wear shoes all the time.
• One window down in the car.  You must have the opposite window also down, the same distance, or my ears will start popping.
• Tight shoes.  I can not stand shoes that pinch or are tight at all.  I have wide feet, so this is a real problem.
• Socks must be perfectly matched (feeling wise…cheap socks sometimes have one tighter, or one a tad longer, ect), on straight, with either no seams or minimal seams. 
• Polyester makes me cringe.  Some of the newer nylons are tolerable, but I still can’t wait to get home and get changed into cotton.  The worst thing is those staticy, clingy, polyester pajamas.  Ugh, those are terrible.
• Bras.  I really dislike bras.  I never wear one at home.  I hate getting sweaty in my entire bra area, with or without a bra, but with a bra in actually painful for me.  (I am too big to go without a bra in public…about a C cup)
• There are times I can’t stand hair in my face.  I wear my hair long so that it can be totally pulled out of my face when I am in that mood.  (and wear scarves a lot to keep stray hair from flying around)
• I am a picker. I never met a zit, scab, ingrown hair, or weird puslike lump I didn’t like.  I have a really hard time leaving something like that alone.  really, really hard time. 
• I hate sitting in a way that allows somebody to come up behind me.  I want to be against a wall looking out.
• I don’t like super cold foods.  I have to wait until my ice cream melts before I can eat it. 
• Popsicles drive me batty…besides the cold factor, they drip and the sound people make eating them makes me crazy.
• I can not STAND the sound of ice being chewed.  It makes me want to puke.
• Florescent bulbs.  HATE them.  They buzz, they give me a headache and I can see them flicker.  I will never change my home lights to those new “energy efficient” bulbs.  I have to deal with them whenever I go out, when I am home, I want light that doesn’t make me feel homicidal.
• Midi music.  I can stand it for a while on some video games if I am playing it, but the old midi files when you open a web page are the reason I never have the sound on my computer.  (I always have my headphones plugged in)
• The feel of lotion on me before it has soaked in.  That rubbery feeling almost makes me itch as bad as dry skin.  It is better in a few minutes though.
• I love it when the wind is really strong. (as long as it isn’t too cold)  It feels like you are flying, makes you feel strong and powerful.  I love it.  Feel it often here in Kansas.  lol. 

This week my jaw went from dull ache to shooting pain.  It was my lower jaw, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on because the area that actually hurt in my mouth was behind my molars.  It felt like I had a tooth coming in or a shard from my wisdom teeth coming up, except that it has been 21, almost 22 years since I had my wisdom teeth pulled, so it seemed unlikely.  I assumed it was deferred pain since the spot that hurt the worst didn’t make sense, but my whole left lower jaw, all the way to my ear and behind my ear was in excruciating pain.  I hated going to the dentist and was worried it would lead to a trip to the oral surgeon.

Took xrays (which suck because it was so far back and I have a bad gag reflex anyway) and he poked around in my mouth for a while, as confused as I was.  Then I hear an “ah hah!” and a “this is going to hurt a little bit”  I managed to stay on the chair through sheer force of will.  He dug out a popcorn hull behind my molar.  After he dug it out (Too much info coming…skip this if queasy…) he showed me the spot where it was swollen and puss came out.  ewwww ewwww EWWWWW!  It had a major infection.  I  felt like a big ole idiot.  All the problems in my mouth and a POPCORN HULL is what finally breaks me and sends me to the dentist.  Ah man. 

I was sent home with a funky toothpick holder (put in toothpick tip, break off the rest) to help clean the area out while it heals up and an antibiotic script for the next while to get rid of the infection.  My mouth tasted awful too.  yuck!