Tag Archives: dentist

Sunday (Part 2)

For Part 1, see here.

I’m currently washing my mouth out with salt water. I was once advised to do this by a dentist and try to remember to do it every so often as a precautionary measure. As I have an appointment at my new dentist in a couple of weeks, I thought this might be a good time to do it. Ideally I should have thought more about my teeth fifty years ago, but that’s just how life is.

Old Factory Sign – Middleport Pottery

I have to do this late at night after Julia has gone to bed as the time taken swilling a mugful or brine one mouthful at a time, accompanied by sucking and swooshing noises, tests her fortitude and patience to the limit. I did write a haibun about it once but, strangely, nobody wanted to print it.

A wet day in Stoke

In an attempt to improve our budget and diet I have been looking at a low carb cook book. It features a lot of soups and salads but not a lot in the way of actual food. Salad is OK in summer, and in moderation, but it’s not going to hit the spot in October. So it’s roasted veg and sausages tomorrow and some hard thinking tomorrow night as I try to come up with something cheap, healthy and inspired. I’d settle for two of them to be honest. Over the last six months we have gradually lost the plot and we need to get back to good habits. That’s another area where we improved in lockdown.

I always thought these wee cobbles, but it seems they may be setts. Whatever they are, they aren’t good when you use a stick.

Julia walked down to the shop fro a few items this afternoon (we are giving it a few more days before doing a major shop) and reports a lot of space on the shelves. We note that expensive Free Range eggs are still available, but the cheaper, cage produced eggs are not. Could it be that people on budgets are deserting Free Range for cost effective eggs or are the supermarkets just going for eggs with the best profit margins? One thing I do know is that it’s not because farmers have switched their chickens off – you can’t do that.

Narrowboat, canal and winch and rain. Our industrial past.

Pictures are taken at the Middleport Pottery.

A Slightly Unsatisfactory Day

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I started the day at Cropwell Bishop, home of one of the six licensed Blue Stilton manufacturers in the UK.

We now have a large piece of organic Stilton lurking in the kitchen. I thought I’d go organic because it’s supposed to be better for us, and if you are going to the dairy for a quality product you might as well go organic.

Stilton – possibly the world’s most perfect cheese

I tested the Beauvale and the Shropshire Blue but didn’t buy any. I will probably have to test it again a few times. You have to love a place that gives you free cheese!

Just to give an idea of scale

It’s strange that the producers of Shropshire Blue don’t in the main, come from Shropshire, particularly when they are so keen to protect the Stilton brand.

One of the advantages of EU Membership

Second call of the day was Lidl for a few odds and ends, though there were a lot of empty shelves where there was a change of stock going on. They have small shopping trolleys for children to use, which seems like a nice touch for families. By the time you’ve tripped over the third trolley pushing child it seems to be less of a nice touch.

I took a list with me but couldn’t get everything, which is a bit annoying. I’ve always found shopping at Lidl and Aldi to be more of a lucky dip than a weekly shop. However, I’m only one shop away from being 100% Christmas ready.

Famous last words.

The ill-fated list – note the dental appointment was 10 minutes too soon for humour

Finally, it was time for the dentist. I’m not keen on a mouthful of sharp tools but apart from that it was OK. They even gave me a tube of toothpaste as a Christmas gift.

Time for a poem – licorice is food so this should do it, and preserve the link to food. For blue cheese and licorice ice cream look here.

I will add photos tomorrow. (A day later – I just added photos).

A Hectic Day

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I’ve agreed a course of action with the dentist (who tried to avoid doing the work). I’ve had this before with dentists – I don’t think the National Health payment scheme encourages them to do too much.

I’m back in a few weeks to start the treatment and am hoping to keep the old crowns. It will be useful to have some gold when the western banking industry collapses.

It was a case of grabbing a quick breakfast after that (I don’t like eating before dental work as the job must be bad enough without seeing the remains of my breakfast stuck in the gaps.

We had a full, possibly over-full, day in the shop and I found my abandoned half cup of coffee still in the cupholder. The day was so warm that, if anything, the coffee was hotter at 4.30 this afternoon than it had been when I’d left it at just after 10.00 this morning. I may have discovered a new way of cooking.

We’re off to drop Number Two Son at Manchester airport tonight. He’s staying over overnight as he has to be at the airport for 6am tomorrow.

Number One Son is leaving tomorrow – he’s flying on Saturday. By Monday both kids will be thousands of miles away.

Julia is a bit subdued about the whole empty nest thing so I’m trying to be supportive,

I’m not sure it’s working as she just told me to stop smiling so much.

Stitches, Cloves and a Happy Ending

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Thursday started with a visit to the dentist. Again. The stitches were supposed to dissolve, but one set didn’t. They just sat there and refused to budge. I tried pulling them but the only result was a sore gum. They began to irritate my gum and cheek.

Eventually, as the pain became constant, and it started to feel like an abcess, I decided to contact the dentist. I’ve had dealings with abcesses before. I’ve also had dealings with stitches before, though that was in my pre-blogging days.

I once had a set of stitches dissolve too quickly after a biopsy. It took two hours to stop the bleeding. Another time I had a set heal into my eyelid. That stung a bit when they came out. And then…

Well, let’s just say that I don’t do well with stitches.

After a bit of tugging and squeaking we got the stitches out (they were non-dissolving despite what I’d been told) and packed the socket with something that had a complicated scientific name.

It tasted bad and smelt like oil of cloves. It did, however, fix the infection – everything feels good now.

We had a good day today at work too – one of the customers brought us Cadbury Creme Eggs.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back with more scone news in the next few days.

Day 100!

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Finally – day 100 in the posting challenge!

(Well, really day 99 out of 100, but as I’ve averaged over a post a day I’m allowing myself to claim it as completed.)

I’m treating it in a suitably low-key sort of way and celebrated by having a tooth extracted. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable, but it could have been worse. Next time I have a celebration I may stick with the traditional cake-based version.

They gave me a form to fill in afterwards, asking how likely I was to recommend them to a family member. It’s difficult to give a useful answer to that, as I’m not likely to recommend that any member of my family spends half an hour in the dentist’s chair with pliers and power tools in their mouth.

So, what have I learned from my 100 days of posting?

Tricky…

I’ve learned that it’s possible to run out of things to say, and that photos of flowers and cute animals are an acceptable substitute. I’ve also learned that you can grow to hate blogging at times, and that setting a target makes you more likely to do things.

However, I knew that.

I suppose the main thing I’ve learned is that it is possible to set myself a long-term writing target and stick to it. That’s not always been the case in the past.

I also need to list subjects for posts and write some in advance.

That, I think, is about it.

Now, what should I do tomorrow?

Teeth and Trouble

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I arrived at the dentist just on time, having spent too much time blogging.

It’s a very pleasant place and the dentist was very pleasant too, and very professional.

She checked which tooth it was, took another X-Ray to confirm, put me at ease, explained everything and applied the anaesthetic painlessly. A little later, as it didn’t seem to be taking, she put some more in. By this time my lip was fat and numb, my gums were devoid of feeling and there was even some dullness in my neck and cheekbones.

I was, it seemed, likely to have a numb face for four hours.

All was looking good. She took the crown off, poked around a bit, applied some pressure, and stopped as I raised my hand to indicate it was hurting. It wasn’t mild discomfort either, it hurt. She put more anaesthetic in, warned me my face was likely to be dead for around six hours, and tried again.

I was starting to lose feeling in my right ear and my eyelid.

I raised my hand. More needles, including a somewhat painful one that went into the tooth and root by the feel of it.

I gripped the chair arms, braced myself, sweated, trembled and was very relieved when she stopped.

“That’s hurting isn’t it?”

I can’t think how she came to that conclusion…

So she tried another type of anaesthetic and again hammered it home. The theory was that if it was uncomfortable it was going in the right place. The estimate of numbness went up to eight hours.

She grabbed the pliers, I grabbed the chair arms and resolved to be brave.

I didn’t exactly show myself up as a hero, but I’m happy to report that she broke before I did.

The problem was that I had an infection under the tooth and it wasn’t responding to the anaesthetic. Every time she pushed it was like she was ramming home a red-hot nail. In case you have never had an extraction, they push to break the grip of the roots before they pull.

Antibiotics – I could have done with these last week

I now have a gnarled stump of a tooth left, a box of antibiotics and another appointment – for the 15th January. I’m taking it philosophically though it’s hardly ideal.

There is a bonus, they have let me keep my gold crown, though it did need to go through the steriliser first. It’s been in my mouth for over 20 years without killing me, but once it’s out it seems that it becomes a health and safety issue.

That’s the featured image – my gold crown in a packet after being sterilised. I’m thinking that it might make a unique and personal charm for a charm bracelet. I mentioned it to Julia. I expect she might get used to the idea…

It’s not the best photo I’ve ever taken, but I’m not on top form right now.

The good news is that although the anaesthetic has worn off there is no real pain, just a bit of swelling and a slight ache. I’m hoping that this situation continues until the 15th.

Off to the Dentist

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The day has come, and I’m in the space only known to people with important appointments. It’s that gap of about an hour where it’s too soon to set off and there doesn’t seem enough time to do anything useful.

It’s the last day for second class post in the UK, and I have cards to send, but I can’t concentrate. There isn’t even time for a decent post.

I’ve been told to eat before going, which isn’t normally a problem, but today I don’t feel hungry.

Today I have a painful appointment with the dentist and come face to face with mortlity.

The wisdom tooth I had taken out twenty years ago was a routine thing, lots of people have that done.

The one I lost last year had been giving trouble for over 30 years and finally disintegrated under pressure from a Mint Imperial, so it worried me, but not too much.

Today I am losing an adult tooth to decay. Memories of my parents telling me to brush properly are coming back to haunt me. It’s neglect and old age and death rolled into one and I can feel one of my feet sinking into the grave.

I’m half expecting the dentist to wear a shroud and hack the tooth out with his scythe.

Ah well, time to go now…

A Small but Welcome Improvement (Part 1)

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Today went better, despite the lack of breakfast. (I was due to have my crown reattached at 9.30 and I try to avoid eating before dental work).

Arriving with fifteen minutes to spare I was called through before I’d had time to read more than half a page of my book. The reattachment went well and the dentist then set to with a six-monthly exam, clean, polish and poke. He also gave me a free tube of toothpaste.

That means I don’t need to go again in December and I only need to pay Having said that, it’s gone up to £21.60, which is yet another inflation busting increase.

All that and I still arrived at work just before opening.

Of course, after that I had more coins to do.

Part 2 follows.

A Tale of Texting

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I’ve had a shortage of texts in the last few weeks. People I have texted haven’t even been answering me, which must surely be a sign of something.

It all came to an end this week. First I had a text to tell me the surgery had tried to call but had been unable to get through. This wasn’t quite true – they had got through but had put the phone down as I picked up. However, by doing that and texting they made me pay for the call.

Then I had one from the bank telling me that internet banking was going to be down at the weekend. As I don’t use internet banking this really doesn’t bother me. I reckon that if I don’t use it I will be harder to hack.

Finally I had one from my dentist to say they had to cancel my appointment. I’ve been waiting five and a half months for that appointment and was looking forward to having my crown refixed.

I rang to rearrange the appointment and now have two. One, next week, will fix my crown and the other, in a month, will be my six-monthly check up. I suspect this means that I will have to pay twice, but I can’t keep going for another month with a loose chunk of gold running amok in my mouth. Regular readers may recall me mentioning that I had a similar problem a few years back and ended up swallowing it. At the current price of gold I don’t want a repeat of that.

Actually, it wasn’t final, I’ve just had one to tell me that I’m having a parcel delivered tomorrow. I’m not sure I needed to know that as I’d have guessed when I got home and found a parcel.

Texting used to be useful, now it seems on the verge of becoming another branch of junk mail.

Dentistry, Decay and a Difficult Day

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First call of the day was dropping off Julia at work. The second was visiting the dentist, which proved to be the start of the decline.

The X-Rays showed a suspicious spot at the base of one of my teeth. It looks like decay. It also seems that I have strangely-shaped roots. After what happened with my wisdom tooth and its strangely-shaped root the words “strangely-shaped root” do not fill me with optimism.

To remove a wisdom tooth with a strangely-shaped root takes a team of medical students, power tools and just over an hour in the chair. It also involves a fair amount of pushing and pulling and the smell of burning.

There are three choices. One, go to a specialist, who may be able to save the tooth, but who would charge around £1,000 whether he saved it or not. Alternatively, I could have it removed and have an implant fitted. That will be £1,500. Or I could just wait.

When the inevitable happens, and I am groaning in agony from a major abscess, I will have to go down to the dentist for emergency treatment and an extraction on the NHS. That will cost £56.30.

Tricky choice…

I then went to the pharmacy at TESCO, where they refused to supply me. One item is, it seems, difficult to get, so they suggested I try elsewhere. A second was out of stock, so they suggested trying elsewhere. They then handed me the prescription and suggested it would be simpler to (yes you guessed it) get it all elsewhere.

From there I went to the surgery for my blood test.

This didn’t take long as, for once, I bled extensively. This would seem to indicate that the anti-coagulants are doing their job. I then continued to bleed, which was tricky.

From there I visited the pharmacy I used to use, who don’t find anything too difficult and who had all the necessary items in stock. Strange how a small shop can do things a multi-national can’t be bothered to do.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, looking for a birthday present for Julia. Yes, straight after the wedding anniversary and just before Christmas. It’s a tricky time of year.

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Life after the Care Farm