After much discomfort, innumerable dollars and a month of back and forth to dentists, root canal specialists, and oral surgeons, the consensus was that my tooth could not be saved from a 7-year-old botched crown.
I was scheduled to have it extracted yesterday, Wednesday.
HOWEVER, by Sunday evening all I could think of was the worst horror clip in all of filmdom; the scene in Castaway when Tom Hanks knocked out his own offending tooth. After an excruciatingly painful and sleepless Sunday night (even after 800 MG Ibuprophen), Monday morning I called the oral surgeon and scheduled the extraction ASAP. I was home by 1:30PM (I think). The worst part of the surgery was the dental assistant insisting I had to wake up and go home. I was sleeping so well.
I was able to vote on Tuesday, it took a total of 10 minutes from walking out my back door, being driven to the poll, voting, being driven home and walking in the back door. There are several advantages to living in rural America. I was disappointed because I had been planning on riding my horse Miss Kitty, to the fire station polling place (we ride up there regularly). Although it is not mentioned in the warnings, I think riding a horse cross country is probably not a good thing to do when loopy on pain killers....
Anyway, I remembered most of the names of the people I was going to vote for.....
After a couple of days on liquids only, I have now advanced to soft bread...yippee!! I am sick of yogurt and pudding. I only took 400MG of Ibuprophen this morning, and I can feel a twinge. It is a good trade off, not having the Ibuprophen dullness of brain.
I knew I was on the road to recovery yesterday afternoon when Fed-Ex delivered a package. (no joke!)
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Dog Gone It
We have two HUGE pecan trees and several smaller ones that I suspect are close relatives of the HUGE ones.
Lately they have been dropping LOTS of pecans...huge, yummy, buttery, sweet pecans.
I have to gather pecans at least twice a day because the dogs love to chew on them. Mostly they crack them open and leave most of the meat because they hit the bitter lining of the shells. Today I noticed that there were fewer whole pecans and more "dog cracked" pecans. However, I noted the dog cracked ones were getting cleaned out more efficiently. As I gathered my pecans, Leala (Aussie/Lab mix) and Sunny (pure Lab) "helped" by running ahead and cracking open all the pecans they could find before I could get to them.
This gave me an idea. I took our prime retriever Sunny, inside and grabbed the doggie treats. I tossed a pecan and said "bring it" (her favorite command). It took her about 5 pecans before she realized the game was "get the pecan and trade it for a treat". She was SOOOO excited. I rolled number 6 pecan across the floor when she wasn't looking and told her "find pecan". She was ecstatic and searched diligently until she found and brought me the nut, trading for a doggie treat.
Now some of you know I have trained dogs, putting several AKC titles on my dogs. The titles are all displayed with initials like CH, CD, CDX, etc.....When it comes to retrieving, Sunny is an unofficial OCD Labrador. (That is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) We usually discourage retrieving because it is such an obsession. For example, today when I took my "after lunch pasture walk", Leala and Timber (Jack Russell) found a lovely dead rat to roll on. Sunny never saw it because for the entire walk she was continuously tormenting me with her favorite deflated basketball; carrying it 15 feet in front of me, dropping it, waiting until I passed by, retrieving it and carrying it 15 feet in front of me, dropping it, waiting...you get the idea. She never even smelled the dead rat.
I was confident of her interest and ability for retrieving pecans. Sunny was so excited about our retrieving lesson that she could hardly contain herself. Unfortunately, my confidence was quickly shattered when I secretly rolled number 7 across the floor. I said "find pecan" and she engaged, tail slashing happily, nose casting back and forth, decades of hunting ancestors showing their mark. She found the pecan, ran to me, sat and promptly swallowed the whole pecan.....end of lesson.
I promise, I will let you all know how it comes out in the end.
Lately they have been dropping LOTS of pecans...huge, yummy, buttery, sweet pecans.
I have to gather pecans at least twice a day because the dogs love to chew on them. Mostly they crack them open and leave most of the meat because they hit the bitter lining of the shells. Today I noticed that there were fewer whole pecans and more "dog cracked" pecans. However, I noted the dog cracked ones were getting cleaned out more efficiently. As I gathered my pecans, Leala (Aussie/Lab mix) and Sunny (pure Lab) "helped" by running ahead and cracking open all the pecans they could find before I could get to them.
This gave me an idea. I took our prime retriever Sunny, inside and grabbed the doggie treats. I tossed a pecan and said "bring it" (her favorite command). It took her about 5 pecans before she realized the game was "get the pecan and trade it for a treat". She was SOOOO excited. I rolled number 6 pecan across the floor when she wasn't looking and told her "find pecan". She was ecstatic and searched diligently until she found and brought me the nut, trading for a doggie treat.
Now some of you know I have trained dogs, putting several AKC titles on my dogs. The titles are all displayed with initials like CH, CD, CDX, etc.....When it comes to retrieving, Sunny is an unofficial OCD Labrador. (That is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) We usually discourage retrieving because it is such an obsession. For example, today when I took my "after lunch pasture walk", Leala and Timber (Jack Russell) found a lovely dead rat to roll on. Sunny never saw it because for the entire walk she was continuously tormenting me with her favorite deflated basketball; carrying it 15 feet in front of me, dropping it, waiting until I passed by, retrieving it and carrying it 15 feet in front of me, dropping it, waiting...you get the idea. She never even smelled the dead rat.
I was confident of her interest and ability for retrieving pecans. Sunny was so excited about our retrieving lesson that she could hardly contain herself. Unfortunately, my confidence was quickly shattered when I secretly rolled number 7 across the floor. I said "find pecan" and she engaged, tail slashing happily, nose casting back and forth, decades of hunting ancestors showing their mark. She found the pecan, ran to me, sat and promptly swallowed the whole pecan.....end of lesson.
I promise, I will let you all know how it comes out in the end.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Tim Russell is in Hiding
Tim Russell is now in hiding. It is not a good idea to let your dog talk on the phone. I thought I was so smart listing our secondary phone under the dog's name and then handing it off to him when I got unwanted callers who asked for "Tim Russell". Someday I will learn that others are more practiced at absurdity than I am. Perhaps they just cannot distinquish between reality and absurdity.
A few months after I let the dog talk on the phone (see May 2007 post), he started receiving bills from a hospital. My first reaction was laugh and then I shredded the bill.
The next bill came from a collection agency. I wondered if I should respond. Will it ruin my dog's credit rating for ever if I didn't? Better yet, can I get credit cards in his name and run up the bill? Am I responsible for my dog's credit as a legal guardian or because he is under 18? I was confused.
Out of politeness and naivete, I called the collection agency to explain that the only hospital my dog had visited was Dr. Dan's, the vet and that we did not owe him anything.
Lesson one is never call a collection agency out of politeness. They almost had me in tears of frustration, trying to explain that Tim was a dog. Meanwhile, the dog was watching intently, wondering why I was repeating his name into the phone. I didn't let him talk!
Evidentally, I did not do a good job explaining, as we continued to get Tim Russell's unpaid hospital bills.
I called the hospital and explained the problem and requested that they get the collection agency off my back. The billing clerk was very kind and understanding and got a good chuckle from the mistake. She said she would correct the mistake.
Collection agencies are the Pitbulls of the money world. We continued to get threats and bills.
The phone number listed under Tim's name was a second-ring line that was rarely used so I disconnected the service. Of course that did not stop the bills.
I wrote nasty letters to the collection agency. That did not help.
Finally we moved (truthfully, it was unrelated to Tim Russell's $165.00 bill). I did not request Tim Russell's mail be forwarded! Our new phone is not in his name.
As a last ditch attempt to stop the collection agency harassment, I sent a copy of my dog Tim's AKC registration, and a copy of his latest paid vet bill to the collection agency.
I have not heard from them since.
A few months after I let the dog talk on the phone (see May 2007 post), he started receiving bills from a hospital. My first reaction was laugh and then I shredded the bill.
The next bill came from a collection agency. I wondered if I should respond. Will it ruin my dog's credit rating for ever if I didn't? Better yet, can I get credit cards in his name and run up the bill? Am I responsible for my dog's credit as a legal guardian or because he is under 18? I was confused.
Out of politeness and naivete, I called the collection agency to explain that the only hospital my dog had visited was Dr. Dan's, the vet and that we did not owe him anything.
Lesson one is never call a collection agency out of politeness. They almost had me in tears of frustration, trying to explain that Tim was a dog. Meanwhile, the dog was watching intently, wondering why I was repeating his name into the phone. I didn't let him talk!
Evidentally, I did not do a good job explaining, as we continued to get Tim Russell's unpaid hospital bills.
I called the hospital and explained the problem and requested that they get the collection agency off my back. The billing clerk was very kind and understanding and got a good chuckle from the mistake. She said she would correct the mistake.
Collection agencies are the Pitbulls of the money world. We continued to get threats and bills.
The phone number listed under Tim's name was a second-ring line that was rarely used so I disconnected the service. Of course that did not stop the bills.
I wrote nasty letters to the collection agency. That did not help.
Finally we moved (truthfully, it was unrelated to Tim Russell's $165.00 bill). I did not request Tim Russell's mail be forwarded! Our new phone is not in his name.
As a last ditch attempt to stop the collection agency harassment, I sent a copy of my dog Tim's AKC registration, and a copy of his latest paid vet bill to the collection agency.
I have not heard from them since.
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