The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Look at those big teeth! 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly-

This title best sums up my last two weeks! They're not in any particular order as far as how things have been going, and why I have not been posting until today. Hopefully this post will make sense since I am currently on painkillers! Weather has been great, 60 degrees today! So...

I was having trouble sleeping starting about 2 weeks ago and was getting more and more tired. I have sleep apnea but it is very well controlled with a dental device. I started waking up more at night, tossing and turning, and was thinking maybe I needed to get a replacement dental device? That was the ugly part. I then realized what was really keeping me awake with my IT band along my left thigh. I did some stretching and heat and a few other things. Went to bed that night and slept really great! I did a couple more nights in a row and problem solved, got my energy back.

I decided to bite the bullet and bought a nice L.L. Bean down parka online. Mine was toast from 25+ years of use.  It arrived and it was too big, which was pretty aggravating. So I shipped it back for a smaller size and called to follow up a week later. I was told it was out of stock. Bummer! The next day I found the exact same parka new on eBay for about $120 less. That's a lot of money but I wanted one that was going to last. The reason this one was so inexpensive is there was a small repair done on it, done very professionally, doesn't really show. Beautiful! I called L.L.Bean the next day after getting an email saying my replacement had shipped. I told them I had said to cancel my order and they said oh it's already shipped. I was not happy since I told them the day before to cancel the order. Luckily it turned out it actually had not shipped and they were able to cancel it. I got the eBay new parka really cheap, in the right size. It arrived yesterday and fits great!

Sunday night we were having dinner and I noticed my bottom rear molar was a little sensitive. The next morning not much. Mid-morning yesterday I was speaking and it felt like an ice pick went through my jaw! It only went downhill from there. Luckily I had called in first thing in the morning to get an appointment with my dentist but it was at 5 p.m.. I didn't want to wait with this excruciating pain the whole day, so I called back and they got me in at 9:30 a.m. today. I visited with the dentist and the first thing he did was give me a shot of Novocaine, since I had only gotten about 2 or 3 hours of sleep from the constant throbbing all night. The Novocain kicked in and suddenly my mouth felt fairly normal. I'd had a root canal done about 20 or more years ago and they felt there was possibly an infection down in there. They gave me a referral to a root canal specialist down the street. Part of me was thinking how much is this going to cost! I went to my car after the exam with my prescriptions for pain pills and antibiotics and I called the other dentist's office. They said miraculously they had just had a cancellation and could I come over right away? I said I will be there in 5 minutes and I was. The short version was they felt it was either an infection in the root canal or the tooth was cracked.  They asked me if I wanted to do a 3D Dental x-ray before I left or at the appointment? For some reason I thought we should do it right then. The Dentist came back in and said well we have a big change. He showed me the X-ray and there was a big infection down in there and looked like the tooth is cracked. He said we were lucky that we did the 3D x-ray then to catch it. So I called my other Dentist back and have surgery set up for next Saturday morning. So as much as I don't like having a tooth removed there's not any other option. The good news is I have really good dental coverage! 0% copay. I can see how I do further down the line and maybe can get a dental implant if needed, to help my chewing. My wonderful dentist actually offered to do the surgery today but I said no, not on 2 or 3 hours sleep thanks. So I started my antibiotics which should help a lot in the next 24 hours or so and some pain meds so I can sleep. I will say it was one of the more whirlwind dental experiences I have ever had, and definitely the worst dental pain I have ever had, a strong 10 +. OMG.

Next Dave and I decided to get a exercise bike after I found out I have arthritis in both knees. My ortho doctor recommended an exercise bike since it's non-weight-bearing instead of the treadmill we were thinking about getting. We did a lot of research through Consumerreports.org, only $10.00 a month to subscribe. We found a Schwinn A10 exercise bike at a store that we liked that was $400. We figured it would be a good investment in our health since we both need to lose weight. While we were there looking at it I noticed another exercise bike in the other row across from it with a little tiny price tag on it. It was $250. We both tried it it worked great, it's smaller and easier to move around the house. It's also nice and quiet. The other day on my lunch break I got on the exercise bike and did 10 minutes and it works great! 

When my TV kept dropping the internet signal, it turned into a router issue with my work computer. Short version, after multiple phones calls and a visits from a tech it's all now working fine. Zero cost, just a few hours of my time lost. So those are the highlights of my 2 weeks. How is your week going?