Getting back to normal, and a day out

I'm not completely better yet, but am getting better every day.  My mouth and face are still a bit sore, the abscess site itself is sore, as are all the points where the two dentists gave me several anaesthetic injections (blimey, the ones they give you on the inside of your gums don't half sting!).  And of course the gum socket where the tooth was taken out is also very tender and smarty.  I still feel like I've been smacked round the face, and my shoulders and back of my neck are really achy - I think because I was so rigid with fear in both of the dentists' chairs.  Mr Grainger, who took the tooth out, gave me express instructions not to clean my teeth or use mouthwash for 24 hours.  I hadn't been able to clean my teeth properly for several days anyhow, due to the awful pain of the abscess, so being able to do it finally yesterday was bliss, that in itself made me feel so much better.  Well, it's all over now and this is the last time I'm going to mention it!

Got a doctor's appointment this morning, then we're going out for the day, to a village not too far away - it's supposed to be very pretty and 'olde worlde', with thatched cottages and lovely gardens and no tourist tat shops, we've not been before.  We're taking Betty - there is a tea room with nice garden apparently which has a very good reputation and very reasonable prices, so we'll have lunch there, they're dog friendly.  It'll be so nice just to get out for a few hours, although it's not far from here it'll feel like a hundred miles away.  According to the forecast, today is the last nice sunny day for a while, so we're making the most of it.

Mum has seen the consultant for the results of her CT scan - there are no significant problems with her bowel or stomach, other than the diverticular disease and hiatus hernia.  However, the scan showed a shadow on one of her kidneys, just like my sister had a couple of years ago.  Sister's did turn out to be cancer, in the early stages, she had a lumpectomy and is fine now.  Mum's shadow is apparently smaller than sister's was, the consultant said it's probably a case of wait and watch, most likely no action required at the moment.  He's referring mum to the kidney specialist for further discussion though.

Thankful for the NHS

It's just after 3 am, I woke up with my mouth and face hurting and can't get back to sleep, I've taken some pain meds and am downstairs on the computer whilst the meds get to work.  Hopefully, once they kick in, I can go back to bed and sleep again.

Thank you again for comments....Scarlet, OMG!!  How utterly brutal, I cannot imagine how you got through that, and can't get over how sadistic that man was.  Pam, I had to think for a minute what on earth you meant, but then remembered old Mr Grainger from Menswear in the TV series...the dentist was nothing like him though, haha.  Yes, I guess it was the anaesthetic that tasted disgusting, along with some blood.  Have to say though, it didn't taste as bad as having the abscess drained...that was vile (as Scarlet knows!).  Mrs, I've never had a baby so couldn't compare the pain to that, but I can tell you I'd much rather have a migraine, backache or the awful Achilles Tendonitis I had a couple of years ago, all of which are very painful, but not as bad as the abscess.

I've had a look inside my mouth and have a round blackish spot slightly smaller than a 5p piece on my gum, where the abscess was.  Yuck.  It's sore, but bearable.  Whereas the abscess pain itself was making me almost delirious, it hurt so much.

So in the space of 4 days I've been to the GP, 2 different hospitals A&E departments (the first one didn't have the facilities to treat the abscess, as they're only a minor injuries unit, and could only give me codeine) and the dentist...and I have the GP again tomorrow as a follow up to last week, unrelated to my teeth.  And husband has the dentist on Friday, and a hospital appointment next week.  

A quiet, boring, uneventful week would be wonderful.

Dentist - update

In my drug-addled state this morning I posted this on the wrong blog....on my food blog instead.  Nobody wants to read about dentists when they're hoping to read a post about food, do they...sorry about that!!

Thank you for all the lovely comments.  I've rung the dentists and have an appointment for 10.30....not with my lovely dentist, sadly, she's not there today apparently.  I'm to see a Mr Grainger - I hope he's nice!

Had another bad night, the pain isn't anywhere near as bad as with the abscess, but it's still painful.  At the hospital yesterday they asked me what my pain score was....0-10, with 10 being the worst....I said it was 12!  This morning I would say it's a 7, so still quite bad.  The emergency dentist at the hospital said they don't routinely prescribe antibiotic tabs for dental stuff as, when we've swallowed the tabs, they've dissolved in the stomach and been transported around in the bloodstream, there's not much of them left by the time they reach the mouth!  But my dentist gave me antibiotics when I had an infection before, and the dental receptionist this morning said Mr Grainger may not take my tooth out today, he may want to give me antibiotics first....so I don't know!

UPDATE

The tooth's out - it was quick and painless.  Mr Grainger is very nice.  My face is a bit swollen and droopy, but no pain, although my gums are gradually coming back to life so he said there may be a bit of pain later, normal painkillers should sort it out.  A bit of blood but nothing to worry about, apart from a horrible taste in my mouth.  

I do feel totally shattered now...lack of sleep and ease of tension after being in such awful pain I guess.  Honestly, I wouldn't wish that pain on my worst enemy.  I might go upstairs for a nap this afternoon.

A yucky start to a lovely day

Well, to cut a (very) long story short, my awful toothache turned very rapidly into an excrutiatingly painful abscess.  After a largely sleepless night, I spent this morning in A&E (over 3 hours, and that was before the footballers and injured small children started flooding in) waiting to have the abscess lanced and drained, which took about 5 minutes.  The lovely emergency dentist said I need to ring my dentist first thing tomorrow to have the offending loose tooth removed....she said as I've had an abscess treated in A&E the dentist is obliged to see me within 24 hours.  As I was dosed up to the eyeballs with painkillers and she gave me a mouthful of anaesthetic, I felt nothing at all.  It's all wearing off now though, so shall have to take some more meds.  

All's well that ends well, once again I am grateful for our fantastic NHS, and it's a lovely day so shall be sitting in the garden this afternoon.

Bit of a 'huh' day but lovely sunshine

Well, we went out at 8 this morning to go to the car boot sale....and it wasn't there.  Huh.  We've not been to this one before, but it's advertised on the website as being open all year round, and it's at a big venue (the grounds of a large manor house that does weddings, corporate events etc), so why it wasn't on I don't know.  I suppose we should have rung and checked first.  Never mind.  At least it wasn't far from our favourite garden centre, so we went there for a mooch round and a coffee/cake in the café.

It was foggy when I got up...well, more misty than foggy actually.  The sunrise was beautiful, the sun was a huge glowing red ball, it looked fantastic, it burnt the mist away quickly.  

My toothache is agony today, it feels like I've been whacked round the side of the head with a baseball bat, I'm having to take painkillers every 4 or 5 hours to keep the pain at bay.  I shall have to ring the dentist on Monday, don't think I'll be able to tolerate it until my checkup appointment at the end of March.  I've had pain in this same tooth before, it's a back one and is wobbly anyway, so I think I'll ask the lovely Emma to just take it out.  She did suggest it before, but I was reluctant at the time, not having had a big back tooth out before.  Not looking forward to that, but am sure having it out will be better than ongoing pain.  

As it's such a lovely day and I don't really feel like doing anything, I think I'll sit in the garden and watch husband do a bit more to prepare the ground where he's going to lay the concrete.  Means I can keep an eye on him too and make sure he doesn't do too much and wear himself out.

Where did the day go?

The day seems to have rushed past, without me being sure what I've actually done.  I went to have a blood test this morning, made the bed, sorted some washing out and put some away, made lunch and dinner, washed up a couple of times, did a bit of banking...but that doesn't seem enough to actually fill the day.  It's as if I woke up, got washed and dressed, then suddenly noticed several hours had gone by without being aware of it.  Just as well not all my days are like that!  Oh yes, I wrote a sourdough tutorial blog post as well, that took a while.

Got the toothache back again and have had to take painkillers a couple of times, perhaps that accounts for my feeling a bit vague today.

We're going to our first car boot sale of the year tomorrow morning, it's forecast to be foggy in the morning but brightening later, so I hope that's true, otherwise it'll be chilly first thing.  I'm not looking for anything in particular at the boot sale, I like to go with an open mind and just see what's there.

Typical really - just when i'm feeling a bit under par and want a quiet evening, Betty is very restless, prowling around, wanting to play then wanting to go out in the garden every 10 minutes (not that she does anything out there, she just stands and sniffs!) and generally being very lively.  And yet yesterday she slept literally the whole evening.

Plans for the front garden

Thank you for all the comments on the menopausal post.  I know different things are likely to work for different people, but as Starflower oil capsules are working so well for me, I shall stick with them.

It's been a lovely day, sunny and warm, warm enough to be outside without a jacket.  I've had a productive day, did some washing and a bit of tidying up first thing, made my first sourdough loaf in years this morning and it came out really well, went to the town and managed to get a few amazing fruit/veg bargains, and did some gardening this afternoon, my first of the year.

I didn't do a lot, as I knew my back wouldn't like it - I just did one of the corner beds in the front garden, weeding it and pruning the shrubs in there, then pruned all the things in the pots dotted around the garden.  I shall do some more tomorrow, hopefully.  Betty 'helped' me - she was stood right beside me, sticking her nose into everything, then grabbing the prunings and running round the garden with them.  She's such a little monkey, but so funny.

This year we're (well, husband is) getting rid of the lawn on one side of the front path and laying concrete.  He's doing it a bit at a time, over a period of a month or so, for the sake of his health - I don't want him overdoing things and making himself unwell, he'd do it all at once if I let him and wear himself out for days afterwards.  I shall help where I can.  It means we'll have to temporarily fence each section off as it's done, to keep Betty from walking all over it and treading wet cement indoors.  We're doing it to make life easier....less grass to mow, and the grass there isn't very nice anyway, it's full of weeds and Betty tends to dig holes there which we're always having to fill in.  We'll have our wooden companion seat and a lot of pots there, so it'll look alright, and there's a flower bed along one edge.