Coot and Geezer R and R.

I am back into tales of coot and geezer remove, repair, or replace stuff. Yesterday I took Janet to the hospital for another analysis of the zillions of tests they have given her since we came home. This time we went to the Retina specialist in the eye department, and he informed her that enough time has elapsed that he doubted that Janet's peripheral vision on the right side would return. She has scar tissue (this preceded the aneurism and the strokes) on the back of one eye which acts a little like macular degeneration. The resident suggested that we ought to go in and remove the scar tissue with a laser and patch up any holes that might be there, then he smiled and said that the boss (department head and chief retinal surgeon) would make the decision. The boss just rolled his eyes. Like almost everyone else he is impressed with how well Janet has done, considering the strokes, the aneurism etc., and like almost everyone else he hinted that he didn't expect a heck of a lot more. That's both an upper and a downer.

On a good note, I found a restroom in the hospital that has real, pull down outa the box, paper towels. The world has not totally jumped in the hand basket for the road to == well you know where.

Today it was my turn. One the day we left for Finland (last September) I lost a crown from a tooth (and swallowed it). There was no opportunity to get it replaced and make it to the airport on time, but I wasn't worried. What can happen to it in only a week. Of course the fact that we stayed a lot longer should have worried me, but I seemed to have something else to do with my mind. Then about two weeks ago, I began to have some pain in another tooth, which rapidly abscessed, so I called the dentist on Friday and the office was closed for something, so I went to my GP, got some antibiotics and lortabs, and fought the abscess to a draw. Today was the day.

First, I had to premedicate. When you have had bypasses and hardware installations in your body they want you to premedicate (take four amoxicillin about an hour before your appointment. Yesterday I picked up the appropriate drugs, today, one hour before my appointment I went to my drug box (home of prescription medications) and the pills were missing. Everybody in the family spent a while trying in futility to find them, so I called the pharmacist to see if he could legally get me some more antibiotics. He said he could so I went to the pharmacy and got the pills. The pharmacist smiled and said "I presume you didn't find the others.". "No" I replied, "but I will, as soon as I don't need them anymore." I paid the bill, ran out to the car, and realized that I had left the pills on the counter. I sadly fear that if I had another brain, It would be lonesome. I went back into the pharmacy, endured the giggles all round, asked for a glass of water and took them on the spot.

Now, off to the dentist. My dentist is a good guy and a good dentist, though he is also a coot--- well, maybe just a geezer, but he is about my age, has sold his practice, and keeps on working three days a week. I went in, sat down, and he immediately had xrays taken of both teeth and informed me that we weren't going to mess with the abscess, he would ship me off to the endo dontist for that. (Which took care of the premedication, I probably could have skipped that.) but they would replace the crown. The dentist chastised me a little because the crown I lost was a temporary, and I should get a permanent one (and he quoted the price.) Knowing that I still had to deal with a root canal at the endodontist, I pointed out that I was still trying to figure out what to do with the 49,000 dollar bill from the hospital in Finland. (I then had to tell them about all our adventures over there.) and that if I couldn't finish payment arrangements with Finland I might have to declare bankruptcy. "Now," quoth I, "Do we really want to spend a thousand dollars on this new crown, another thousand dollars at the Endodontist (to which you referred me) and have me show up in a week or two to inform you that I have just gone bankrupt.

He then became pretty enthusiastic about the temporary crown and let me know that he would use the extra strong cement, since I might have this for quite awhile.

Here I am now, with my securely cemented temporary crown, a uselessly premedicated mouth, and I am off to the endodontist in the morning to make an appointment (and probably get some more antibiotics). All that, and this weeks coot repair has been limited to the mouth.

(I like to go to tracksy once in awhile to see who has been coming that hasn't commented, and to check out the google traces that led folks to me. One of these led me to a blogevaluation site, in which I was informed that I had less than five subscribers (served me right as erratic as I have timed recent posts and since I gave up on politics) and listed a lot of other sites that folks who like my site would enjoy. Most of the sites listed were for sites like "Aunt Maude counts the birdies in the back yard" and sites like that. I may have to go political after all.)