And life slowly gets back to normal

It seems the older I get, the longer it takes to recover. Combine that with real life situations that happened and once more it took longer to get back here than I thought it would. On the positive side, it no longer scares me to enter the house. I'll confess it was pretty bad there.

Now I had a situation arise even before I left for the RWA conference. On the Sunday before, a tooth that I knew was going to go bad, went terribly, dreadfully bad. It was so bad that I had to go to a walk-in clinic to get something for the pain as well as antibiotic to rid myself of the infection. They prescribed Tylenol 3's. I also had some other left over medication from the leg. So when the Tylenol 3's didn't work in the amount of time I thought they should have; while I was sitting on the couch almost crying in pain and thinking of my upcoming trip, I kind of, sort of, um, took one of the pain pills for the legs - the heavy duty stuff - the stuff I could sell for a nice profit on the street if I were so inclined. And I knocked myself out for about 5 hours. But the pain was gone. The nurses I work with were horrified the next day when I told them and I had to promise never to do that again.

I got in to see the dentist immediately and he confirmed that the tooth was abscess and that it would have to come out. He gave me a choice of having him do it, or going to a 'specialist' where I could get a bit of sedation. I went for Option 2 since I'm a huge, huge sucky baby when it comes to the tooth pulling thing.

Now when I get nervous about something, I often get odd. I sent an email off to a number of coworkers. What was very peculiar was that a number of them came up to me and said how funny the email was and how much of kick they thought. Now the odd thing about that was these were coworkers I hadn't sent it to!! Apparently some of the original recipients thought it so funny, the passed it on. So because So You Think You Can Dance Canada is on soon and I have to get ready to take notes for the recap tomorrow, I'll cheat and let you all read the email I sent



Subject: Announcement

I know many of you are probably not aware of this, but today is Tooth Extraction Day. Yes, I have an appointment at noon today to have a molar extracted. Now to put this into perspective, I was much less freaked when I was in the hospital and they wanted me to sign a consent so they could put a steel rod and two pins in my leg when it broke. Mind you, at that time I was heavily under the influence of drugs………..wonderful, fun, ‘Frankly my dears, I don’t really give a damn drugs. I’m on a trip and it’s a fun one….considering trip. When I asked what would happen if I didn’t sign, just out of curiosity, the nurse explained that the first time I tried to stand, they would put me under, cut open my leg, insert a steel rod anchored by two pins. At that point I have the vaguest memory of, in my best Larry the Cable Guy voice, saying ‘let’s git ‘her done then’.

I did not say that yesterday at the consultation. Part of it may have been the fact I wasn’t heavily influenced by drugs, wonderful, fun, ‘I didn’t really give a damn drugs’.

So considering the seriousness of what will be taking place in a few short hours, I just wanted to express how much I have enjoyed working with all of you these past years. Some haven’t had the opportunity of working with me directly. If you haven’t, I’m sure you are looking at each other going “hu’h??? This chick is odd!” But it’s been most enjoyable getting to know you all. Considering this whole situation has come up so quickly, I haven’t had the chance to buy the loud obnoxious Hawaiian shirts in bulk yet, so should the worst happen, it will be up to each and every one of you to get one. May I suggest Value Village. I don’t want you laying out a lot of money for something you will probably never wear again, even should you travel to Hawaii. By now, more of you are probably going “hu’h???” Betty White {name change} can answer any questions about this you may have. Or my sons. I made them promise and my soon to be daughter in law promised she will hold them to it.

(me jumping in here to explain - I decided when I kick it, I wanted it to be a fun time, a time when everyone told stories and laughed and bonded. To that end, I plan on getting a whole bunch of Hawaiian shirts and when people come to the visitation, before they come in, they have to put on one of the shirts)

I just wish I hadn’t lost my sense of humor over this situation, but sadly, it’s gone. Stress has robbed me of it. One can only hope it returns once my tooth is no longer causing me concern. The other side effect of stress – the desire to write about how stressed I am has obviously kicked in – thus the ‘so long, farewell, to you and you and you’ email you are reading right now.

Should things go well, I will see you all tomorrow and everyone who has received this email can come up to me and say ‘you are one of the oddest people I know! You only had a tooth removed you ninny, not major surgery!”

On the plus side, they did tell me to have a milk shake for breakfast. Or was that dinner last night????

See, I’m so stressed over this I don’t remember when I was supposed to have the shake!

Kristie

Client Services Assistant

SUPPORTIVE CARE TEAM