Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday; some dude was doing unspeakable things to one of my teeth, although to be fair the tooth deserved it. The tooth is recovering, as is the rest of me.
But hey we were overdue for another open thread anyway, so here you go.
–DF
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@allandrel I’m glad you were able to go back to pd, watching MexicanHotchocolate on hemo was rough. I’m the detail person in our little duo, so I tend to deal with diet tweaking, inventory, etc. Are you good on masks? We’re only ok bc I tend to keep a couple of months at a time, but our clinic is out.
(Protein is a huge problem for us, homeboy will put half a chicken between 2 slices of bread, insist it’s a sandwich, insist that a sandwich is a snack, and still come up low on labs.)
ETA: he’s ok with a little dairy, but we have to be super careful with the added phos in a lot of baked goods.
@ David, Alan
I definitely sympathize over the dentistry, longer ago than I care to remember I was woken up by a whimpering noise, then the pain of the impacted wisdom tooth reached my consciousness and I realized it was me.
Over-the-counter pain medication doesn’t work well on my nervous system, neither are stronger medical analgesic drugs universally guaranteed to work either.
Anyway, off to the dentist, in this case one who wasn’t much bothered about pain-free dentistry, just ‘in and out fast, get it over with!’
The local anaesthetic actually worked (yay!) but she hadn’t realized how firmly embedded the tooth was (said as much during the op) and it felt like it only came out after an unconscionable length of time hacking at it with sensations that still remind me of the use of a hammer and chisel.
Next few weeks putting up with the post – op pain, some of it referred to the other side of my jaw, being careful to use the prescribed prophylactic antibiotic, looking like a lopsided hamster.
All cleared up satisfactorily, but that’s why anyone who is going/been through major dental work has my particular sympathy.
@David F.
First a chipped tooth and now a root canal. You’ve been having bad luck in the teeth department lately. Get well soon.
I cough since at least two week and my probably COVID-related illness. Might be seasonal allergy, but usually they don’t manifest with coughing.
So I am doing extra to really confine myself, only going out once a week for groceries. You know, just in case.
David, I hope you feel better soon. Dental pain really sucks. The amount of pain emanating from one tiny spot is unbelievable. So many nerves!
@Alan Robertshaw
I understand what you mean. In the 90s I experienced sudden excruciating tooth pain on my lower left side that rapidly worsened over about 1.5 days. OTC meds didn’t touch it; a coworker gave me his prescription aspirin with codeine. That helped. I also fantasized about seeing my friend who was my dentist at the time.
I got an emergency appt. My friend had to inject me with 2 full doses of Novocain before I could even open my mouth normally. (I opened my mouth a crack and he somehow maneuvered the syringes inside.) I had one of the worst abscesses he had ever seen, he told me. During the root canal, I physically felt something in the tooth “pop.” My dentist friend said that when he opened the tooth, all the pus inside it just exploded out. Disgusting! After the root canal, pus drained from the tooth for about a week; it tasted like rotten meat.
After the root canal, the absence of pain was euphoric, as you said. My jaw was a bit sore, but the sharp agony was gone. Relieved doesn’t come close to how I felt. Luckily I’ve had no problems with that tooth since then.
Believe me, if I had been unable to get an emergency appt I would have pulled the tooth myself with pliers. The pain was that severe.
Root canals are good things!
Re: pain
I’ve been very lucky* to never injure myself seriously, but my shoulder got dislocated once. I suppose even that wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, since it popped back into position almost on its own, but the couple seconds right after that were a pure blast of euphoria. After those I realised I was still kind of in pain, though, but but there was some residual “everything is in place” high happening.
*Especially considering how dumb I was a child in the “I bet I can climb on top of this thing – well now I’m here, how do I get down” department.
In other news the Hugoaward nomines have been realised.
https://conzealand.nz/blog/2020/04/08/hugo-and-retro-hugo-finalists-announced
A lot of interesting stuff in there.
I had my wisdom teeth out a few years ago and can’t really say I got much euphoria after: as soon as the local anesthesia wore off my jaw just hurt and there was still bleeding.
@Naglfar
I suspect that it’s a case of large scale projection like the jokes about women drivers. They’re uncomfortable with the reality and project the opposite for various reasons.
Wait. Isn’t being very attentive to detail one of the form autism can take ? Or am I confused ?
@Ohlmann
It is a very common characteristic that almost all autistic people I know exhibit. Bigots just like to throw out nonsense about us, especially this month because it’s Autism $peaks’ “Autism Awareness Month” so all kinda of falsehoods are circulating.
@ David Feel better soon
General comment
I would love one of those COVID19 plushies, for my collection. I currently only have a ‘rhinovirus’ but I would like to collect them. I already collect dragon plushies, particularly TY Beanies and JellyCat brands.
Get well soon, David!
Guess who just got downsized due to physician offices shutting down due to COVID-19?
@Nanny Oggs Bosom,
Click on the link that’s in my post there, and it’ll take you to the website that sells those, plus virtually any other microbe you might want. They also come as keychains too, if you want one to carry around on your person and say ‘yes, I have the virus; why do you ask?’ for some odd reason. 😀
Or just google ‘giant microbes’ and that can get you there too.
@Clever4agirl
I have a decent supply of masks on hand, but today my nurse informed me that my upcoming supply shipments will likely not be able to include more. They’re advising us, unwillingly, to re-use masks from treatment to treatment and only mask up when actually connecting or disconnecting, in an effort to make the supply last longer.
Hand sanitizer may also be an issue. Patients won’t be able to get further deliveries, but the clinic is hoping to have a setup where they receive bulk jugs that they can refill patients’ personal dispensers from.
I was afraid of something like this. I would normally go through four masks a day to prevent peritonitis, and this will increase the odds of infection.
This may be of some interest/use to Brit mammotheers.
After discussion of a potential legal challenge, HMG has now agreed that people with particular physical or mental needs aren’t restricted to the ‘one form of exercise per day’ rule; and can travel if they need a particular type of environment.
The guidance has been amended to:
@allandrel this is what we do to reuse masks, since we’ve always used each mask twice.
Mask up, keep mask on during entire set-up and connection. Hang up mask by earloops, use same mask to disconnect. If you’re manual, hang up and reuse 1 mask/day. As long as the mask stays dry and you only touch earloops/bridge of nose to adjust, and just handle the very edge of the mask, you should be ok.
It’s not ideal, but we’re all stuck stretching our supply as long as we can. As for hand sanitizer, when we’ve run out in the past we’ve done handwashing, and then use paper towels to open doors/turn off taps etc.
David can give you my email if you want to talk.
@Allandrel,
Would masks made out of cloth be a useful alternative for you guys? I’ve seen more than a few people use those instead of the disposable paper ones, since all they have to do is wash them between uses. They also come in all colors/designs between ‘dull’ and ‘pretty wild’, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one (or more) you like. (The filter inserts for some of those might be hard to find, but otherwise….)
@Clever4agirl
Not sure if this is an option for you, but it’s also possible to make your own hand sanitizer. There are a lot of recipes online for it using aloe gel or similar and rubbing alcohol.
Vicky P – Sorry to hear about your downsizing. Will you be able to go back when things normalize?
I have a really great dentist now. The whole practice is wonderful. The reason I know this is that I’ve had some mediocre dentists and some downright bad ones.
My current dentist re-did three crowns, pulled two teeth, and installed a bridge. All with very minimal pain and recovery. I never even filled the pain med prescription; Ibuprofen was all I needed. Two different dentists did the original root canals and I had more pain with those than I did with the extractions.
My mouth operates wonderfully now. It cost a lot of money (even with Husbeast’s insurance) but I had it at the time (right after my dad passed) and don’t regret it at all. Well, except for the whole dentistry is health care and health care should be free thing.
@Hambeast
There’s no guarantee. I’ve applied to another job today, and I’m still in the running for a job at a company currently making headlines for practicing capitalism and butting heads with Trump.
Mr. Parasol and I have been looking at things, and assuming no new disasters, we should be good to the end of the year if necessary, and that’s without me applying for unemployment, which I will do next week.
Oh so sorry to hear this Vicky; and what a blow timing wise.
I hope, and really believe, though that things will bounce back once the lockdown is over. So I’ll keep everything crossed for you.
Thanks, Alan. I hope so, too.
My husband recently got dental insurance, just in time for the Great Shuttening. He’s hoping that he doesn’t actually lose any teeth waiting for the dental clinic to reopen. I myself had a root canal a couple of decades ago; the only lingering aftereffect was a new appreciation for flossing.
Our household has been distracted from the pandemic issues by our transition from the house we just sold to the house we’re now renting. If things go on this way, by the time we’re fully unpacked and settled in ‘sheltering in place’ will seem like a delightful experience.