Lordy, Lordy, I done had me a root canal.

Those of a sensitve nature might want to look away now...

Yesterday the tooth that had been worked on last week decided it really did want to get my attention. A small sip of water was all it took and - KAPOW!.

I practically begged the dentist for some painkillers, thinking that surely it could wait the 10 days that I will be in the UK....but no. By 5.30 last night I was up the wall and ended up with a 7.30pm appointment - the timing a combination of:

1. Wanting to be able to get to Scotland to see my son

2. The dentist telling me that the pain might be intolerable overnight.

The injections were fine, and to be honest I think they were even less painful than last time - or maybe it was just that in comparison to the pain in the tooth they were nothin. Anyway, everything was going smoothly, he drilled into the pulp chamber (that makes me want to vomit just thinking about it) with no problems. Then he checked the exposed nerve with a VERY SHARP POINTY THING. How I was every scraped off the ceiling I will never know!

By this time, Mr Dentist was having to calculate just how much local anesthtetic he could give me without there being an overdose. Number Guy sat there, holding my hand, trying not to look green.

Of course, because the nerve was exposed there were only 2 options - tooth removal or proceed. And proceed we did. A combination of not quite the maximum dose of local, plus putting some into the nerve itself (!!) meant it all got done in the end. The end took 2 and a half hours to come. At various points during the procedure I was shaking so much that the instruments were rattling.

In one of the canals the nerve was dead, the other two were very inflammed. AT the moment I have a temporary dressing holding some antibiotic/steroid combo in place, plus a prescription for antibiotics since there was still a little bleeding in one of the canals which might cause a problem.

So after all of this, what do I think of my new dentist? Well, I still think he is wonderful. The difficulties were caused by my nerve endings (I'm such a sensible soul) and I would have had the same problem whoever had treated it. However, I don't think I could have let any other dentist do the procedure - he was so kind, so patient. But let's hope I don't need another one done any time soon...

No inspiring title

And no inspiring blog post, either!

We had planned to spend Saturday of the Easter weekend out and about. However, a combination of the weather (snowy/thundery) and an almost-last-push on the unpacking persuaded us to stay in and knuckle down. Number Guy has been building (more) bookcases for his journals and ich muss Deutsch lernen. It'll make a change when I can speak German in more than just the present tense. Nonetheless, I have been making myself catch up on some German homework - the toothache last week meant I was just not up to the 2+ hours a night that is needed.

When I have not been studying I've been quite lazy - knitting, listening to audiobooks, enjoying looking out at the snow from a very cosy home. And there have been lost of great non-events. Non cardiac events. I have been off the heart meds for a week now and so far all that has happened has been a couple of really hard 'chest thumps', if that makes sense. I am more and more convinced that my last employment was really screwing up my life.

We will be going 'home' in a little while and when we get back I hope to be able to put some pics on this blog at last. My camera might not be talking to the pc, but I think my new mobile speaks the right language.

In the meantime, its more audio, knitting, snow watching and just a tiny bit of Swiss chocolate eating.

Dental Delight

Well, that might be an exageration, but only a small one. I was at the surgery for about an hour and a half, an hour of which was in the surgery.

I cannot praise this dentist highly enough. Not only is he very competent, but he truly understands, and empathises, with those of us who have dental fears. When I put my hand up to ask him to stop he did so immediately.

All done. Whew

The purpose of toothache...

...is to make one really pleased to be going to the dentist.

I was offered an appointment for Tuesday, but that was at 10.00am which would clash with my Deutsch class. There is a lot covered in each class (and I am paying a lot for it!) so I opted for Thursday pm instead. Right now I am not sure that this was such a good idea. The pain is going from my tooth up into my ear, something I have never experienced before. Roll on Thursday :0)

Another somewhat painful experience has been my new Handy (Deutsch for mobile!). Because we are new in the country it means we have no credit history here. That means that for the first 3 months of the contract we have some limitations on the phone use. Nothing major, I just have to remember. I think that this must have been why Cable Com cancelled our contract on the day that we made it online. I don't have a problem with this, but I do have an issue with the fact that they didn't tell us....The 'painful' bit of the mobile is learning to use it. I have never used this make before and the instruction manuals come in 3 languages, but not English. Thankfully it actually occured to me to see if I could download an English version from the internet :0) I could play around without the instructions, and I have been, but there are some things that I can't figure out easily. And with raging toothache I don't have so much patience.

This morning was very sunny so we went for a walk. On the homeward stretch the rain started so I am going to cuddle up on the sofa with some knitting, tea/cofee,a new novel and Radio 4.

And toothache.

:0)

'Honey, I'm ho-ome!'

Ok, he didn't say that, but I did get a big, if rather weary, smile when Number Guy got home. Nonetheless, he was sent straight to bed - I learnt the last time this happened that letting him potter about is abad,bad idea. This time he is going to sleep (aka pass out with exhaustion) for about 4 hours and then accompany me on a mobile phone aquistion trip. Living the highlife, eh?

Now, while my love is snoozing I could do something really useful - deal with the recycling. But I will have to gird my loins for this, and quite frankly it is such a lovely sunny day I'd rather be on my balcony with a cup of tea, my knitting, a good book, Radio 4 and my latest audiobook. Maybe even all at once!

The Crime

Well, those of you who went down the recyling route were not far off ;0)

My friend very carefully sorted her various sorts of recycling, made sure it was tied up properly if need be etc. When she got to the local recycling centre she offloaded the glass and cans ok, but the paper and cardboard was more problematical.The container was closed. So instead of taking it back to return another day, she simply placed the very neat bag of card/paper beside the container, assuming that when it next opened it would simply be popped in.

No. Not here. Here this is an offence and you will be tracked down. And fined. And this is, I think, one of the problems for us ex-pats (and ex-pats the world over). It is not that we don't want to follow the rules. It is that sometimes there are unspoken rules, which everyone knows except us. It can make for some nerve-wracking exchanges.

Tomorrow I am going to try recycling some clothes. Watch this space....

First gloomy evening

I am sitting with the evening stretching like a wasteland ahead of me. Peter has been in the US for a week (back later tonight) and I have suddenly had enough of my own company.

Peter left last weekend and I spent the Saturday with friends going on the sleigh ride. Sunday, spent entirely alone, I really enjoyed. I have met up with freinds* a couple of times for coffee and the mornings and evenings have been taken up with Deutsch. Now that I have a free evening, I can't settle.

This morning I had my second test. I did really well but I am really surprised. This is not false modesty on my part. We have been 'doing' the akkusativ and working on verb conjugation. I understand it all, but part of the problem (for those of you that have no Deutsch) is that one MUST know the gender of nouns. Whether they are die, der or das matters. So while I understood what to do, I was not so sure I could remember the genders. Added to that, I was not certain that I could conjugate the irregular verbs. But it seems that I can :0)

Well, I guess that is all. I shall go and take my slightly lonely self off to read a book ...and maybe a glass of wine...?

*This is what Deutsch is doing to my spelling!!!!

A true story...

Friend collects mail. Friend opens mail. Friend faints. Ok, the last part is untrue, but I bet she felt like fainting, for therein lay a letter from the Kantonspolizei. Now even the most law-abiding of folk (which she is!) would quail at such a summons from the local Bobbies. Just to add to the trauma, when she 'phoned up they could not tell her what the problem was.

So on the appointed day (and definitely on time ;0)she presented herself as requested. They presented their evidence, both photographic and physical. There was no doubt about it. My friend was guilty....

What do you think she had done?

Ich möchte nicht den Zahnartz gehen

But I've got to go anyway....

However, I think that this dental experience won't be too bad. One of my neighbours told me about this chap and he IS very nice. He spent about an hour today talking about the problem and options. He won't know until the filling is out whether or not he needs to redo the filling or do root canal. So I have an appointment for next week ...and a prescription for a couple of diazepam tablets.

By the way, please DO NOT leave any comments about how awful root canal can be. As a variation on what my dear old mum would say,'if you can't say something good about the dentist, don't say anything at all

A thought experiment

I thought I could use loose tea to make a great cuppa.....