Catching up for the week - 4/9/2021

Photos of the Week

It seems that I take the same photos each spring. It's my way of capturing the beautiful blossoms and the changes that have occurred in our neck of the woods. For comparison, I'll provide links to some of Spring 2020 photos: A little (more) work done; One more time I was faked out; Dogwood Saga; It's Redbud time in south central Kansas.

The first photo shows the growth of the little clump of redbud trees, and the larger whitebud, behind them. Obvious in the foreground are the seed cones from last fall of one of our staghorn sumac plants, while, much less obvious in the background is the redbud tree that was so brutally beaten down when the neighbors trees fell across it.

The second photo shows the beaten down redbud tree. It seems healthy, but it will take several years for it to regrow some branches to take over the places of the branches that had lent height and shape to the tree, but which were split off.

The third photo shows the three dogwoods that have been planted in the past two years. The two are abloom; the third shows no signs of blooming, but seems to be alive.

Next photo: closeup of dogwood blossoms.

The blooms in the next photo are crabapple blossoms. I seem not to have photographed the whole tree.

Tulips are next. The leaves of the iris plants foretell a bountiful year for them.

Lastly, the next photo shows one of the lovely clumps of phlox that we have - transplanted from New Hampshire some years ago at the benevolence of Bogie. (Bogie probably noted that there is a larger clump of her light lilac colored phlox in the midground of the first photo at the start of this posting.) The remaining phlox (not all of the phlox that Bogie sent me survived the first couple of years - probably due to poor placement and/or lack of water) loved our wet March, this year.

 

Disappointment (4/8/2021)

The dental road down which I embarked in late December, 2020, has taken a turn for the worse. I started telling the tale of my adventure at the end of a posting, Week in Review - 10/17/2020. I told of my troubles with keeping a crown on my #9 tooth (upper, front, right-hand tooth). I had decided to try for an implanted fake tooth as it became obvious that any attempt to keep a crown on the little tooth stub that was left would be futile. (I had had four crowns on that tooth since the first one that had been installed in 1967, the first lasting for 30 years, the second for 20+ years, the third for 11 months, and the fourth for a few weeks. That was in addition to the two root canals done on that tooth.)

On January 11, 2021, Dr Omar started the process, pulling the root of my #9 tooth out. It was long, strong, and healthy looking. Dr O installed a titanium insert into the bone and measured the torque. The installation would not resist enough torque for the post to be inserted that day - my bone was not dense enough (imagine that at my age!) One week later, I returned to the dental office for removal of the sutures and evaluation of the healing process. Everything looked good in the x-rays. The x-rays taken at the next (and last) evaluation on February 8 also looked good. Today (4/8/2021) was my day to have the post installed into the implanted receptacle. Oh, joy.

Dr O had never seen me phased by the pain of any of the work he had done up to today. Today was different. He had barely gotten started when I flinched. He applied more Novocain. When he started up again, the pain was worse and I flinched even more. More Novocain. This was repeated twice more. Eventually, Dr O was able to work without causing me great pain. It turned out there was a reason things were so painful. My body had, stealthily, been rejecting the titanium insert. The insert had to be removed, the bone smoothly cupped, a bone grafting mixture inserted, and the gum sutured once more. What a disappointment.

Dr O offered to try implanting, again, once the surgical site had healed (maybe up to six months). As Dr O and Sheri were working on me, I thought, coming up with the working theory that the insert is machined from a titanium alloy that includes nickel - to which I happen to be sensitive. I told Dr O, "No, let's not try that, again." and told him that I saw no reason to expect different results for the same procedure (I'm not insane!) When I explained my working theory, Dr O started to object, "But...it's titanium...." Finally agreeing that the hardware had to have been formed from an alloy (that he could not identify), he agreed that we should move on to the next option - a bridge. In his lexicon, a bridge is when three crowns are made as one structure and installed with the two "good" teeth as the support for the fake tooth that fills in for the missing tooth.

Last night was the pits - today is better (4/9/2021)

I made a rookie error, yesterday. When Dr O prescribed an antibiotic, I picked it up on my way home. As soon as I got home, I took the first dose (2 tablets). I was to take a dose (1 tablet) on each of the succeeding four days. My error was in taking that first dose before finding the information sheet in the pharmacy's bag. I know that the pharmaceutical companies write those sheets to cover their asses; but, in the process they can scare a person to death. There were a couple of "pucker" statements: 1) that those with kidney or liver disfunctions might have a problem and 2) that anyone over age 65 should think again. Yikes! That was in addition to all of the horrible, possible side effects.

Immediately, of course, I started experiencing stomach pains and twitches in the left side of my chest. (Abnormal heart beats - long QT syndrome - were a side effect. A QT interval is the time from the beginning of electrical activation of the heart to the end of electrical relaxation.) In addition, I felt lousy and I developed a semi-severe headache that was still with me this morning. Was I being panicky or was the antibiotic a real problem? This question haunted me all night.

This morning, I was at my primary care physician's office at 8am. She and her staff, as it happened, were not in office, today; but, Hunky Husband's primary care physician, a partner in the same office, was seeing walk-ins. My wait was but five minutes. He listened to my sad tale - that I was concerned because Dr A had told me a couple of months ago that my kidney function was failing, and I don't need any medication contributing to its problems. Not having seen me before, and it's being faster to ask than to look at my chart, Dr N asked if I took other medications. Yes, I take a statin. Well...it turns out that there are bad interactions between the prescribed antibiotic and the particular statin prescribed for me. Dr N wrote me a prescription for a different antibiotic - one that I had taken six times within the past 15 years. I asked the pharmacy to destroy the four unused antibiotic tablets and bought the newly prescribed antibiotic.

At noon, I took my first dose of the new antibiotic and I can tell you: Whether I was panicky or whether there really was a problem, I feel much better. The headache is gone, no further stomach problems, and no twitching in my chest. Of course, part of my improvement must be attributed to the surgery's now being about 30 hours behind me. The swelling in the gum and my upper lip is down enough that I no longer resemble a snapping turtle but a more friendly sort of turtle.

Comments

[Ole Phat Stu]

Wishing you better health and less/no pain!

Stu

P.S. We got our first Covid vaccinations this week :-)

[Cop Car]

Stu--I did read on your blog of your having received your first shots. Great! Your vaccine/vaccination system must be getting the kinks out. Have you been keeping up with the development of vaccine for the canine brigade? Or am I dreaming that I saw such an article?

I still have throbbing in the area of the surgery, but no real pain anywhere, thank you. My nightmare, now, is that when (of necessity) Dr O removes the existing crowns from the #8 and #10 teeth it will turn out that there are problems with using them as the anchors for the bridge. It will be a while until my healing advances to the point where the bridge will be in the works. In the meantime, I thank goodness for the masks we wear. No one (well...except for Dr N) sees the gap in my teeth. It is more comfortable for me to not wear the appliance that would make it appear that a tooth was there. (Dr N wanted to see the surgical site before prescribing the alternate antibiotic.)

[bogie]

Well, that sucketh all the way around. First the implant issues - I am sorry that won't work out and that there wasn't an easier way to find out there will be issues. A quick Google search says they are made from an alloy including Aluminum, Vanadium and nickle. And, further states that those people that have issues are usually allergic to the small amount of nickle.

Glad you figured out that the antibiotic was not your friend before taking all the doses. It worries me that the dental professional did not realize that the medication did not play nicely with the statin you are on. I'm assuming that you are asked to disclose any medications you are on so they can hopefully alleviate any interactions.

On this end - as of yesterday, One and Done for the Covid vaccine :)

[Liz Hinds]

I hate anything to do with teeth. Even though I've not really been hurt by a dentist for many many years I still dread it. So well done you for going through all that. The next bit doesn't look exactly enjoyable though.

What a horrible reaction. I'm glad you feel better now.

[Cop Car]

Bogie--Thanks for the research. I had started checking the alloy online, but got distracted and didn't get back to it.
It's on me that I didn't think to check on the alloy before deciding to try an implant. Tsk! Tsk! It's on him that he didn't bother to check my medications list (or, charitably, I may not have updated my specific statin a year ago when Dr A switched me) or ask me what I'm taking as did HH's doc. I did make sure that he knew my kidneys are slowing down; thus I was disappointed to learn from the information sheet that kidney/liver problems were contraindications.
Well done, finding a faster way to get your J&J and that you've (so far?) not had any untoward reaction. That makes 100% coverage for all but generation #4 in our family. Yay!

Liz--You are not alone in your dental dreads, I'm sure. I think that I am unusual - probably because I started getting real dental services as an adult. Our parents took care of what dental assistance we kids needed - according to the rural practices of 1930s/1940s. Thank you for the moral support.

[joared]

Wow! You have been through the mill. I do hope all is going better dentally though hardly completed as you expected. I suppose you're familiar with what it says about redheads and the amount of pain meds needed compared with those with other hair color.

I declined a root canal recently when the specialist couldn't find the root on the xray. My dentist agreed to put the broken piece back on with adhesive again. I'm hoping it holds for a long time as it did initially, or even the shorter time it lasted when that one released, unlike the next time when I think I may have unintentionally weakened it. I'm trying to take special care now.

[Cop Car]

I've always thought it strange the apparent anomalies between my being insensitive to some pains while requiring more anesthesia for surgical procedures (starting with waking during my tonsillectomy at age 5): but, was always reluctant to generalize from the one data set that defines my own experience. According to UCI Health: Live Well:

More anesthetic, less analgesic
Here’s what studies have revealed about redheads and pain:

They need about 20 percent more anesthesia to be sedated.
They also need more local topical anesthetics, such as lidocaine or Novocain, which is why many redheads have a fear of dentists, according to the American Dentistry Association.
They need lower doses of pain-killing analgesics, such as opioids.
They easily detect changes in hot and cold temperatures.
They may be less sensitive to electric shock, needle pricks and stinging pain on the skin.

[Kitty Bennecke]

Dentists! Yuck! I would say that I am short of having a phobia about dentists, but I could see developing one. More than 30 years ago I met the woman who is responsible for my dental care and she has done everything in her power to get me through our visits. She has an amazing bag of distractions, and she created two new ones for me. She asked me to conduct while she worked on me! It worked. I chose difficult patterns and it allowed her to finish before I realized how long I had been in the chair. When I am really distressed, I circle my feet in opposing directions. Thank you for the information on redheads and pain! I'm so sorry that you are having to go through all this dental work, but I'm really glad that you and Bogie have figured out what part of the problem is. I wish you well in the future, and hope you have a full set of teeth by the time we can give up our masks. Dear Husband and I have both gotten our vaccinations and our children are working on theirs. Be well, CC!

[Cop Car]

Kitty--Talk about a blast from the past! Yesterday, in searching for something else, I ran across a posting of mine from 2006. The comments were of more interest to me than was the posting. I miss you! Please consider dropping by more often!

Happy that you & your DH have your vaccinations and that your family's next generation is working on it. If you've not read far back enough in my postings: All of our generations 1, 2, and 3 have been given two shots (or a single J&J); although, it will be a few more days before everyone is "fully vaccinated" per CDC guidelines. Generation 4 won't be old enough to get their shots within the near future, being 10 & 11.

Hope there is some soaring and/or sailing in your DH's near future - or has he been getting some in, regardless?

[Kitty]

DH has a bum knee and will be seeing a specialist on Monday. The good news is that the X-rays were better than expected. Once he can walk, and get out of the glider on his own, he can go back to soaring. I know his heart is there, now we just need to get the rest of him going. My youngest sister is resisting the vaccine. I don't know how to get her to accept that she needs to do it. I think the rest of my siblings are okay with it, and their children seem to have been vaccinated. Two of the boys are concerned that there is not enough info on the connection between the vaccine and infertility, and plan to wait for a while to have the grandkids vaccinated. I haven't found any research that says this is an issue, but we haven't been at it long enough to really know. I hope they will get vaccinated. I'll be back to visit. It was good to see what you've been up to!

[Cop Car]

Kitty--Sorry about your DH's bum knee. That's no laughing matter, I know. If I thought it would do any good, I'd send healing thoughts his way.

Bummer on your sister (I think I recall which one that is). I can understand the theory of our not having a long track record with the vaccine, and perhaps COVID-19 is supposed to be nature's cure for over-population; although, the mortality among us (not you, youngster) really old people isn't all that helpful. Any "infertility" issue could be helpful. That infertility fear isn't something I had heard/read about. I'll let the under-50s worry about that. I have been reading about the decreasing fertility of males in much of the world - for the past 10 or 20 years.