Today started off wet and rainy. A rain that was not in the forecast, nor even on the weather radar, which showed clear skies when I checked. We’re looking at more rain starting tomorrow evening, through to Saturday, but given their track record, I’m not going to assume anything. 😄
Things were quiet overall, today. There was not much I could do outside while it was wet, and I didn’t want to start some projects when we had to go to town in the afternoon.
My husband and I had joint dental appointments. Mine was a quick one. The dentist tried to track down why I sometimes get the pain I do when chewing in one area, but could find nothing. I did get a tiny cavity filled, and was done quickly. The same dentist then worked on my husband, who had a cracked tooth. Thankfully repairable. That too a while longer, but what a relief for him! Thank God for his insurance, though. It covers 90%, and our 10$ for the two visits cost just over $120. This clinic is really great about the insurance thing, too. Our last visit was still messed up somehow and they had to resubmit. In the end, they got us to sign the papers again so they could submit all over again, at the same time as today’s work. Today’s work got processed just fine, other than the insurance company suddenly saying my birth date didn’t match what they had on file (???), so the receptionist ended up calling them directly. With the bill from last time, she saw that we were covered 90%, so she just charged us for the 10% even though it would take some time before the insurance company’s side got processed. We’ve had similar issues in the past and we’ve been told to just go without paying, and they mailed us the bill when the problem was cleared up. Much appreciated, that’s for sure!
Thankfully, we don’t need to come back for any more work.
After I dropped my husband off at home, I left immediately to get to a feed store before they closed to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble. We were almost out again. It’s getting cooler, so the cats are eating more. I counted “only” 12 adult cats this afternoon, including one that had disappeared for a while. We had three white with grey kittens last year that looked very much alike. Magda was socialized enough to get fixed. Frank, with the distinctive blue eyes, was standoffish enough that we didn’t know she was a she until she got pregnant. The third one, we never named. Well, Magda is among those that have disappeared over the summer, and so did the unnamed one. It’s the unnamed one that is back. He’s looking much more burly now, and looks like he’s got some sort of relatively fresh wound by his ear, but we can’t get close enough to check him out. Perhaps we’ll see Magda again, too, before winter arrives.
Once I was back and settled in, I reached out to a rescue that just recently opened officially and is working in our area. With the Cat Lady stepping away from rescue, we have to find help somewhere!
I’ve been spending much of the evening, messaging with first one person, then group messaging with the woman who started the rescue. I very briefly explained our situation, making sure to say we weren’t looking to have cats go into foster, since I knew they were still looking for more people to do it. We need help with spays, neuters and adoptions. I mentioned we have a colony, plus that we’ve got cats inside that were brought in usually due to injury, like getting a leg amputated. With the outside cats, I made a point of mentioning Eyelet, because he’s deaf and his chances of survival are much lower.
Well, long story short, they’re going to take Eyelet.
Saturday evening, I’ll be delivering him to one of the neighbouring towns. The woman who started the new rescue is taking him herself, and he will go through all the usual vetting before being adopted out.
With those eyes, I would expect him to be adopted quickly!
We’ll be in more contact over time. Their website is still under construction, but they have places to post pictures of cats ready for adoption. I’ll have some paperwork for the adoptables, and I’ve also mentioned that we’re going to have to start trapping to get more spayed.
I’ve been talking to the Cat Lady about it at the same time. She’s glad that they’re willing to help, but she made sure to say not to mention her name. She knows one of them from when she was working with the big rescue that tried to adopt two of our kittens into the home of what turned out to be a hoarder, several provinces away. That was the final straw for the Cat Lady, she went independent and found more suitable homes for them within our own province. They weren’t part of that, but unfortunately, it seems the rescue community has a lot of issues. As happy as she is that this rescue started, and that the people are gung ho about it, she says she’ll be surprised if they are still around in five years. Things are just that tough these days. She hopes she’s wrong, of course!
The main thing for us is, Eyelet will soon be off to get adopted, and we will be getting help with spays and neuters and vaccinations. Honestly, though, I’m less concerned about vaccinations then to get them fixed and treated for ear mites. I just assume they all have ear mites.
What I hope to do, though, is start getting some of the inside cats adopted out. Having so many cats in the house is not good for anyone.
So that is the good news for today! Hopefully, there will be more to come.
My husband and I had joint dental appointments this afternoon, which meant – of course – I couldn’t sleep last night! I got maybe three hours of sleep before I finally got up to take care of the outside cats and do my morning rounds.
Once the outside stuff was done, I had enough energy to grab a couple of PB sandwiches for breakfast and then crashed for a couple of hours, so I would at least be safe to drive.
I don’t think my husband was able to eat anything at all this morning. He meds really mess with his appetite, so he doesn’t typically have any sort of breakfast.
Which turned out to not be a good thing!
His appointment was at 12:45, and the plan was for us to go for a late lunch after we were done. We both had changes in our medical information to update them on before our appointments, so we headed out early to have time for that.
Thank God for AC in the truck. For all the rain we’ve had, it’s still hot and muggy, with the humidex making it so much worse. Stepping outside of the house or truck was like walking into a wet wall of heat. The rain doesn’t seem to have done much to reduce the smoke in the air, either. We’re just as smokey today as we were yesterday, and yesterday was the worst I’ve seen since we moved out here.
We had a bit of a surprise during the drive to town. For some distance, we could see something on the side of the road. A whole bunch of large somethings.
They turned out to be Guinea hens! About five or six of them! Someone’s flock had escaped. 😄 I had no idea anyone in that area kept Guinea’s.
Once at the dentist, I had a form to fill out with my new information. For my husband, he brought printouts and we just handed it to them to input into his file from. None of these forms ever have enough space for the number of medications he’s on. The first time we filled one of these forms out for him, we wrote the list out on the back and it pretty much filled the page.
My husband got called in first, and I had a while to wait before I was called in. Long enough for him to get his Xrays done, and then inform us they had to double the freezing to do what they had to do, so it was going to take longer than expected.
My own visit was actually a pleasant surprise… I think. I had a couple of teeth that have been bothering me, and I thought I had a cavity starting under a crown. After the Xrays were done, they found no cavities. In fact, other than needing a cleaning, my teeth are great.
So, why the problems I’ve been having? The dentist was perplexed. In the end, the only thing he did was the slightest of grinding and polishing of a sharp edge that I was feeling that I thought was the edge of a cavity. I didn’t even need freezing. He tried all sorts of things to try and track down the source of the issues I was describing, and everything was testing out fine. About the only thing he can think of is that there is a crack under a filling, too small to show up on an Xray, but he really couldn’t tell.
I will have some other work done another time, and eventually get to talking about what to do about my missing teeth, while we still have insurance, later on.
So my husband and I are booked for another double appointment next month.
My husband, unfortunately, needs more work. Today he got a temporary fix, but he does have a confirmed cracked tooth under a filling. He was in the waiting room by the time I got out, and still so frozen, going for lunch was out of the question!
We booked the next appointment, but had a problem settling the bill. For some reason, our insurance wouldn’t go through. My husband’s did, but not mine. This has happened before, and not just as the dentist. After fussing with it for a while, she ended up just printing out the invoice/receipt for both of us for our records. They’ll keep working on whatever is going on with the insurance company and if there’s anything not covered (I believe we are covered 90%), they’ll mail us a bill. I seem to recall they did this for me the last time I was there and had a tooth pulled.
From there, we made a quick stop at the grocery store. My husband stayed in the truck – he was in no shape to walk around! – and I dashed in to pick up something he could keep in his medication fridge to eat once the freezing wore off.
My the time we got home, it was time for me to head out to feed the outside cats and start my evening errands.
Which is when my cell phone rang.
*sigh*
Of course.
It was home care.
They didn’t have anyone for my mother’s med assist for tonight and tomorrow night. I confirmed the times she was scheduled for. I had enough time to update my siblings in our group chat, call my mother, grab a food and go.
When calling my mother, I found out that my sister had left not long ago. She had been able to come over to do my mother’s laundry during her scheduled time, which was really nice. I would have done it, if we didn’t have our dental appointments. Given what happened with the med assists, if I had done it today, I would have gotten home and had to turn around and come back almost right away! My sister is normally not available, so she doesn’t even have the lock box code.
Unfortunately, every time I call my mom to let her know I have to cover the med assist again, she starts ranting at me. Why are they calling me? Why don’t I tell them I live far away? Like it’s somehow my fault. I tell her, don’t take it out on me! She says she isn’t; that I’m the “victim”, so she doesn’t seem to realize that yelling at me every time really is her taking it out on me, even if it’s home care she’s mad at.
The call was short, though, as I told her I needed to have my supper (lunch, actually), then go.
Including the time it takes to get ready, open the gate, get the truck out, then make the drive, it takes about half an hour or slightly more to get to my mother’s. While there, I give her the supper time meds, then prepare her bed time meds for her to take herself, later. She’s supposed to take her supper time meds with food. She had her Meals on Wheels at noon today, but didn’t really have much she was up to for supper and ended up asking me to get some instant oatmeal started for her, and prep her milk that she likes to add to it as well. Even so, I was there for less than 10 minutes, and then it was another half hour to get home.
Talking to my older daughter about the situation just a little while ago, she pointed out that we won’t be able to do this in the winter, and I’m the closest! We’ve already had one call where the person who was supposed to do my mother’s med assist wasn’t going to come into town because it was too dangerous to drive on the highway during a storm. I told the person calling me, if the aid couldn’t come in because the roads are too dangerous, neither can I! (Which was completely true that day.)
That’s something I’m going to have to remember to bring up with the case coordinator. There’s a reason my mother’s meds are in a lock box, but if med assists are so unreliable due to staff shortages, this is going to be a real problem.
Unless, of course, they finally get my mother into the nursing home, like she wants so much!!!
So that was done, and I’ll be back tomorrow. My brother and SIL will be out this weekend with their grandkids, if all goes well, so maybe my brother will be able to come with me, too. With how she treats him, he doesn’t want to, but she behaves better when I am there.
Anyhow.
Once done and back home, I was able to finish my evening rounds.
That smokey coloured garage kitten is getting darker as s/he get bigger. I still wonder where the blue eyes genes came from! There has to be a cat at a neighboring farm. It certainly isn’t from one of the males that lives here.
The white and grey is becoming increasingly curious, and allowing me to be closer. The smokey one runs away, which actually surprises me. After that one time I was able to not only pet it, but pick it up and hold it, I thought it would be the easier one to socialize. Instead, it’s been the harder one!
It does help that the mother allows me to pet her and starts purring. If she’s around, like she was when I got the above pictures, they are less prone to simply running away and hiding.
Once the evening stuff was done, I could finally settle in for the day. It’s not even 8pm yet, but I’m seriously considering going to be, with how little sleep I got last night. The only reason I have against it is that it’s so hot and muggy in my bedroom/office. The AC doesn’t affect this part of the house, and there’s only so much the fans can do, even with I have the box fan set to blow the hot air and smoke OUT the window during the day.
Tomorrow is supposed to get just as hot as today, with some rain in the late evening. Then we’re supposed to get about a week with little change in the temperature, but no more rain. Also, no change in the ongoing severe air quality warnings.
I do have to make sure to make a dump run tomorrow. I’m really dreading it. The conditions have gotten so bad there, I skipped going last week. I did as on a local group if anyone knew if they’d brought out the front end loader and pushed all the built up trash into the pit, but no one confirmed either way. Considering it’s been at least two months since the trash accumulating at the edge of the pit has been pushed in, you’d think it would be done by now.
I truly doubt it.
Our new council is really dropping the ball when it comes to this particular landfill. There are two others in our large municipality, but I don’t know their conditions, I’m not sure where they are, and it’s really not worth the extra cost in gas to drive the distances to them.
It needs to be done, though.
What a pain.
Ah, well. We’ll deal.
For now… yeah. I think an early bed time is definitely a necessity.
I’m going to start this with some cuteness. I could really use some cuteness right now.
Not a very clear picture, but it was getting pretty dark and the time. This little sweetie is starting to actually enjoy being pet and even picked up, if only briefly.
Also, I’m very happy that he’s alive and unhurt.
I’ll have to explain that particular statement in a bit, but I’m rather unhappy right now.
I had called my mother last night and made arrangements to help her with her groceries today. At her request, I was going to pick up a hot lunch at the grocery store first, if they had them ready, so I left earlier and expected to be away for some hours.
They didn’t have the hot lunches, but I was still able to pick up a meal for us, and we had lunch together, then went over her grocery list. Grocery shopping by myself, with just her list, is a lot faster, and even got a bit more of a visit in before she left for a regularly scheduled social gathering some social workers arrange in her building. 
I hadn’t had much sleep the night before, having discovered a huge puddle on my bed and needing to do laundry in the wee hours! Once I was back home and settled, I tried lying down for a bit, on the half of my bed that wasn’t still air drying. Yes, I had the new waterproof mattress cover on, and yes, the puddle actually soaked through it in spots.
While I was lying down, I had my phone on the charger on my desk when it started making notification noises. I ignored them, partly because I was buried in cats. After a while, though, my husband came by, commenting on how surprised he was that no one commented on the photo he’s sent.
Before I left my mother’s, she gave me some stuff to take with me. One of them was a baggie of different types of candies and chocolates that the social workers give out to everyone in her building. The girls and I had split them up, with a few going to my husband, including some caramels.
The picture he’d sent was of a caramel.
This a crown stuck to it.
The candy had actually pulled it right off!
After talking about it briefly, my husband made a phone call to the dentist. It was shortly after 3, and they were willing to take him in right away, but with how long it takes to drive into down, it was too early. So they said to come in for 4.
I could hear his side of the conversation and, once I realized he was able to get in right away, I extricated myself from the cats and started getting ready to head out again. I drove the truck into the yard, then went to the sunroom, which had only the outer door tied off, so I could open it from the outside, to get his walker.
I reached in to untie the door, and it growled at me.
I opened the door, and there was a big white dog standing there, looking at me.
At first glance, I thought it was the dog belonging to the younger of my brothers, who lives on the quarter across from our driveway. He doesn’t come around anymore, so that was a surprise.
Then I realized, it was not my brother’s dog. First off, this dog was not as fluffy. My brother’s dog gets very fluffy in the winter. Also, this dog had very distinctive eyes; one blue, one half blue, half brown.
I stepped aside and the dog left the sunroom, but it didn’t go far. It was very nervous and wagging it’s tail, but it was the sort of “if I reach out, will he lick my hand, or bite it?” nervous behavior. I didn’t reach out to it, of course, but the dog did start barking at me.
I still had to get the walker, though, so I went into the sunroom. There, I found a few things knocked out of the shelf against the window and onto the floor under the platform. The only cat I saw was the little fluffy tortie, and she was clambering her way up the shelf to the very top. It wasn’t until I was outside with the walker, after picking some stuff back up again, that I saw there was another cat already up there. They were watching me – and the dog – out the window.
The dog was still barking as I got the walker set up. My daughters, of course, came out to see what was going on, so while I fussed with the walker, they were on the other side of the kibble and water bowl shelters, and able to see what I missed.
A cat, lying dead in one of the paths in the snow leading to the food bowls under the shrine.
It was the single calico cat among last summer’s kittens. We’ve never been able to socialize her, but she was a talkative one and would always greet me when I came out to feed them. 
I had to confirm that she was dead, of course, and she had clearly not been gone for long. I was able to move her to where she will later be cremated, and I’m sure that if I’d touched her with my bare hands, she would still have been warm. 
Needless to say, that dog was no longer welcome. 
We did some banging around and commended him to go home, but he just ran around the house. I chased him away some more, and he eventually ran out of the yard.
We were all quite unhappy with the situation.
My husband, meanwhile, had come out of the house and was in the truck. We needed to get going. We left the girls to take care of things, including locking the gate behind us, so we could get to the dentist. 
It was just 4:00 as we came through the doors!
They got my husband in quickly and, while I waited for him, I posted a message on an FB page for our community, as well as on my personal profiles (since recovering my stolen original account, I still keep both old and new accounts active), about the dog, what happened, and our general location.
We did have a bit of a surprise at the dentist.
They already had a file for my husband.
Neither one of us remember him going to the dentist since we moved out here, but apparently they have him on file for 2021. 
I was in the process of messaging my daughters to update them when my husband came out.
He was done.
When he made the appointment, they asked him to bring in the broken off crown. It turns out, all they needed to do was cement it back on again! 
Then it was time to pay the bill. They do direct billing with the insurance company, but when they tried to process the payment, they got a message to get the new card information. There had been some changes within the system and we got new cards, but they had the exact same information on them. In fact, they sent us new cards twice, because of some other issue. I had both older cards, plus the newest on, in my wallet, so we were able to look at all three to compare.
They all had identical information on them.
Rather than fuss with it then, the receptionist said they’d clear it up with the insurance company, then bill use the rest later.
I remembered to ask how much it was, and it came out to $190. Our coverage is 90%, so we won’t have much to pay at all, when the time comes.
Since we were in town anyhow, my husband suggested we get something to eat. Clearly, his mouth was feeling just fine!
So we went to small restaurant nearby, and I was a very rude person, frequently checking my phone. There had been a number of reactions to my posting about the dog and what happened.
Then I started getting some private messages. A friend and neighbour sent me a picture of a dog. I couldn’t tell if it was the same dog, though. It had its fluffy winter fur, for starters, but I couldn’t make out the colour of the eyes. I asked about the eyes, and my friend said it was his brother’s dog (they live on the same quarter section), but he wasn’t sure about the eyes.
Then he sent me another picture. This time, it was a summer picture, so the dog’s fur was sleek. More importantly, it was a clear shot of the dog’s face – complete with porcupine quills in its snout!
Once I saw the eyes, though, it was confirmed. This was the dog that we found at our place.
We messaged back and forth a bit, and he gave me his brother’s phone numbers.
When we were done eating, and getting some take out for the girls, we headed straight home. The light was fading fast, so as soon as I parked the truck, I wandered around the house to see what I could see. Which was nothing obvious, but it was really getting too dark by then.
While we were out, our daughters kept an eye out for the dog, and did the evening feeding of the outside cats. A few of the cats had started to come back, including some friendlies that wanted pets. 
The sunroom doors were also secured with both doors tied off, and tightly. There would be enough room for cats to squeeze into the sunroom, but no dog is getting in there!
My husband took his walker in through the main doors and is now storing it in the entry, in front of the washing machine, again. It’s more in the way, there, but we can’t get into the sunroom from outside anymore, when both doors are tied off like that.
Once things were settled indoors, I went through the old kitchen to go to the sunroom. There were only 3 cats in there; the fuzzy black one in the photo above, Syndol and one of the white and greys that’s really friendly. When I had been walking around outside, I did see a few cats around, but they were understandably very nervous and quick to run off. I did see Rolando Moon as we drove into the yard, and Brussel by the garage, plus a few more identifiable ones. It won’t be until tomorrow morning that I’ll be able to try and get a head count and take a good look around.
Meanwhile, I did phone the guy the dog belongs to. He had already been told what happened by my friend, and was in total shock. When he got home from work, the dog was at home and everything seemed normal. Plus, this is a dog that is not prone to wandering, even when chasing deer out of the yard. The dog looks like it’s part Pyrenees, and they like to guard their own territory. That he should wander to another farm a mile away, then kill a cat, is extremely odd behaviour. 
Had my husband not had to go to the dentist unexpectedly, I wouldn’t have gone out for at least another hour, to do the evening cat feeding. I would have found the sun room half trashed and almost devoid of cats, and I would have found that little calico in the path, and never known what happened – and the dog’s owner would never have known his dog had wandered off.
As we were talking, one of the things he asked me is if we had a BB gun or pellet gun. We do have a pellet gun. I have permission to use it to scare the dog off.
Which is unlikely to happen. I don’t typically carry it with me when I do my rounds! 
To be honest, though, I was thinking thoughts about having our crossbow handy.
I am seriously unhappy.
We are dog lovers in this household, but a dog that’s a killer is a different situation altogether.
Hopefully, we will never see it again.
I’m going to miss seeing that gorgeous little calico. 
Oh, and jus to top things off, I’ve wrenched my shoulder. When the dog had gone around the back of the house, and my daughter could see it through the sunroom window, in the old kitchen garden, I went around to chase him off. Right now, instead of a rain barrel at the corner, we have the diverter set up. It extends as far as the hand rail with the rose bush growing at it, near the steps for the laundry platform. With how warm things have been lately, there’s been a lot of melted snow from the roof that flowed onto the ground in the space between the handrail and the laundry platform, and towards the cat shelter.
The very space I needed to go through, to get to the old kitchen garden.
It was, of course, very slippery. I used the hand rail to keep myself upright, but still came very close to falling a couple of times. I didn’t think I’d hurt myself, but the more time goes by, the stiffer my shoulders are getting. My right shoulder, in particular, is getting so that it’s painful to move, or raise my arm at all. I’m going to have to pain killer up if I’m going to get any sleep tonight!
Well, three hours outside yesterday, stripping bark and moving logs around, left me in quite a bit of pain today. I decided I needed a day of recovery before continuing. I know by now that if I push it too far, I’ll be out of commission for days. So it was going to be a day of painkillers, and non-labour intensive activity.
Which turned out for the best, as we ended up being 26C/79F with a humidex of 30C/86F.
While feeding the cats this morning, and refilling the smaller bins for the inside cats, I could see we were going to run out, or almost out, before I would be able to do our first big shop at the end of the month. There were a few other things we needed to pick up that made it worth a trip to the nearer, smaller city. I really should have done a dump run, but was in too much pain for that. I left late enough that I could pick up some fried chicken and wedges for “breakfast” at the gas station along the way. I did have an energy drink, too, but still felt ready for a nap by the time I was heading home!
While I was out, my husband kept the phone handy, in case the lady from the financing company called. She didn’t, but my mother did, saying she needed to go to a dentist. I’ve been trying to get her to go to a dentist for months. This past winter (making it at least 6 months!), one of her teeth broke. It wasn’t hurting her, but her dentures were no longer sitting right, making it hard for her to chew.
When I got home, I actually tried lying down for a bit on the couch – the cat free zone – an nap a bit. It didn’t work, but then I remembered that my mother had called. So I called her back and she told me she had a tooth ache, but couldn’t find the number for the dental clinic in the phone book. I have no idea how old this phone book must be! So I looked it up for her and passed it on, and we talked about when would work for an appointment. I have a telephone medical appointment tomorrow, but my sister doesn’t work on Wednesdays, so she could possibly drive my mother. Anything other than tomorrow, I could drive her. I told her to call me back as soon as she had an appointment and we could figure things out from there.
She called me back soon after, saying they could take her in today, for 4:00! She wasn’t sure if I was available, though, so she said she would call them back after finding out if I could drive her. Looking at the time, I saw it was 3:50. !!! Then she told me they said they could take her at 4:30. I told her I could leave immediately.
Then she started getting talkative. I told her we were wasting time! I needed to get going!
It worked out. She called them back and I got her there in time. They were ready and waiting for her, and the receptionist even came to hold the door open for her when she saw us!
This was a first time visit for my mother, so I helped fill out the paperwork for her. My mother had the list of her medications from her bubble packs, which was handy. They just took a photo copy for her file. I went over everything again with my mother to make sure I didn’t miss anything before she signed it.
In the end, she ended up having a tooth pulled. Not one her dentures are attached to. She won’t even need new dentures; they can add a tooth to her current ones. When the receptionist heard us talking about it, she went ahead and printed out an estimate of how much it would cost to do the denture.
While there, my mother asked about the other tooth that was crumbling. That one did turn out to be a tooth holding her denture in place, and they said they could take the remaining roots out another time. After everything was healed up, they’d be able to take impressions and have a new tooth put into both dentures. That was good to know.
It took some doing to get my mother’s tooth out. Now I know were I got my bone structure from! I’ve always had problems with dentists because my bones are so strong. Even at 92, my mother’s jaw did not want to let that tooth go! Of course, the dentist was trying to be as careful and gentle as possible. Once it was out, she showed it to my mother – who said she wanted to keep it!
Yeah, I’ve done that, too! 😄
Unfortunately, my mother also started to complain about how it took so much longer than when she’d had teeth pulled before (we’re talking well over 10 years ago!), and there wasn’t any of the cracking sounds the dentist made sure to warn her she might hear.
There were signs of infection, so my mother got a prescription for antibiotics, on top of an anti inflammatory pain killer. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was about to close. There was no way we’d get there in time. So I started talking to my mother about coming back tomorrow. That’s when the receptionist offered to drop it off tomorrow morning, and I could come in later to pick it up once they had a chance to fill it. That was so awesome of her!
Then my mother got the bill.
She was expecting it to cost a lot less. More like what she remembered paying so long ago. She hasn’t been to a dentist since before she moved away from the farm, so probably about 15 years or so. I helped her write a check and made sure to have all the paperwork in order, including the receipt for her taxes and the instruction sheet with extra gauze. She was already trying to get rid of the gauze she had.
She wasn’t happy about having prescriptions, either.
They were all really fantastic and bent over backwards for her, though. I was very impressed.
As she needed to eat soft foods only for a couple of days, she asked me to stop at the grocery store and pick up a couple of things for her that she could eat, and then it was home. I stayed with her until it was time for her to change the gauze. The instructions including taking a pain killer before the freezing wore off, and she had her evening prescriptions to take, so it made sense to just do it all at once.
I have a strong suspicion my mother did not take all of her evening pills. She took them out of the bubble packs and first tried hiding some pills under her placemat, with others on top. The top ones turned out to be her morning pills, which she says she likes to keep “handy” and had me get a pill box from her room to put them in.
The pill box already had a bunch of pilled in the other half.
When I asked what she was hiding under the place mat, she pulled them out, then covered them with paper to protect them from the light. ??? I stepped away a moment to put back her Tylenol while she was taking her pills, and when I came back, I saw as she hurried to put the paper back, like she was hiding them again, or maybe just some of them.
I also am thinking she might refuse to take the new prescriptions, too. I hope I’m wrong.
Even as we were leaving the dental clinic, she was telling me she wasn’t going to come back because it wasn’t hurting. She meant getting that top tooth taken care of. I expect she will not bother getting a new tooth put into the bottom denture as well. They want her back in two weeks to take an impression for the bottom denture, but when I told her the price (which she can afford just fine), she wasn’t happy. She really seems to believe prices should be what she remembers them to be, no matter how much time has passed!
We shall see how things go.
Meanwhile, I made sure she got the fresh gauze in, though she had already lost the first one and hadn’t felt it. Nor did she notice it was gone while taking her pills!
I told her how much longer she needed to keep the fresh gauze, but I suspect she took it out shortly after I left.
Well, I’ll follow up with her tomorrow and see if I need to pick up her prescriptions for her. Sometimes, she gets them delivered, instead.
I am getting a big concerned about my mother and her medications. There’s not much we can do about it, though.
After I left her place, I had to get myself some food before heading home. I hadn’t eaten since I’d left in the morning. I was starting to get the shakes before we even got to the dental clinic! I also had to tank up again. It really feels like the mileage on my mother’s car is getting worse. I really ought to start recording the gas and mileage and calculate it out. I got spoiled by our van. It didn’t have much of a dashboard computer, but it did keep track of fuel consumption! My mother’s care is a couple of years newer, but has nothing like that.
I really hope we get the financing straightened out and a new vehicle soon. It won’t be a new one, that’s for sure, but it should at least be newer than what we had!
I had squirrels escorting me while doing my rounds this morning!
I was really looking forward to today, and my appointment with the dentist.
Yes. I was looking forward to seeing the dentist.
At the same time, I was dreading it.
For the past while, I’ve been having a lot of pain – especially once I lay down in bed – on the right side of my face. From what I was feeling, it was 3 teeth that were giving me trouble. One was a wisdom tooth that I seriously considered getting pulled the last time I was at the dentist. (The dentist actually remembered pulling the remains of that tooth!) Then there were two more, top and bottom, halfway along my jaw that had a lot of pain. Continue reading →
It’s almost 6pm, and I have finally ingested my first meal of the day.
I’m not counting the meal replacement shake, because… no.
As soon as the earliest dental clinic in the next town was open, I called to see if they could fit me in – after checking to see if they did direct billing with our insurance company. Which they did, and they could. I got an appointment for the afternoon. Yay!
I then spent the next while, doing work on the computer, and trying to figure out what we had that I could safely eat. It wasn’t just needing soft food. Even soft food getting in there could cause more of the tooth to break up.
Before I finally decided (I was leaning towards egg flower soup), I got a call back from them. Could I be there by 11:15? It was 10:53. I could leave right then and there!
By the time I parked and walked in the door, it was just a few minutes past 11:15. After the paperwork was done, I barely had time to sit down when I was being called to come in.
The hygienist got started on me with getting an Xray, as I told her about the history of the tooth, and the troubles the dentist who did the root canal had had with it, because of a bent root. She got me to bite on the thing to get the Xray, but had to do it twice, just to get it far back enough. The screen for the Xray was facing me, so we could both see the problem root.
Then, just before the dentist came in, I pulled out another piece of tooth. Just getting the Xray taken broke off more.
I’d already told the hygienist that I was more interested in just having it pulled, but it turned out to not be a choice. There wasn’t enough of it left to do anything else. The dentist even had to break it apart to take each root out, individually.
As I knew would happen, because apparently I have some pretty massive bone density (this is not the first tooth I’ve lost), this took quite a bit of effort.
But that was okay. I got to lie in a massage chair and watch You Gotta Eat Here on the TV in the ceiling.
Though requesting it be put on The Food Network was probably not the best of ideas, considering how hungry I was. :-D
However, it was done, and because it was just a pull and not any major work, it actually cost much less than I feared. Which is good, because I then had to go to the grocery store and buy more pain killers for when the freezing wore off, and food that I could safely eat.
I had to wait 4-6 hours before trying to eat, though I could drink water. I have a gauze to bite on that needs to be changed every hour. Starting tomorrow, I need to swish with salt water after eating anything.
I am, however, good to go for the big family dinner on Sunday, even if I won’t be able to eat certain foods. I just have to bring my bottle of salt water with me.
So that is done!
On the home front, it was an indoor day. The girls kindly made supper, though I could only eat the perogies they made. Very, very carefully. Oh, I was so hungry by then!
It was too hot to safely do any yard work today, anyhow, and while it’s cooler now (a mere 26C *L*), it has quickly gotten very dark, and I can hear thunder and see flashes of lightning in the distance. We’ll see if we get the sort of downpours we got yesterday or not. Until then, I think I’ll just shut down the desktop computer, just to be safe!
The Re-Farmer 