Mary’s Pad

It’s totally disgustingly hot in Philly right now…. yuck!! I’m sitting here listening to Percy Sledge and watching Mary and Darcy on the floor playing Yahtzee, and catching up on my online life.

My root canal part two was yesterday… it went okay, pretty unnerving - pun intended, and it didn’t help that I had just worked 12 hours and was exhausted. All the drilling and digging was pretty stressful. I know I have more than a few more dentist visits in the next few months to get all my teeth fixed, so I’ll be writing a lot about that. I came back home and crashed till evening, then went out and got smashed, and ate ice cream.

Today we did the house thing, chores, cleaning, groceries, all that good stuff. This evening we’re having guests over for dinner which should be fun. I don’t go back to work till Tuesday night, yeah! I hope to get caught up on some resting and sleeping, reading, and video games.

In case you’re wondering what the graphic is all about, it’s because my tooth is still recuperating.

I’ve had a toothache for the last six days or so. It hurt. It made me sad. I’m pretty sure I lost some weight because I was afraid to eat. Yesterday I finally caved in and started looking for a dentist, now that I have dental insurance. I found one who was compassionate enough to see me on short notice, moreover he diagnosed the problem in just a few short minutes after a couple of X-rays and banging on my teeth with a metal thingie - OUCH! Grim verdict. I need a root canal.

So the process has started. Got some drilling done today, some medication was put in the hole, and a temporary filling (which I can’t seem to avoid licking) put in place. I walked out feeling much better, my mouth all numbed up (can someone say novocaine), and prescription for Amoxicillin in hand. Next week I go to have the actual hour long procedure to finish the process and seal the tooth… exciting! - NOT! And that’s just the beginning, because I have a multitude of dental issues…. arghh!

Anyway, enough whining. My long break ends tomorrow, so it’s back to business as usual. Other than the distraction of the toothache, handled bravely with lots of tender loving Advil gel caps, I did have a wonderful break. There may have been a cage involved at some point. And I had to keep my hands inside at all times, and there was some DANGER involved too… ack!

As you can clearly see here I did have some fuzzy moments that I don’t necessarily blame on the toothache, the root canal, or the Advil… oh wait, the root canal came later. Seriously though, between the heat, the achy breaky hundred year old roller coaster ride we went on, the three fat men who can’t cook (never going to that restaurant again, ever), and the toothache that wouldn’t quit, it’s a wonder I wasn’t any fuzzier.

And I made some new friends (do not let his appearance fool you, he really is a sweetheart, he just has some self image issues.

My favorite part of the weekend though was that Mary took me to DC, treated me to a genuine Kenyan meal, and then drove me past the White House so I could see it for the very first time. We both joked about how fitting it was that on the 4th of July I ate at a Kenyan restaurant and saw the White House.

All in all a fun-filled, Advil-soothed break.

And many thanks to Dr.Stein, I will sleep well tonight.

That’s how many days I have off, starting today!! I’ve looked at my little schedule book five times to make sure, rubbed my eyes, then looked again, stood up, walked around, then looked again… rinse and repeat several times (I did mention before that I was a little OCD)… but yes, it’s completely absolutely true, I have five consecutive days off!!

What to do? What to do?

Well, here’s the plan.

Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Eat. Go to the bathroom. Sleep. Sleep. Eat. Water the plants. Sleep. Watch TV. Watch a movie. Do Sudoku puzzles. Read. Eat. Sleep. Sleep.

OK, you get the idea. Anyway, I scheduled myself off that way because we had planned to go out of town for about 4 days. But it turns out Mary has some unavoidable commitments, so that’s put a damper on our plans. We are still going out of town for a shorter time though, and it should be lots of fun. As for the rest of the time, I plan to relax, clean up the disaster area that’s my desk, catch up on some reading, play with my computers, write some programs, play Wii, and watch marathon episodes of Family Guy and The Wire, plus a few movies I’ve been collecting for a rainy off-work day.

Remember a few weeks ago I had a diamond kind of day? Well, last night was one of the “stone” kind of days. It wasn’t exceptionally busy, but I just didn’t seem to be able to catch up. I’d like to think there were mitigating circumstances, like patient acuity, the fact that I hadn’t rested much, and such, but maybe my energy was just off.

All I wanted to do at the end of the night was crawl under a rock, curl up into a fetal position, and suck my thumb (and feel sorry for myself).

Now I’m sitting here, barely 6 hours later, and it’s time to get up and do it all again.

Ah well… Let’s dance.

PS: In case you’re wondering about the title of this post and the diamond one, it’s a reference from John Denver’s song Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone)

… If you see me looking keenly and intently at your arms, mark the expression on my face. If I appear to be drooling, be glad. If I appear to be puzzled, and seem to be peering closer and closer, be alarmed. If I look once and look away, you’re okay.

So here’s the deal, I have a thing for veins. I find myself looking at total strangers arms asking myself “I wonder what gauge IV catheter I could get in that guy?” If I have a dreamy expression on my face, then it means you have #18 or even potentially #16 gauge veins, and if I’m really actively drooling it means I’m thinking your veins are so big and beautiful I probably won’t need a torniquet. If I look bored it means I think you’re an easy #20, no big deal. And if I look puzzled, aww hell… not good, I’m thinking I’ll be lucky if I can even find somewhere to stick a #24. (The smaller the numbers the larger the catheter).

I am obsessed with veins, because one of the cardinal rules of the ER, besides airway, breathing, and circulation, is to have what we call “access”, as in intravenous access, most frequently in your arm or hand, and if you’re really badly off, then we go for your jugular. It allows us to draw blood for tests, to give fluids, and to give fast acting life saving medication. So it’s not a bad thing this fetish I have for your veins. Some might even call it an occupational hazard.