Discomfort and good cheer

I was going to call this post "agony and ecstasy" but I realized that would be way over the top. I'm not in agony, I'm experiencing some discomfort. And having Rocket Boy home doesn't really lead to ecstasy, but something more along the lines of good cheer. 

It is really nice to have him home.

And I'm really miserable, though I have hope that things will improve.

Why am I miserable? Well, as I mentioned last week, on March 2nd I had a front tooth pulled and the nerve was irritated as a result. I've still got pain from that. Then, on March 10th, I had a full set of braces put on, top and bottom teeth, every single tooth except the two back bottom ones. Also on Thursday, I came down with Teen B's cold, which I didn't realize he was coming down with last Sunday, but which he's been dealing with all week. We all have the cold now. (It's not Covid -- I took Teen B to Centaurus for a test and it was negative. I'm going to assume that's true for all of us, since we so clearly got this from him.)

And of course, having a cold makes your teeth hurt ANYWAY, because of their proximity to your sinuses, which are all inflamed and unhappy. My teeth hurt when I'm just sitting around, but they REALLY hurt when I try to bite down on anything, like, say, cereal that's been sitting in milk for half an hour in order to get it really soggy. Ouch!

My main solution to this problem is not to eat, and my second best solution is not to chew my food when I do eat. But one of the things they tell you to do when you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, as I do, is to chew all your food very thoroughly. So every time I swallow some not well-chewed food I think, sorry, irritable bowel.

I'm trying not to take a lot of painkillers, but it is hard. I think I've weaned myself off ibuprofen now, especially after reading that taking it could interfere with bone regrowth. I'm trying to take Tylenol only twice a day, but that is hard. I woke up around 4:30 am yesterday, in pain, so I took some Tylenol. Then I took some more 10 hours later (at 2:30), and more 8 hours after that, at 10:30, before bed. It is hard to take only two doses per day when you wake up at 4:30. Today I managed to hold off taking it until 9 am (new time), and I plan not to take any more until 9 pm or so. Eventually I want to get it down to one dose per day, and then none.

I have already lost a few pounds since having that tooth pulled. At some point I'm sure my body will figure out how to stop losing weight, probably by lowering my metabolism. Right now I'm trying to enjoy the weight loss, because there is not much else to enjoy.

I googled "adult braces second thoughts" and found a site with posts from old people (in their 40s, even) who had just gotten braces and were miserable. It was very comforting. Other people wrote in and told them not to give up, it would get better and it would be worth it in the end. I particularly liked their "tickers" at the bottom of their posts, which said things like, "12 years since braces put on" and "10 years since braces came off!" On another site, a person called Emily, who got braces at the practically senile age of 30, said she tried to keep thinking about Future Emily, who would appreciate the straight teeth.

So I am trying to think about Future Flicker, age 63 or so, who will be so so happy that she got her teeth straightened. I'll look good (well, better) in pictures taken at the twins' high school graduation. I'll be able to eat apples and carrots. I'll be able to bite my fingernails again (though maybe two years without being able to will finally train me not to). Also, every time I start thinking that 63 is so old that I'll basically be dead by the time the braces come off, I think about how my older sister is 72 and going strong. Unless something awful happens, I will NOT be dead at 63. It is worth doing this. It is. It is.

***

What else happened this week? On Wednesday the twins turned 14! That was a nice day. Teen B had to stay home for the second day in a row because of his cold, so I had to hide in the bedroom to wrap presents and then Teen B helped me decorate the living room, because there was no way to do that in secret. I had some "garlands" of gold and silver stars that were terribly hard to work with. He objected to the birthday balloons I'd purchased, so I only blew up five of them, out of a package of 20. It was OK -- blowing up balloons made my mouth hurt.

I didn't spend much money on presents, but I got an assortment of balls that we can take with us when we walk to the park or school to play basketball, and some candy and whatnot, the new "Hilo" book for Teen B, some wireless earbuds for Teen A. I forget what else. Oh, there was something else, but I won't mention it here. A little too personal!

Rocket Boy and I had gotten two cakes at Safeway -- a chocolate one for Teen B and a white one for Teen A -- and those were greatly enjoyed. The white one is already gone and there's just a little of the chocolate one left. Cake is pretty easy to eat with braces on, because it's soft and dissolves in your mouth pretty well. Unfortunately it also gets stuck in your braces, so you have to brush and floss your teeth immediately afterwards, but I find that I have to do that no matter what I eat. Eating is really terrible now -- in addition to the pain, I can feel all the little bits of food making their way under all the individual braces. However, drinking is OK, and I find myself drinking some sort of liquid (tea, milk, water) almost continuously. I also rinse my mouth with salt water quite often and I'm doing nasal cleanses with salt water too, since I'm sick.

God, this has been an awful eleven days (since I had the tooth pulled). I keep telling myself, things will get better. If I could just stop coughing, I think I could handle the tooth pain better.

Oh, I'm forgetting two other things we did this week. On Tuesday night, Rocket Boy and I took Teen B to the choir/orchestra concert at the middle school. I didn't think he should go, since he was sick and hadn't gone to school that day. But he really wanted to. So we made him wear a mask, and gave him a cough drop to suck on, and sat a couple of rows away from everyone else. Hopefully we didn't pass on his germs. 

Then on Thursday night, Rocket Boy and I went to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the high school that the twins are not going to go to. We went because our next-door neighbor's son was in it and we wanted to see him. And it was a fabulous production, so excellent. Our neighbor's son did really well, too. Such a clear speaking voice, and he knew his lines perfectly. I was so glad we'd gone that night (wearing masks), because by Friday I was in no shape to be going to any plays. I've stayed home since then, even skipped today's Starbucks run. Rocket Boy is less sick than me, for once, so he handled that.

So now we have one more week before Spring Break, and it's another busy one. Teen B's band concert is Tuesday night, and I'm going to try hard to get rid of this cold (especially the cough) by then. Teen B stayed home from school from Tuesday through Friday last week (Teen A also stayed home on Friday), so he needs to go back tomorrow. Teen A may need to stay home one more day. Both kids see the orthodontist on Wednesday and the eye doctor on Thursday, and Teen A has a haircut on Saturday morning. Oh, and my book group was supposed to come here on Monday, but I changed it to a Zoom meeting. We always partially zoom, because one of our members now lives in Philadelphia, so it's easy to make the whole thing a zoom if need be. I told them I'll host in April instead. Way too much illness around here to have people over.

I'm still not sure what's happening for Spring Break. We've talked about going to Nebraska to see the sandhill cranes, but we haven't done anything to make that happen, due to illness and general misery. If we do it, we'll probably drive Rocket Boy's car, and then the kids and I will fly back to Denver from Omaha and he'll continue on to St. Louis. But none of this is scheduled yet -- no flights have been purchased, no cat sitters arranged. Still, it's just Nebraska, after all. We can probably do everything at the last minute. I'll know more next Sunday.