New year. New hair and more. Way more.

Could be better. Could be worse. Hope it gets better.

We had our Christmas dinner on the 26th. Right after eating my one plate helping, my stomach bloated out huge. I was so uncomfortable. It never went back down. I didn’t eat hardly anything for the next several days yet I remained pregnant looking. I hoped all the walking we did with family would help but it didn’t’ change a thing.

I tried Gax-X, baking soda, peppermint tea, peppermint enteric-coated coated tablets, omega oils. acidophilus, fennel, hot liquids because I know they help my hiatal hernia, moving, not moving and resting, no dairy, no alcohol, fewer carbs, less sugar, no more broccoli casserole, no fruits, less food all around, partly because there was nothing left good to eat when you cut out carbs, sugar, and fruit. It finally started to go down after a week, only to bloat back out, hard as a rock, if I ate a small meal. Now a week and a half later it is doing it less but still not back to normal. I’m running out of stretchy waistband clothes to wear.  I never did get around to trying vinegar.

New year. New (purple) hair. After New Years I wanted to try something different.

I like purple but I don’t want purple hair! I was a brunette before I also had gray in patches. No nice mix of salt in my pepper for my hair. My brown color was very, very, cool, like a dark charcoal more than warm brown. My mom was a redhead. Dad had black hair. Every time I died my hair brass free cool brown, it ended up red/orange within a few weeks. I decided to go to semi-permanent and just dye it more often. Then, I spotted Got2b Metallic Smokey Steel. Since I was scared to try a soft black I thought this would be great. While on my head and while rinsing the water ran purple. When I got out of the shower I was like, wow, this is dark, but it was also closest I’ve ever got to the color my hair used to be… going on memory and old photos. It looks black, not steel. As I was blow drying it  I noticed that my roots that were my natural color were more purple than the rest.  In the sun, my whole head has a purple tint with trace amounts of pink. I’m trying to decide whether to embrace it and let people think I was young enough to try a fun color or start putting a yellow/brown gloss on it. If only you could buy a truly cool/cold brown! Maybe I should buy brown and black and mix them together if I’m going to keep this up? I think for my 50th this year I’ll embrace the gray and hope it’s mixed in everywhere by now instead of in patches.

Apparently, I got more than body shape from my grandma. She often said her groin hurt. I think she meant her lower stomach though. I didn’t do anything to make my groin hurt. For those of you, like me, that are not sure where that even is on a female, it’s where your leg meets your torso. I am having a vision of being like a Barbie and popping my leg off, shaking off the problem and sticking it back on. I’m wondering how in the heck you can have that kind of pain with no cause?

I got buried in a cover design and sat over 8 hours hammering out details. I didn’t want to break the rhythm because it was going so well. No spoilers from me 🙂 Then after I got up to start dinner it hurt to take a step or put weight on my right leg. The day after was worse. Sunday it was back to like the first day. I went to Dr. Google. Groin injuries are often sports injuries. Nope, not that. I’m hoping it quits as quick as it started. It made a big improvement after I was up a few hours this morning. I’m kinda hesitant to take normal size steps still but I’m hopeful it was just a pinched nerve that has unpinched. If my bloating was a bug or virus it said it could be lymph node related. I’ve never heard of a bloating only virus but my mom had it as one of her symptoms about a week beforehand. You ever hear of a bloating bug that’s contagious?

My left ear tinnitus has been turned up on high squeal. Hubby swears I’m getting hard of hearing. Runs in my family. I think I just can’t hear over that stupid high pitched whine in my ear. Remember I can’t smell anything either, after a nasty cold many years ago that turned into something worse and left me with no smeller? Well, He also informed me that our towels stink. I read about a vinegar baking soda cycle but it gives me images of a school volcano erupting from our washer. I did see a Facebook post about what to do.

Said hubby has some oxygen issues and Tyler’s feline cardiologist has left the state. I’ve got a post started on the later. I need to get a video of him breathing too. Since he’s had teeth removed his cheeks puff out when he breathes. At first, I thought he had a snot bubble in his nose but you can see his cheeks puffing out. #cute Well cute when it’s your own cat. Kinda like when he gets so happy he drools. I think his favorite food has changed something.

Last night while eating chips and salsa for dinner, my darn one and only crown/cap broke in half right down the middle. This stupid tooth now has had like 5 or 6 things done to it. In hindsight, I wished I had just had it pulled. It would’ve cost so much less. I could’ve bought a full set of dentures by now! When I typed that all out (below) I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  I took the picture before I brushed in case that made it fall the rest of the way off. The white at my gumline is cement/glue. It’s not like I crunch on ice cubes. My hubby does. He has one crown from Port also. When he switched he thought he understood his new dentist to say he used porcelain over metal so even if it cracked your tooth was still protected. Friends on Facebook have asked if I should go with an implant. I’ll go over the options before I just to a new porcelain cap.

Skip the whole bulleted section if you don’t want the details.

• Had a bottom tooth causing pain. Went to 2 dentists then Dr. Farrah the orthodontist that did my braces back in middle school. Farrah made me a grind guard that also helps keep my front top teeth straight. No one could see why my bottom tooth hurt. One said something about rods in a tooth.
• Dr Little was the 4th one who looked and he put a light on it and said it was cracked down the center because the light stopped ½ way thru my tooth. He over drilled, got into the pulp, pain went to severe. Temp metal filling fell off when I was laying in bed. Was not given any other options other than the cap for the crack. Cap $702.
• Dr. Little said I needed a root canal the next day. $750.00 He set that up with Dr. Berman. Bergman never got me numb. I hate needles SO BAD that I’ve had all my fillings done without novocaine. The one time I opted for the novocaine for the root canal, it did not work. He never got it numb. It was horrible. It also still has some feeling left so I’m not sure if he got all the roots or nerves.
• Back to Dr. Little. He tried to use dirty instruments in my mouth! They were on the tray when I went into the room and covered with stuff and he started to put them in my mouth to put the cap on.  I stopped him. I turned into the dental medical board. Cap was a terrible fit and covered in cement. 
• I switched to Dr. Port. The cap was still a problem. He tried to work with Little’s cap. He did get the cement off but couldn’t do anything with the huge gap between my teeth and the cap. I paid for a whole new cap. $764.  Dr. Port used ink strips and made sure it was a good fit.
• Dr. Port stopped coming in when I was there for cleanings, and I just saw the hygienist. They hurt me more than Francis at Dr. Shefltner’s so I switched back to her for cleanings.
• Then my permanent cap from Dr. Port fell out while eating a bologna sandwich. Went back to have it put back in and I did not see Dr. Port. A tech/hygienist girl put my cap back on. I was told the dentist is supposed to do this. She got cement/glue everywhere and I was in the chair for almost an hour with her picking and scraping off the cement from the cap and surrounding teeth. She did not use any ink strips to test the fit. I was also charged for the girl to glue my ‘permanent’ tooth back in that they made in the first place. $50. Dr Port did not come in the room or see me on this visit. I haven’t been back. The cap always felt too tall after she put it back on.
• The cap chipped while eating greens for new years day.
• I switched to Dr. Garrison. He buffed the chip when I was there for a cleaning, and I moved all my records to them.
• I started having pain in the tooth above the capped tooth. Mostly when eating or drinking cold. then cold or sweets, and then it started aching all the time. It still had some pressure feelings in the capped bottom tooth below it. Those two teeth feel like they hit before all the others.
• Dr. Garrison filed down the tooth above the cap some and applied a coating to the top of it which helped with the hot and cold. It still feels like my bottom cap is too tall like the tech never got it placed correctly.
• 1-5-2020 The cap broke off right down the center while eating some chips and salsa. A new ceramic cap is $1000 plus x-rays, plus visit. Pulling it is $175. but they suggest you don’t. They do stand behind their caps and put them back on or fix them if they mess up. They said they should last 7-10 years.

I am over $3500 on ONE TOOTH!

Wonder if “In like a lion, out like a lamb” applies to more than the weather?

Oh, I want to share my word for 2020. I may stick to it better. It is “No” without explanation without saying maybe, without agreeing to stuff I don’t want to do. Just saying No to all sorts of stuff unless I want to say yes.

and to keep this whole post from being depressing. Here are a few pics from last year. My last few waterfalls of 2019 were the 3 in Bryson City. Tom Branch Falls, Indian Creek Falls and Juney Whank Falls. I was happy to get the hawk!

Here’s a “how it’s made” shot. Yes, I was standing on our kitchen island.

I’ve got lots of reading to do for books due back to the library, the Nikon D3500 For Dummies and, Dominion plus I’ve got to start on both our business’ paperwork and checkbooks. I did finish making and go the photo book for my niece of the 52 week photo project and got it ordered. I did get the family Christmas pics uploaded to our share site yesterday. I’ve got a book cover on the schedule, and I think this is going to have to be the year we actually find a physician. I learned we may want an “internal medicine” specialist instead of a family physician since they deal with more adults.  It’s been since I think 2007 or 08 since we had a regular general doctor. I’ m gonna sound like a hypochondriac with my recent weird bit of issues add on top of that my needle phobia and I just want to go back to bed instead.  Photo workshop this week. New cap and empty wallet next week, unless they get a cancelation.

 

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