“They’ll fix you. They fix everything.”
My health insurance took a bit of a hit today.
First off we have my infected wisdom tooth, I say wisdom tooth but really it’s just an extra tooth that came through and took its place next to all the others. I only clarify this as often people make a bigger deal out of things when I say wisdom tooth and frankly this particular tooth is not anything special, except that it has pretty much been patched up more times than Robocop over the years and not particularly well in some cases.
If there is one weak point in my mouth it’s this stupid tooth which sits really close to a nerve line and so I feel it whenever anyone does any work on it despite the numbing injections. It is more often in pain than not but because it is right at the back it has been semi easy to ignore. Well it refuses to be ignored now and is nicely infected and sending agony waves through my jaw.
But it’s all good because come next Thursday just like George and Gracie it is being shipped out, the only difference being that it’s not a humpback whale and Admiral Kirk will not be rescuing it from ambiguous whalers. Otherwise it’s completely the same thing.
So whilst I’m happy the tooth is coming out I’m still feeling a little down which is mostly the pain that I have to deal with whilst the infection is treated.
Next stop the optometrist.
I’ve needed new glasses for a little while now as my old ones are starting to look a little Harry Potter meets Louis Tully (I’ve got a couple and they are all looking a little worse for wear) so despite being a little out of sorts I thought I should get that sorted.
Because I’m diabetic I’m supposed to get eye exams 12 monthly anyway and I’m overdue.
I went to a new optometrist and I’ve got to say, no actually I beg you to really consider going to the more renowned or established eyewear places because the difference in service is simply amazing. I’ve been going to the bargain or warehouse kind of places and no where did I get as thorough an examination as I did here.
So we do the tests, I’m going up in lens strength slightly and then they check my macula and awesome, I have a few hemorrhages dotted all over my eyes, none too close to my macula which is good news but the bad news is that they are there at all.
The macula is the part of the eye that deals with your direct vision, for someone who like drawing I expect one wants to hang on to that part.
So what the hell?
Well the hell is unfortunately that it has everything to do with my diabetes and my poor management of it.
It’s my fault, my responsibility and something I’ve ignored for way too long. I need to shed 15 kilos, stop eating crap and take my medication regularly. It’s really that simple.
Seeing what it’s doing to my eyesight was for want of a better term an eye opener and it really threw me out. I have a lot of stuff I want to do in my life and I have barely even scratched the surface so hopefully as Mike said on Twitter there will be some positives come out of this.
There will be changes.
Just thought I’d say it all out loud.
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31 Responses to “Murphy… I’m a mess…”
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So are you joining Dan's competition? Carrots should keep your bloodshot eyes a bit in check..
Not that my mouth is such a charmingly healthy place and my eyes..well -8 steady on both eyes for the last 4 years..but as you know that's pretty blind already. I wear contacts, but I really need a pair of glasses on the side..mine look like Potter's..but then after an elephant sat on it.
Well I really need to do something!!
Only problem with Dan's comp is I'd have to work out the conversion rate – it's like they've never heard of the metric system
I don't think I could do contacts myself – I honestly don't care about wearing glasses, it doesn't worry me, going blind poses a couple of issues for me though
Not Eating Like Crap is easy. Unfortunately, Eating Well is harder, but you can't get a bigger incentive than going blind, can you.
So, get on it! If you can't see, you can't draw, man!
I can't kick your butt from Canada, so I hope that self-discipline works. Just think of a little Canuck in your head saying “EAT YOUR VEGGIES!”
As for the tooth, given my complete aversion to dental-related things, I am cringing on your behalf.
well contacts make it easier when practicing a full contact sport
Preventing going blind ís one hell of an incentive yes.
As a fellow diabetic, I completely see where you're coming from (pun intended, unfortunately). I've had the added incentive of watching my father and grandfather slowly succumb to the myriad problems of not watching their blood sugars, and the loss of eyesight is definitely one of the most annoying. (Neuropathy, it should be said, is no picnic, either).
All that, and a fellow diabetic, under excellent control, for a wife, and you'd think I'd have enough incentive to start eating well. Yeeeaaah….. not so much. Well, not without all the kicking and screaming and whimpering next to the ice cream aisle in the grocery store.
It IS worth it, though. My wife is proof of that. Don't let it take you down. Fight back (*cue Rocky theme*)! Get tough! Show that pancreas who's boss!
And eat a few carrots.
I really do believe that the contacts would be a lot easier – I went to see Up in 3D and wasn't sure what to do with the glasses (not really fitting over my glasses) so I took mine off and had just the 3D ones.
Huge headache afterwards.
Yeah it's pretty much my biggest fear… that and the beach ball alien from Dark Star.
consider myself kicked
Considering how painful this tooth is right now I'm actually looking forward to the procedure!!
I know, the weirdest part is I know I can do it too, I've since given diet cola up again (more to do with the acidity and my teeth) and it only takes me a week or so to get used to not having it.
Chips and chocolate is my greatest weakness!
Stupid lazy pancreas.
Thanks for the pep talk too!
Lordy, lordy, lordy.
I never knew you were a diabetic but there's nothing I can say that you haven't already said yourself.
So, eat your vegies!
And snack on apples
Take care of yourself dude!
I know the agony of the teeth thing. I had an abcess on the roots of an upper tooth that was against my sinuses, and had to have maxillo-facial surgery to get the bugger out, because it was up in my jaw. I was in agony for MONTHS, but as soon as the nasty was gone… ding ding! I was fine!
Sending you healing vibes.
Hey Lee
Not sounding like a load of fun in the dental area, nor the visual area.
Now I can't help with the diet stuff or ensuring you take your meds but i can help with the weight lose if you need a hand there.
K
Take care of you.
Being diabetic and potential loss of eyesight sure is a big incentive.
Does Diet Soda have diabetic consequences?
no but it's not really good for you either, although that being said the extra caffeine doesn't help either – I'm more concerned about artificial sweetener and the acidity.
Considering I switched from Coke to Diet Sprite/7UP/Generic Lemon-Lime pop, so I am not getting the sugar or the caffeine, I think that was a decent trade (especially since I was drinking somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 cans of Coke in a week, which is literally a kilo of sugar every week, and an extra pound of calories).
I think I'd rather have those 400-600 extra calories a day for something else if I wanted them.
I remember when I had to swap over from normal coke to diet (actually I went straight on to diet caffeine free cola – blerg!) it was a huge adjustment but now when I taste full strength cola it tastes sickly sweet.
Do you find you miss the stuff?
I am so looking forward to next week when they pull this tooth and I can eat apples properly again!!!
It's interesting about you saying there's nothing you can say that I haven't already said to myself, because you are right, it really isn't an education issue, I know the facts and what needs to be done it's all in the attitude which unfortunately can be distinctively worse
This morning the tooth itself wasn't so much in pain but the jaw is still hurting a lot, but I'm taking that as a good sign as the infection is slowly dying off!
Cheers for the offer! I'll assess where I am in a couple of weeks to sort the tooth thing out and let you know.
It's an easy thing to forget to take care of oneself!
My progression was Coke (never pepsi BTW) -> Orange Pop/Mountain Dew (No caffeine in our version of it) -> Diet Orange Pop -> Diet Lemon/Lime (I can't stand most diet pop, but somehow Diet Lemon Lime tastes surprisingly like the thing it is a surrogate for).
When I have a Coke now and again these days, it isn't just the sweetness that bothers me… it has a weird mouth feel now… like my teeth feel dirty after drinking it.
The thing I've given up that I really miss is milk. I used to enjoy eating snack cakes/pastries/cookies with milk… but then my body told me that that was a BAD idea.
I drank Pepsi fro a little while because I found the flavour similar to full sugar version which I appreciated.
I am pretty sick now whenever someone puts cow's milk in my coffee by mistake, it seems to be one of those things that given enough time your body loses all tolerance for!
I remember when I had to swap over from normal coke to diet (actually I went straight on to diet caffeine free cola – blerg!) it was a huge adjustment but now when I taste full strength cola it tastes sickly sweet.
Do you find you miss the stuff?
I am so looking forward to next week when they pull this tooth and I can eat apples properly again!!!
It's interesting about you saying there's nothing you can say that I haven't already said to myself, because you are right, it really isn't an education issue, I know the facts and what needs to be done it's all in the attitude which unfortunately can be distinctively worse
This morning the tooth itself wasn't so much in pain but the jaw is still hurting a lot, but I'm taking that as a good sign as the infection is slowly dying off!
Cheers for the offer! I'll assess where I am in a couple of weeks to sort the tooth thing out and let you know.
It's an easy thing to forget to take care of oneself!
My progression was Coke (never pepsi BTW) -> Orange Pop/Mountain Dew (No caffeine in our version of it) -> Diet Orange Pop -> Diet Lemon/Lime (I can't stand most diet pop, but somehow Diet Lemon Lime tastes surprisingly like the thing it is a surrogate for).
When I have a Coke now and again these days, it isn't just the sweetness that bothers me… it has a weird mouth feel now… like my teeth feel dirty after drinking it.
The thing I've given up that I really miss is milk. I used to enjoy eating snack cakes/pastries/cookies with milk… but then my body told me that that was a BAD idea.
I drank Pepsi for a little while because I found the flavour similar to full sugar version which I appreciated.
I am pretty sick now whenever someone puts cow's milk in my coffee by mistake, it seems to be one of those things that given enough time your body loses all tolerance for!