Day Fifteen - the dentist ☹

Psalm 9:9-10

 The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed,

A stronghold in times of trouble; 

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, 

For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. 

I never like going to the dentist - not even the hygienist.  Riley seems to like it, but then he didn't start out life being quite literally tortured by the dentist.  My first trip to the dentist was a six.  The dentist was drilling my cavity with no pain killer and using a slow drill.  So half way through he decided he couldn't handle me any more and gave my mother the name of a child specialist.  Well that was like going from the frying pan into the fire.  Dr Erwin was terrible.  If you fussed at all he slapped your knuckles against the wooden arm of the chair.  It got so I never wanted to go down town with my mother out of fear that she was going to take me to the dentist.  I think I was about 21 when I finally experienced Novocaine, and that was almost worse than Dr. Erwin.  The dentist that time was a friend of my parents, and I think he was definitely an incompetent.    Finally, by the time I was 24 and had a mouth full of cavities, I found my own dentist and he was absolutely wonderful.  But unfortunately he retired early from private practice to go teach at the dental school.  It's been touch and go with dentistry for me ever since.



But anyway, today Riley, rightly so, made me go get my teeth cleaned and my mouth check.  Everything went okay, if you don't count my constantly telling the hygienist to take it easy.  Dr Gross (who I do respect) said that there were no serious problems in my mouth that couldn't wait until I was done with the cancer.  Praise the Lord.

After the dentist I went to Pack West Starbucks to have iced tea with Riley. I had them leave the sugar out of the iced tea. We did the puzzles in the paper, but by the time I got to the sudoku I could see that Riley was stressing about getting to work, so we kissed good bye and off he went. I worked a little longer on the puzzle, and then I decided to go to the Madison Avenue jewellery store upstairs. It's a store owned by two really nice women. They are having a necklace made for me in a design I came up with, but though they thought it would be in today, the jewelry maker didn't like the chain when it was finish, and she was getting another one. So instead the three of us sat around and talked and had a great time.

Then I went out and called Sarah, because I knew that she was due to have her PhD test review at 12:30. I thought maybe we could have lunch together, as I was down town. She thought that was a great idea, but she was just taking Caleb to where he was to be baby sat. I decided that I'd lave enough time to get my car out of the parking garage and up by Portland State, but as I was getting into my car Sarah called to say she didn't think there'd be enough time. So I went to Goodwill instead. I hadn't been there in a long time. I bought a bunch of nice head scarves - they had a bigger selection than usual. And I bought two tiny tart pans - the kind you need for making don tots. And a very interesting book about Alice in Wonderland, and a book entitled Still Glides the Stream which is an accompaniment or sequel to one I have called Lark Rising to Candleford.

I then went to a knitting store on Alberta that I knew carried Louisa Harding wool, and I bought two sceines of yarn to make a floppy tam for myself in a color somewhat similar to the color of my hair. The pattern for the tam is in the knew knitting book I bought yesterday. They had in the store the hat made up. I decided that whoever made it was a bit skimpy with the wool, so now I know to make the crown taller. Then I went home to eat lunch. In the mailbox was my new pills from Jill called Neutraferon - for the immune system. I know that the chemo people don't want me taking something like that when I taking chemo, but I'll take as much as I can before hand, so I'll have as good an immune system as I can get. It is so hard to get these different doctor types to agree with each other, or to decently confer with each other. Nutrition IS very very important!

After a good lunch, I took a two hour nap, and that felt really good.  Then I made myself a smoothie or yogurt, milk, strawberries, cantaloupe, a bit of brewers yeast and ground flax seed.  And then my sister called, and we chatted for quite a while, until our phones died.  Then we both connected our phones to their charges and finished the call.

Riley got home a bit late, we ate, and then we walked over to Whole Foods, because we hadn't taken a walk this morning.  Then after putting the groceries away, I made a fruit salad of a kiwi, a banana, and a bit of cantaloupe and a dollop of that lovely yogurt.  Riley's now falling asleep while watching a pretty good baseball game.  The Mariners are ahead by 3.  But Riley wants to go to bed.  I'm delighted to not be so tired at this point.  But I do need all the sleep I can get.

Psalm 59:16-17

But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength;

Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning,

For You have been my stronghold

And a refuge in the day of my distress. 

O my strength, I will sing praises to You;

For God is my stronghold, 

the God who shows me lovingkindness.