No Love Lost

Everyone who knows anything about me knows that I have no love for Obama.  However I feel the need to stick up for him a little bit concerning this current oil spill in the gulf.  The same way Bush was not responsible for the hurricane that slammed New Orleans, Obama had nothing to do with this oil spill.  It is BP’s fault and BP’s fault along.  What do you expect?  Do you think Obama is supposed to don a scuba tank and go down and plug the hole himself?   That’s a little absurd.  Don’t get me wrong, though.  He is responsible for not pressing BP to get their butt in gear and use every resource available to them to clean up the oil before it reached the shore.  But that’s it.

As for BP being criminally liable, I don’t think so.  This is hurting them immensely and they are losing untold millions of dollars.  Boycotting BP isn’t going to help the situation at all.  The individual citizens that own BP franchises are the only ones that will be hurt by a boycott and that’s not fair to them.  BP is going to pay dearly for this oil spill and we should just leave it at that.  The more fines and financial losses they experience, the less money they’ll have to clean up the mess in the gulf.  What we should do, is find a way to communicate to BP and the president how important it is to use every technique available to clean up the oil.  There are hundreds of great ideas out there that they can be taking advantage of but for whatever reason have chosen to ignore.

So let’s be a little slower to judge when it comes to the oil spill.  I know a lot of you aren’t going to agree with me and that’s ok.  We are allowed to have differing opinions.  That’s what makes friendships unique and worthwhile.  I do welcome and encourage your thoughts. 

To the Dentist

Today I went to the dentist after a full night of horrid nightmares concerning them.  It was a rough night.  The visit went pretty well.  The doc prescribed a mild sedative to calm my nerves and the fillings went pretty well.  Unfortunately he found 2 teeth that need root canals.  I go to an endodontist (I’ve never been to one of those) next week for both root canals.  They don’t offer valium there, but they do use nitrous oxide.  I’m very pleased about that.  I’ve only ever had one root canal in my life and it was a rough experience. 

Now you may be wondering why my teeth are so bad.  It’s not from lack of brushing.  In fact, every time I go for a cleaning the hygienist comments on how clean and white my are.  However, I take pain killers on a regular basis so any minor tooth problem is completely masked.  I don’t feel the pain so I don’t know to go to the dentist to get things fixed until the problem is major.  So I have 2 root canals and 5 crowns scheduled.  Thank God for good dental insurance. 

Another note—I have been told by 3 dentists now that I brush my teeth too much.  I’m sort of OCD when it comes to a clean mouth.  Brushing so frequently has weakened my enamel allowing for easier formation of cavities.  So between the pain meds and the excessive brushing, all the problems are my own fault. 

A Day in the Life…

Well I went to the dentist as promised.  It was not as good a visit as I had been hoping for.  It turns out that I broke my tooth down below the gum line and it was not savable.   So with just a local, the dentist grabbed my tooth with a pair of pliers and yanked it out.  It took a full 20 seconds from start to finish.  It took longer to give me all the shots to numb the thing up than it did to pull it out.  Now I have a gaping hole in the very back of my mouth.  Tomorrow I get to go back to the dentist to have the 1st of 4 legs of oral repair done. 

The worst part of the whole visit was the anxiety.  I am terrified about the dentist and by the time he was done I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  Thankfully they noticed my intense anxiety and offered to give me a mild sedative for future visits.  I find out tomorrow if it works.  The only downside to taking this sedative is that I cannot drive myself to the appointment.  That means that Melinda has to take the time off to drive me there and back.  Bummer. 

However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing tomorrow.  She got a little jealous of all the attention I was getting and decided to go ahead and break one of her teeth.  I’m not kidding!  It was the night before last and she bit down into a meatball and there was something hard in it, possibly a bone fragment or a tough piece of gristle, and her took just snapped.  It broke the entire side of her tooth off.  So she is not going to just have to sit there, she' gets to be a patient there as well. 

So much excitement, so much drama, so much fun.  But that’s a day in the life of Jasen and Melinda. 

Let here be Food

So yesterday the doc said I could be on solid food as tolerated.  Not too bad.  It took awhile but I finally got up the nerve to eat something this morning.  The breakfast of champions—egg and cheese English muffin.  On one of the last bites of the muffin, I broke a tooth.  Go figure.  I go nearly a month without being able to eat and the first time I do, I hurt myself.  I go to the dentist tomorrow to have things repaired.

On a happier note, food seems to be going good with me right now.  I can’t complain yet and with any luck, won’t be able to complain at all.  So to all of you who sent their prayers and happy thoughts, I say thank you.  You are the best.  God bless all of you.

10 Days and Counting

Today marks the 10th day that I’ve been on a soft/bland food diet.  This in response to my little bout with a partial intestinal blockage a few weeks back.  But after 10 days things are still not 100%.  I have had a few problems of feeling excessively bloated after meals and it unfortunately lasts for several hours.  But on a positive note, the signs of the blockage have disappeared.  So tomorrow the doc is supposed to call with instructions on what to do next.  Along with the soft/bland flood diet, I have been on a high dose of steroids.  Steroids, for those who don’t know, are the bane to my existence.  It’s because of the steroids, prednisone to be exact, that I have osteoporosis and have broken 18 bones in the last 6 years.  So it’s imperative that I get off this stuff as soon as possible.  A special thanks to my doctor for keeping me out of surgery. 

Good News, Bad News

Wow!  I got some not so nice news from my doc.  But first a little background info…

On the 3rd of May I was still feeling pretty bad in the gut.  So I finally folded and went to the ER.  There they did an CT scan and gave me some meds via IV.  After a couple hours they came in and gave me the news.  It was great news.  There was no complete obstruction of the small intestine.  However, there was lots of distention throughout the entire length of the intestine.  So they gave me some more meds and told me to follow-up with my doc the next day.

At my doc appointment, he gave me the bad news.  There is definitely a partial obstruction in the works.  It is being caused by one of two things—either a nasty flare of my crohn’s disease, or adhesions.  For those who don’t know, adhesions are places where the small intestine are stuck to the abdominal wall, other portions of the small intestine, or other organs.  That is bad because in order to do its job, it must be able to move freely within the abdominal cavity. 

So the doc put me on a high dose of prednisone, my arch enemy, and told me to remain on a liquid diet until further notice.  And prednisone is my arch enemy because it is what caused my osteoporosis which has led to 18 broken bones over the last 6 years. 

So that’s it.  I am sort of in limbo.  Until the partial obstruction clears or becomes a complete obstruction, we can’t really move forward.  So if I’m a little late with my updates here, I hope you’ll forgive me.  Until next time…

Still No Good

Things are still not going swimmingly with the guts.  I finally broke down and made an appointment with my gut doc.  I go see him in 5 days.  These promise to be the longest 5 days in my life.  My guts, while they improved slightly with the prednisone, have gone back to their old ways.  My gut is distended and tender and I’m borderline miserable.  Everything sure points to a partial blockage of the small intestine, which is not a good thing at all.  As long as this problem has been going on, even if it is only a slight blockage, surgery is going to be the only answer.  Jeez, that would be a crummy way to spend 3-4 hours.  And then all that recovery time.  I’d rather avoid the whole thing.  Of course if it came down to a choice of staying like this or going through the weeks of recovery, I’ll choose the recovery.  Prayers are very welcome and even requested.  In fact I’m starting to get a little nauseous at the moment and that really is a very bad sign.  I gotta go!