What a week!

Finally feeling up to a bit of blogging tonight. It's been a rough week. My broken tooth started acting up again, and developed an abcess infection. Not good, especially for someone who talks for a living! Luckily, my dental insurance kicked in on New Year's Day, and I was able to go to a dental clinic on Friday morning before work. Yay!
For now, the dentist was able to clean out some of the decayed tooth, pack medicine into it, drain some of the infection and put a temporary patch on the tooth. No more broken edge for a while, the swelling is going down, and the pain is subsiding. I have pain pills and antibiotics, and an appointment for Thursday to go back for an exam. Now the long-term work starts, to get my mouth healthy again. I'm just glad that I can eat and sleep. Granted, today started with me feeling like someone had punched me in the face! The only time I'm ever accused of having a small mouth is when I'm getting dental work, and my muscles are a bit sore. On the plus side, it looks like they'll be able to save the bad molar without too much trouble, and eventually straighten my front teeth.
Work was really busy this week, almost too hectic. I guess a lot of people got new computers or aircards for Christmas! It's rough when there's no time between calls to gather your thoughts or reset your brain, and most of our tech support calls are fairly long. Lunchtimes and breaks are often delayed till you can finish a call. At least my customers can't hear my stomach growl!
I'm looking forward to starting classes on the 12th. I've gotten one of my books in the mail already, and the others should be arriving soon. I'll have to pick the last one up at the bookstore when they open up again, since it's only available there. I think I've got the rest of what I need, though I might have to get a calculator if I can't find mine. I'm sure I'll find out more once I get to class.
For New Year's, I did go over to a friend's house after work that night, but left shortly after midnight due to my toothache. Had to work New Year's Day anyway, so didn't want to be out too late, especially that night.
I did go out on Monday night, though, to see a local band, My Majestic Mind. Two of the guys in the band are co-workers of mine. Good stuff, very talented group, and it was fun. Gonna hit their next show in a few weeks, too. They have a MySpace if you want to check them out.
Other than that, I've been working on a few projects. I'm still baking what I can, have some sewing to do, and am writing my latest bit of fiction. I've also got some non-fiction writing planned that will be shared online. More on that when it's ready to go.
Hopes and goals for 2009? Sure, I've got 'em. I'm optimistic, overall, as far as the material things I want to accomplish. The personal stuff, well, what I can control, I will. What I can't control, I will let the universe take care of. That's the harder part, for me, honestly. We'll see how that works out!

Not the blog I'd planned to write!

So, here I was, thinking of posting a nice blog Sunday night with a re-telling of the first stage of building the adobe 'horno' oven. Nope. That post will have to wait a bit. Not because it didn't happen; it did and it was a lot of fun.

No, I ended up going to the UNM Hospital ER Sunday night with the gallbladder attack from Hell. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, honestly, but OMFGs! I even scared my neighbor Roslee (she's an RN) with how bad I was. So she takes me in to the ER, and waits with me. And we waited. And waited. We'd gotten there at about 11 p.m., and they did do some triage and blood draws eventually, but we waited. At about 3 or 4 a.m. the pain had actually passed off, and I was feeling better. Not vomiting anymore, able to form coherent sentences again. Around 8 a.m. (Monday morning) they finally called me back to get checked out. Great, will they believe me now? I'm not hurting anymore, they've done a shift change, so anyone who saw me in pain may have gone home, but okay, I'm here, I want to know what to do.
I got checked over, then got sent up for an ultrasound so they can try to see what's going on in there. At least I was able to get my cell phone shortly after that, and call in to work. At least gonna be late, not sure. Also was able to call some friends and get the support network activated. Mongol juju, Pagan energy of several flavors, and oh, better call my mom... And then I wait some more. Results finally come back, and yeah, we think we'd better get that gallbladder out of there. I really had hoped to avoid surgery, not just for financial reasons, but also because I still had all my original parts and I kinda like that idea! But the more we discussed the options, the more that surgery now seemed to be the intelligent choice. So we'll do it. As soon as we can. Stay here and wait. And wait. Someone sent back a book for me to read, and I did sleep a bit.
One of our local pagan clergy had gotten word of where I was, and came to visit for a bit. That was darned nice. Other folks were calling to check on me, too. Shoot, my cell phone ran out of juice, partially because of the crappy signal. Finally, everything's set and it's time to go upstairs to the OR. This is about 9 p.m, I think? I didn't have my glasses, so couldn't see a clock. All I had with me was my nightie and shoes that I'd worn in, and my phone. I did have someone to bring me clothes for when I got out, thank goodness!
So I had my little chat with the anesthesiologist (no, not the one I know from elsewhere), and she gives me some uber-valium in my I.V. line. That's all I remember till I woke up in recovery at about 4 a.m. with a cotton mouth and a bursting bladder. I was in and out of sleep for a while, but by about 8:30 or 9 this morning, I was up and making trips to the bathroom. By 10 a.m. I was discharged (think I surprised/impressed the nurses) and my ride took me home. I got my stuff together, hit the bank, picked up my drugs at the store, and went to work.
I managed to work from 12:30 to 5:45 today, but by then my brain was getting fuzzy and I decided that "they stuck a fork in me, I'm done" and came home.
Now, remember Roslee taking me in on Sunday night? Well, today was her scheduled surgery! She had a total knee replacement, and was under the knife while I was getting up and out this morning. I guess we're 'surgery sisters' now. Honest, I'd rather not have, and we were joking that I just had to do her one better ;-) Anyway, our friend Kathy came by to check on me, and I rode up to UNMH with her to visit Roslee. She's doing fine, and very glad to have the 'happy drug button' to push.

So here I am, home again, somewhat perforated, rather sore, and hoping that my little drugs will help me sleep tonight. My cats are glad to have me back, too. I will be going to work tomorrow, and should be able to make it through the whole day.
Many thanks to all who have sent well-wishes, and my apologies to those I didn't have a chance to notify beforehand.
Nap tiem nao, yes? Kthxbai!