Teeth and bones etc.

My shoulder still hurts and is very slowly getting better.

About 10 days ago I started to get toothache, really bad toothache, despite the pain killers I was taking for my shoulder. Of course these things always happen when you have to wait over the weekend. In desperation I used some mouthwash which had been prescribed for Rob when he was having dental problems. I thought that my head was going to explode! Fortunately, it calmed down after about 10 minutes and my tooth started to feel a little better. I now have a new dentist and he seems awfully young. He x-rayed my tooth and there was no problem with the tooth. After looking round the rest of my teeth he announced that I have several gum abscesses – I had no idea! For the time being I have mouthwash to use 3 times a day and when I clean my teeth in the evening I use bicarbonate of soda and peroxide which I make into a paste, it has a horrible salty taste. I have a tiny brush for between my teeth. At the end of the week the dentist will x-ray the other side of my mouth and give my teeth a good clean. It’s nearly two years since I last visited a dentist. I won’t leave it so long next time.

 I had my bone density scan last week. All done within half an hour. Apparently my bones are better than most people’s my age. It was nice to see the smiles on the faces of the doctors when they saw the results. I went to have my eyes tested too. My vision is a little better! New glasses should arrive this week.

Rob and I went to an auction last week on the train. The journey there was very agreeable but the train was very crowded in the evening. We spent the day in the only place in France where it wasn’t raining! We got some lovely postcards, a present for J-M’s birthday which was in July and a custom made wooden box for transporting postcards. One of the boxes of cards was from the USA, some are very interesting so I will be posting the best on Time and Oft as I scan them.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

“When did you have your last mammogram?”

That’s the question posed during every commercial break on the 2nd TV channel here at the moment. It’s asked by various presenters.  We’re asked again if we remember after about a minutes silence. I know that mine was the beginning of September. As I’m over 50 I get an invitation through the post every two years to set up a free appointment at the breast center.

Now you’ve read this far. Do you remember the date of your last mammogram?

Sorry about the enormous spelling mistake in the title - now corrected

It never rains, but it pours

When Olivier left for Bordeaux, he knew that he would have to find a part time job in order to make ends meet. Like thousands of other students, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. He went after a Saturday job in a photocopy shop with the idea of doing English lessons here and there to earn more. The photocopy job didn’t come to anything. He went for an interview at a sushi shop over the weekend. He would be delivering sushis. He got the job and started work yesterday at 5 o’clock. The photocopy shop contacted him – could he come after all? He was also contacted by KFC near to here. They kept his CV from when he applied for a summer job, was he free to work?

 He sent Rob a text yesterday evening after he finished work (he never contacts me for anything interesting – but then I don’t do Arsenal speak):  He has decided to stick with the sushis. His boss is ex KFC too, seems like they bonded over that. I think that he made the right choice – more of a chance of tips delivering sushis.

Just time travelling around

Today, I’ve tip-toed through the reading room of a library in Frankfurt, admired an electoral candidate from 1911 and seen a stage coach arrive on a mountain path. Next I will be taking a tour around the steel works and factories where the first locomotive was made in France.

What have you been doing?

...and Shoulders...

So I went for my x-ray and even before I’d had time to open my book in the waiting room my name was called. I was even allowed to keep on my thin T shirt, though I had to take off my bra. The girl that operated the x-ray machine was pleasant and helpful. I talked to a doctor about what they had found then I had to wait while he wrote up the results. The whole lot took 20 minutes!

This afternoon I went with the results to my doctor. He has prescribed a bone density scan, as it looks as if my bones are losing calcium. I might have to start HRT, which I was hoping to avoid. My shoulder feels a little better; I only needed 500mg of paracetamol this morning, but I think I’ll need some this evening. The area which lost all sense of feeling seems to be diminishing too. He told me not to start any arm exercises just yet in case I pinch the nerve again.

If I do need hormone treatment I suppose I should consider myself fortunate not to have broken a bone in order to discover that there is a problem.

Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

What a lot has happened since I last wrote. When Olivier packed up his things I asked him to take his bag of weights downstairs. He left the bag on the landing. I decided to move it so that Rob wouldn’t forget to take it down. I was being so careful about my knees it never occurred to me that I would finish with a trapped nerve which has left me with stabbing pains in my left shoulder blade and loss of feeling in my left armpit ( and you don’t realize how important that could be until you haven’t got it).

Dom and J-M came and we had a good weekend. Dom cooked me a birthday meal and made carrot cake which we all enjoyed very much. Rob was working on Sunday so she could make us a curry for lunch (Rob has threatened me with divorce if I ever try to feed him curry). It was sad when they left, as I had to take Olivier to his friend’s house to leave for Bordeaux. I came back to a really empty house

We drove to Bordeaux on the Tuesday morning with the remainder of Olivier’s things. It took two hours to get to Bordeaux and the same to travel the 10 or so kilometers off the ring-road and to Olivier’s apartment. We also had to check the place with the agency, drop of his things and then Olivier and Rob went to collect the rest of his furniture from his friend. Going home took just as long for as well as the evening rush hour traffic, the weather was bad and there was patchy fog. We were exhausted.

Wednesday was my birthday, but I didn’t feel too birthdayish because I was worn out and my shoulder was painful. We went out for a cup of coffee to celebrate and I mustered the energy to make scrambled eggs on toast for my birthday meal.

 Thursday I had lessons.

 We left the house on Friday at 5 am. to catch the train to Bordeaux for an auction. I slept almost all the way, it’s unusual for me to be able to sleep outside my bed. We did have a good day, the weather was good and we found a nice restaurant for lunch and ate in the sunshine. The auction is hard work. There is an hour and a half to view 400 lots and then the concentration during the auction itself. We did come away with some good postcards and kept to our budget. By this time I was dosing myself with paracetamol pretty regularly.

 I went to see the Doctor on Monday and actually thought that it was feeling a little better. The Doctor’s examination put paid to that. I was in agony last night despite pain killers. Tomorrow I’m going for an X-ray.

One good thing; I started my winter session of injections for the veins in my legs this afternoon. The pain killers helped there too.