Medical Stuff

Well, we still haven't left on our trip! We are leaving tomorrow come hell or high water!

I was in such pain yesterday that I decided to go to the periodontist today. He took out the stitches from my palate and basically said that if I think I'm in a lot of pain, then I'm a big baby! No, not really, but they did seem rather blase about my thinking I was in pain. I'll have to put up with the stitches on my bottom gums till Dec. 15. It feels so weird to have a chunk of skin gone from the roof of my mouth and I can move my mouth completely (because of the stitches), but all in all I guess I'm very lucky to have been able to have this procedure so I don't lose my teeth. I've been trying Feldenkrais exercises to relax my pelvis and lower back and neck. I'm sore in lots of odd places. Another intersting thing is that I've had to sleep on my back because the sides of my jaws were swollen (black and blue now), and I believe I have had more pleasant dreams. Maybe the odd dreams I always have are due to not breathing properly!

Enough about me, Mary's having her share of problems at the moment. I took her to Dr R last week because she keeps having heart burn at night and then diarrhea the next morning. Dr R says she wants to send her to a heart and an intestinal specialist when we get back from St L. She said that it's worrisome because Mary's taking a lot of medication for heart burn, so it shouldn't still be breaking through. She also said that we may not be able to do anything about it, but at least we can try to figure out what's wrong.

I also wanted Dr R to see if Mary had a yeast infection or something because her privates were so smelly, even right after I washed her. The pelvic exam was no picnic for any of us! Dr R used a cathater (sp?) to get a urine sample. She just called to tell me that it was dirty, which means that Mary's hallucinating and tiredness are from a UTI. It makes me so mad that sometimes when I give them a urine sample from Mary they tell me that it's clean, but I know she has a UTI. Well, I'm just so relieved that Dr R is calling the antibiotic in tonight and we can get it tomorrow before we leave. It really was providence that we took a week longer to leave. Oh, Dr R also gave Mary a prescription for an antifungal cream that I have to rub around her vagina and vulva twice a day. I told Mary that wasn't in the job description and sang "Getting to Know You" the first time I had to do it. Mary takes it with her usual aplomb. The smell is already gone, so it must be working. There's a lot of cream there, so I guess I'll be doing this for the next month at least. Joy, joy.