"There's Something Missing"

I may have mentioned before that I have the worst teeth in the world. Well, maybe not the worst, but they're probably in the top 100!  (Or should I say the bottom 100??) Well, at least I used to. But today "There's Something Missing!"   They're not so bad today because yesterday, the worst of then were unceremoniously removed from my mouth!  I am embarrassed to report that the oral surgeon removed....(gulp)....FOUR (!!) of them yesterday.  Yes, four....sigh.  One wisdom tooth and three molars.  I have only one molar left and it is an upper molar, not much good for chewing!  All the other molars and wisdom teeth are gone.

Now some will be replaced with a partial, but until that happens there is nothing left to chew with!  Goodbye steak and other meats!.  So long crunchy things!  Only soft, mushy, and liquids will be allowed.  I think I will be hungry!

It's all because I have very soft teeth.  It doesn't  take much for another cavity to appear.  And as some of the fillings have been around for a long time, they are vulnerable as well and most have been replaced until there is more filling than tooth.  Let me tell you it sucks swamp water!

Just so you know, I have been fairly diligent about taking care of my teeth. Really!  Nevertheless, I haven't always been consistently diligent.  So there are times when I get really tired of flossing and brushing and rinsing and cleanings and fillings and crowns and all the rest.  After more than 60 years of on-going concerns,  now I pay the price! As I just got them out yesterday, I am still suffering the effects of the anesthesia and the painkillers, so yesterday I was really groggy and sleepy and although I wasn't in agony, I did have significant discomfort.  So I spent most of the day and night sleeping!

Today I'm still kind of bleary-eyed and it hurts and I'm hungry so I get to have some more ramen noodles which seem to go down easily without much chewing.  And still no driving because I'm so groggy.  A second day wasted.  Great.....right!?

Coincidentally, my niece is just about to graduate from dental school, so we'll have our very own dentist in the family!  We're very proud of her, but  uhhhh....shhhh!  Don't anybody tell her that her aunt has the worst teeth in the world, OK???  It's embarrassing!

"It Ain't Right!'

Bit by bit the woman I am has been disappearing!  Just sort of fading away without my noticing it.  First, it was my hair.  Under cover of peroxide it was surreptitiously losing all color of it's own!   It left me with a mix of grey and white.  Well, okay, that turned out just fine, surprising the heck out of me.  Thank goodness (and Gram) I have always had a lot of hair....it's fine, but there is a LOT of it!  But lately with the changing hair, I'm getting more hair loss (for lack of a better term) than usual.  It's not at all critical, but I really don't want to end up with really thin hair!!


In addition to the hair thing, gravity has been playing havoc with my face!  I used to have a nice firm jawline.  That's gone.  Now instead of a crisp edge my chin (or should I say chins!)  has become a bumpy slide right into my neck.  It's not so bad, I guess but it is very aging.


My upper eyelids have decided to let go of their position and I can see and feel them settling in on top of the lower part of the lid.  Makes me look half asleep, for heaven's sake. 


In general, my cheeks look a bit like a bunch of small waves cascading down my face.  Don't like that much either.


Well all of that is part of normal "maturing"  (read:  aging!) and is directly related to the pull of gravity (or is it the push of gravity??  I get confused!)  Nothing much we can do about gravity.  I mean, it's kind of necessary, so we don't all fly off into the vacuum of space!!


However, lately there are two new changes going on that I just don't get!  My eyebrows and eye lashes have taken up disappearing!  I've never  had a preponderance of either, but there was enough to actually see with the naked eye!!  Not so much anymore!  If I put a little mascara on my lashes, you can see what's left, and it helps define where my eyes are (you know, whatever is not hiding under the sagging lids!)  The eyebrows are thinning out a lot and about half of what is left has come in white so they are virtually invisible unless I recreate them with pencil.


And the most annoying thing?  My lips are gone!  Where the hell did they go???  I used to have normal lips, with a pretty decent shape.  When I did the make-up thing, they were kind of pretty and they suited me.  BUT NOW????  When my mouth is closed (which in actuality, isn't all that often!), the lips sort of roll in toward the center and I am left with what looks like a crease!  I don't want a crease!  I want lips!!  Real honest to goodness lips!  A crease is what you iron into your slacks, it doesn't belong on your face!  


"It ain't right"!!  That really should not be our reward for managing to stay alive beyond 55!  Nope, it ain't right at all!


There are options of course, both surgical and cosmetic, that could "fix" all of this.  I might consider going that route, if it weren't for the fact that every single person I have ever seen who has had a facelift, or collagen, or botox, or any such thing, ends up looking like a freak!  I mean, really!  May I just mention Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers for your consideration??  Both of them are well over 70 and they look terrifying because of all the "work" they have had done.  I guess, there's a reason they call it "Plastic Surgery".


Celebrities are notorious for trying to stay "Young" by lifting, coloring, injecting, or other things.  What they end up looking like is an unreal, blubbery lipped, expressionless, Halloween mask!  I'm surprised they don't scare small children.  They don't look "young", they look scary!


Sooooo, I am not going to explore that avenue one bit further!  My face may be disappearing bit by bit, but least I still look like a human being, not an alien!  Of course, who knows what will disappear, droop, sag, or move next??


Nevertheless, if you happen to find my lips laying around somewhere, would you please get them back to me???  I kinda miss them a lot!

"I'll Be Seeing You"

Some time back I wrote about my dismay at discovering I had catarracts.  Well, my dismay is growing because it seemed as though the dumb things are getting worse!  The vision in my left eye is seriously blurry, especially for distance (as in driving!), with glasses, without glasses, makes no difference.  So I went back to the eye doctor and she did the exam, and the bright light (!) picture thing, and showed me the comparison between my last visit and now.  The damn thing doubled in size!  In less than a year!  

So I asked what my options were and basically what it boiled down to is that there's really only one.... eye surgery!   Holy Crap!  I've got to let somebody poke little knives INTO my eye, let them pull out the lens COMPLETELY, and replace it with a new lens.  Knives into my eye???  Oh, and the kicker?  I get to be awake while they do it!!!  Are they nuts?  Do they truly expect me to just sit there and let them mess around with my EYE?  One of only two eyes I've got??  And they expect me not to freak out?????  Obviously, they do not know me at all.  The very idea of sticking a contact lens in my eye always makes me shudder and they want to use KNIVES??

So being a coward of the first order, I asked what happens if I don't get it fixed?  She told me the blurriness would continue to increase until I lost vision in that eye completely!  Oh great, now there's an option!  I can do nothing and wait to go blind or I can have the surgery and risk losing my eyesight NOW!

Cripes, what a choice!

Of course, I'll have the procedure.  I am not willing to lose the ability to SEE.  After its done, "I'll be seeing you" a lot better than I can now!  At least that's the plan....

Soooo, fellow bloggers, anybody out there who's already gone through this?  Is it as awful as I expect?  Does it hurt??  Tell me your experience.  (Actually, I'm hoping it will reassure me!)  I'm going to see the surgeon for the preliminary exam etc. next Wednesday.  Don't know the doctor, but my doctor told me he wasn't a particularly warm and fuzzy kind of guy, but he was a great surgeon.  Well, I guess if I had to choose, I'd go with great surgeon too....but it sure would be great to have someone who would coddle me just a bit at the same time.

What do I need to ask?  I've never known anyone who went through this so I really don't even know what to ask!  So I need your help, pretty please?  And maybe somebody to come hold my hand.....