But sometimes writing is just what you need.

No, no, no.  See, with cancer one ALWAYS gets sympathy, but with things like the tooth problems you describe below, you don't get enough.  And yet things like tooth trouble and sinus trouble are WORSE, because they affect everything you do, like breathing, eating, drinking, thinking, etc.   I don't think your troubles are trivial at all.  And to be sick in the middle of all the work you're doing and the financial trouble you're having, and you haven't killed anyone yet! Don't think I haven't thought about it. My God, you are Superman.

Absolutely.  I'm not the patient today.  I'm feeling fine, just got back from swimming a mile (!)(slowly)(Yes, I am mermaid, hear me roar!), and am doing laundry.  Of course, I have chemo Tuesday and Wednesday, so I won't be feeling this fine this time next week, but it's great now.  

How can this be?  I thought one did a root canal to clean out an abscess.  You must be in very bad shape, immune-system-wise.  Very tired, etc.?  I thought so.  Tsk tsk tsk.

Tired yes, possibly having a cold was relevant.  We'll see what the experts say tomorrow. 

How did it go?

Got the expected antibiotics.  Didn't think the cold was relevant. Interesting story about the antibiotics, he says don't drink alcohol.  Oh, is the side effect interesting? Well, if you think stomach cramps are interesting.  Apparently when this drug (Metronidazole) was tested they discovered this side effect, isolated the metabolite that was causing it and marketed it as a drug for alcohol dependency.

The root canal was for structural purposes not infection.  I break teeth fairly regularly, something to do with a deep bite.

And the U.K. doesn't fluoridate its water, does it?

Yes it does in most areas that don't have natural fluoride.

Wow!  What areas have natural fluoride? 

I suppose those where the water runs through fluorspar deposits.  This would be in lead mining areas such as Cornwall and parts of North Yorkshire, I guess not a million miles from your beloved Richmond. 

Ahh. One of the reasons I think people love Austin, Texas so much (they're loving it to death, by the way) is that there is naturally occuring lithium in the water table there. 

 I recall this being the argument when the politicans discussed fluoridating water, that they were not experimenting with the nations water supply, they were merely bringing the levels up in 'deficient' areas (even my geology textbook uses that phrase) because statistics showed better teeth and no other problems in areas where fluoride was naturally high.  I don't think they actually named the areas, although I think Cornwall was mentioned.  Of course there were and still are those who complain that the nation is being poisoned. 

Oh, heavens, yes.  I can't remember if I told you, but the island of Lana'i is scheduled to have the first fluoridation in the state of Hawaii.  They've been fluoridating the water on the military bases in Hawaii for years, and of course nothing has happened, but the twinkle-fairy-ding-dong-California-woo-hoo people are just all up in arms about it.  It makes me tired.  I wrote several letters to the paper a couple of years ago when we were discussing it; the ridiculous other people's letters have been appearing again (I read the online edition of the Star Bulletin) and I'm wondering if I should jump back into the fray.  I just get so TIRED of it all.

This one had been filled long ago, had developed decay under the filling and shattered like an eggshell on a cherry stone.  My dentists favourite solution is to bore and peg. The Creator in his infinite wisdom left a convenient hole down the centre of the tooth to allow steel reinforcing bars to be added in later life.  Isn't that handy? All one has to do is discard the rather pointless nerve which normally lives there. This is my third or fourth, at least one is holding up a crown.  In this case the clean out had been done, and the peg was fitted on Monday.  The pain became apparent on Friday and has been getting slowly worse  There is inflammation around the jaw line under the operated tooth.  That to me sounds like a root infection picked up with the insertion.

Yup, sorry to have doubted you.

Dentist agrees with diagnosis.

God, how utterly awful.  I am a wuss and refuse to go to the dentist when my nose is stuffed up.  How did you breathe?

By then I wasn't stuffed up, but had a sore throat.  My colds always seem to do go through these phases, starts with sore sinus, then bunged up and runny nose, then sore throat, inflamed vocal chords and finally bronchial cough which fades away.  The bunged up phase usually passes after a couple of days, but the cough can take months.

Huh.  Mine are sore throat first, runny nose, stuffed up nose, post-nasal drip, cough, bronchitis, more cough.  How interesting.  I wonder if that's just how our bodies react or if we have different rhinoviruses circulating among our different populations.

I think its me, not the virus, because when a virus goes around it doesn't affect everyone else exactly like that, although other features are the same.  The general downward drift is the same though, so I think it is just a matter of sensitivity in particular areas.  I was always sensitive in the sinus area, I can detect car exhaust fumes that way before carbon monoxide becomes a danger.

Could be.  I had three or four episodes of strep throat a year before my tonsils came out; after that, I have had it once a year or so.  So it makes sense that my throat is my weak point.  May I be gross for a minute?  Warning:  possible more information than you ever wanted coming up.
Imagine my mortification when, in my wild post-divorce pre-taking AIDS serious days, I went in for a throat culture, expecting strep throat.  Two days later, instead of the strep phone call, I got an embarrassed phone call telling me it was gonorrhea!  Ack!  He didn't ask, and I didn't tell.  I just took my penicillin and insisted on raincoats forever after.

I wouldn't know anything about that (being British).

Oh, come on, I just read a stupid book by Harry Secombe (sp?) about his early days in vaudeville, copyright 1972, and it was FILTHY.  Not only sex but also potty humor.  Yeah, the Brits and their rectitude.  

Anyway, at the dentist's I mostly have my mouth open, so breathing isn't a problem.

Here the dentists all use dental dams.  It's a latex square that clamps onto the tooth in question, and then clamps on to one's lips, too.  It's part of universal precautions for HIV control.  So, as latex is difficult
to breathe through, one must have a functional nose.

Wow. Never seen one of those.  They just wear rubber gloves here.

I think we're a little more paranoid here.  Ask your dentist about it; he's probably at least seen pictures of them, and could tell you about them.  I will.  He's gone on holiday now he's given me the antibiotics, so it'll be
a few weeks.  Not to get nasty again, but that's what we handed out to lesbians for safe sex in Hawaii, when I was working with prostitutes.  I always called them "dentaldams," all one word, and was surprised when a dentist actually used one on me for the purpose intended!

But why would they want to do that with a new facility?  Surely their financing people won't let them do that.

They would if they came into agreement with the general consensus that their business plan is shit and won't fly.  They might decide that it is costing too much and to continue would be to throw good money after bad.  Mind you it takes a pretty hard businessman to make that sort of decision, to admit he was wrong and he just trashed the capital.  It is more usual to carry on until the inevitable happens and then try to find someone to blame for it.
I don't think these guys are that hard, that experienced or that humble. The risk is I might find myself cast as scapegoat, they might see my winding-up threat as a way of getting out of an increasingly embarrassing situation and being able to blame someone else to the financiers; bullshit but I could imagine someone trying it.  But yes, someone else has to lose more than I do.  Anyway I don't have to carry it through if they won't pay, it's supposed to be mostly bluff, a shot across the bows, so maybe I'd just have to change tack and go through the regular slow channels of sueing and getting the bailiffs in, and hoping no-one else liquidates them in the meantime.  That takes at least three months whereas a Statutory Demand only takes three weeks and generally scares the shit out of a trading company. At least it brought them back to negotiation.  Well, that's good.  If I have to go the slow way I've still got to deal with the cashflow problem and I'm still broke for over three months. Hmm.  Well, I'm hoping for Pennies from Heaven.

I have a lot of frequent-flyer miles.  Shall I come over there for a couple of weeks, cook weird American food for y'all, and use my threatening American accent and direct American manners to call your customers and batter them about the head and neck?  That's what my job was on Midway.  (The calling people, not the cooking part.) 

Do you really want to?  I don't need anyone to be ruder than I am, but it would be nice to see you and you would be welcome.  I guess you've got to get through this chemo first.  We ought to explore that idea.

Well, yes, I would really like to come help, but who knows when I'll be done with chemo.  Besides, you know the saying about fish and visitors and when they start to smell. 
However, 'twon't be soon.  For several reasons.  First off, I can't find my passport.  That's good for a few minutes of panic -- my papers are not in order!  What could have happened to it?  I seriously wonder if David might not have snitched or hidden it for some paranoid reason but don't wish to go into that. The other reason we may wish to hold off for a while is that I know how children's minds work, having been one.  I don't want Natasha to get the idea that all ladies have breast cancer.  I should wait until I have more hair, at least.  I can fake the boob part.

Hmm, yes I thought about that.  She knows plenty of other ladies who don't, so I don't think its really a problem, but I know what you mean.

What I'm an expert at is faultfinding control systems.  I have an exceptional talent for empathising with machines.  So when a machine breaks down I go to the factory, sit and talk to the machine a bit then point to where the trouble is.  Then, if there is no-one else around I can order to do it, I have to get my tools out and get dirty and fix it.  I do it with software too sometimes.  Quite often I do it over the phone, but then I don't get paid for it, unless I can tack the time onto another bill, or it was a big enough job to be worth raising an invoice.

Ah.

Probably not, but it is quite legal to ask them to work outside school hours and to be upset if they take days off because they have a sick child, or just because the school closed unexpectedly due to snow in Hull or something.  It is theoretically possible to be a single parent in regular employment, and some do it, but it means more or less handing Natasha over to professional minders five days a week, including school holidays.  I don't think Cindy could handle that much work, and it would probably mean different people for different parts of the day, and frequent changes of staff.  I really don't think that is good for the child and I wouldn't do it unless there was really no choice.

I don't think it is a problem, as long as there is consistency.  I think children like a bit of hustle and bustle and new faces during the day, as long as they are new and familiar faces and there is time for a nap in the
afternoon.
Well, I'm off to go to overnight chemo tomorrow.  I'm making banana bread for them this time.  To make really effective banana bread, one needs to allow the bananas to get thoroughly brown, and David doesn't believe that.  He thinks they've rotted.  He just has no clue... I'll just have to give him a slice, still warm and heavily buttered, tomorrow morning.  That will change his mind.

I don't think heavily buttered banana bread is a path to fitness!

Well, I didn't eat it, she said virtuously.  I have given up preaching to the husband, and now just cook what ever makes him happy.