It is very late

but I thought I'd take a few minutes to catch up with my blogging. Yesterday I had my first appointment at Aspen Dental here in Lexington, and I was quite impressed. They were very professional and seemed to really be on top of things. I hadn't been to the dentist for awhile, and things were not all that good. But we came up with a plan which will be less expensive and better for me in the long run. It does mean I'll have some oral surgery next month, as well as two crowns put on and partial dentures top and bottom. I guess my years of diet soda drinking have contributed to the problem. But even as a child I had trouble with my teeth no matter what I did to make things work okay. So in a way, I'm surprised I've gotten this far without complete dentures. Fortunately changing to the dental maintenance organisation, which is cheaper but has fewer in-network dentists, was a good move, because it has a richer range of benefits and will pay more than my old PPO plan (same insurance, just different types of plans). For the remainder we financed the dental work with one of those credit cards that work only for medical, dental, vision, and veterinary expenses. However, once I pay this off, I'll have it to use in case I need it, which is good with my insurance future in doubt once the hospital moves and I no longer have a library job.

Tonight I:

1. Picked up a friend from work
2. Helped make a lovely meal of black-eyed pea soup, mushroom and egg cooked in ramekins with a water bath, and a great salad of spinach, toasted walnuts, oranges, onion, and cucumber
3. Ate said meal
4. Watched 'American Horror Story: Coven', which only gets better as it goes along, and this had Stevie Nicks on it
5. Got paid (Yay!)
6. Got some things from the store for a friend and myself
7. Came home and will crash soon

Tomorrow I need to:

1. Take some library books and a CD to the library
2. Pick up some books on hold there
3. Get gas--my light is on
4. Shelve new journals
5. Request payment for several invoices that come due at the beginning of the year at work
6. Do the regular things at work
7. Watch 'The Big Bang Theory'
8. Work on a couple of book reviews
9. Work on the game notes

Okay, I can barely hold my eyes open. Good night!

Wow

This morning when I tested my blood sugar, it was 230. Then I took the glipizide that Dr Nesbitt prescribed along with my other meds. I just took my blood sugar again before dinner and it's 105. That's within normal range. It's been a long time since I was actually testing normal.

I also went to the dentist today to start the process of getting a crown. They had to do a filling on the tooth behind it and then work on the tooth to be crowned, take impressions, and put a temporary crown on. The impressions will go to a lab and in about three weeks I go back and get the real one put on. It took a couple of hours. This is the first time I've met the new dentist, and I liked him, although I had to be vigilant about the latex gloves (he finally put the box of nitrile ones on top of the latex so he'd remember) and I'd forgotten to tell them I was allergic to Lortab, so he had to re-write me a prescription for Darvocet. The crowned tooth was broken and a piece came out from deep in the gums, so he thought I might need it--although normally I'm pretty good with that kind of pain. (Really intense shooting pain, I'm not so good at.) It was about $340, so thank goodness for flexible spending accounts, although they do break things down in payments for people. The next appointment to get the crown on should take about 15-30 minutes and I'd only have to pay any residual that the insurance won't. But they're supposed to pay 80% for fillings and 50% for crowns, so I should be okay. The nice thing is I could go ahead and eat dinner immediately, since I don't have too much time between work. I just can't have anything really chewy.

Oh, I found out today that in March I'm going to get a 4% raise at the hospital. That translates to nearly $.75 an hour or about $75 net extra a pay period if I did the math right. Yay!

What else? Oh, about a week ago I joined a book club and when I received the confirmation, I realised they'd truncated my apartment number and the books had been shipped to another address. I left a note for the resident at the other apartment and he called me and told me he'd let me know when they come in. Woo-hoo.