Well, I've been to the dentist and she says I have 2 basic options with my broken tooth - extract or crown. The problem is that the tooth basically consists of filling now, so putting a crown on it may not be the best idea, leaving extraction as the realistic option.
There's always a "but" however - if the dentist does it, the tooth is likely to break up when she gets the forceps round it and it may be that the (3) roots don't come out cleanly, which might mean a subsequent operation by an oral surgeon. Alternatively, I could just bypass the dentist and go straight to the oral surgeon. If I did that, there would be no point in using the NHS - the waiting list is apparently endless - so it would be an expensive private job.
The upshot is that I've made an appointment next Thursday to have the dentist remove it. It's my upper right 7th and I still have a lower right 7th which would then have nothing to oppose it, meaning it would grow steadily out of my gum. Apparently teeth grow quickly when unopposed - as much as 1 mm. per month.
No other startling news today, but I did notice a link on the Allen Valleys Folk Festival Facebook page which was a trailer filmed when we were there last month. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uXGzmQhPXs and scroll forward to 2:26 and 2:32 to see us in the audience to see Michael Chapman.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Wednesday woes
Can't keep medical stories out of my blog just now. Last night, we were at the fund-raising dinner for Banchory Sports Village at the Marcliffe. The meal itself had huge portions, topped by dessert, which was a massive brandy basket with 2 large balls of ice cream inside.
Most of our table couldn't finish the brandy basket, but I munched my way through it - and now I wish I hadn't. Ageing receding gums mean that bits of food often get stuck between my teeth and I thought this had happened again, and I must have spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to remove the offending morsel with my tongue. Eventually, something gave way - relief! Whoops - what's this? It's a chunk of rotten tooth:
Horrible, isn't it? So today I phoned my dentist and I'm going to see her tomorrow afternoon - presumably to remove what's left of the tooth.
Much better medical news is that Gary has got his appointment through quickly for his heart scan - he goes along on Monday afternoon.
Nothing much else to report today.
Most of our table couldn't finish the brandy basket, but I munched my way through it - and now I wish I hadn't. Ageing receding gums mean that bits of food often get stuck between my teeth and I thought this had happened again, and I must have spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to remove the offending morsel with my tongue. Eventually, something gave way - relief! Whoops - what's this? It's a chunk of rotten tooth:
 |
| Outside |
 |
| Inside |
Much better medical news is that Gary has got his appointment through quickly for his heart scan - he goes along on Monday afternoon.
Nothing much else to report today.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Monday's medical news
It's the end of another of my long weekends and I've just returned from seeing my GP to get the results of my fasting glucose blood test on Friday. It wasn't good news - the reading was 6.2, and although this was lower than the non-fasting test (6.7), it was of sufficient concern to my GP that he has arranged for me to go back for an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) a week on Thursday (13th).
This will be a session where they give a prescribed level of glucose orally and you have to sit there for 2 hours, doing nothing other than read. They expect to see a parabola of an initial spike, followed by a reasonably sharp reduction in the glucose level. If it's a long, slow reduction, that's not good news - I may be pre-diabetic.
Any kind of diabetic diagnosis would obviously mean a change in lifestyle - particularly diet - and also means a marked increase in my stroke risk factors, affecting the blood thinning medication I would have to take, which was the very reason I underwent these blood tests first of all.
I was disappointed, of course, and I then checked my previous annual health screen results, the last of which was in June, 2013, when my glucose level was at its lowest ever reading of 4.3. The recommended range is from 4.2 to 6.1, so my latest reading is only just outside that, and my health screen last year was right at the lowest level. I'm told you become diabetic at 7.1. Go figure.
Looking on the bright side, Lucy finally got her results today and she's had the all-clear - that's a great relief - she's been worried sick. She still has to go back in 3 months to check again, but it's a very positive sign.
Enough of all that medical stuff. We had a lovely time at the Kilgours on Saturday night, but we struggle nowadays when we get home after midnight, and, for me, that was the second night in a row. I still managed golf on Sunday morning but Sunday afternoon was a lazy one - even more so for Jo, who had a couple of hours' kip. We went to bed reasonably early, but had to watch the latest episode of Homeland first of all, of course. Great series.
Before we went out on Saturday night, we had a discussion about the external porcelain/pottery/china lightshade that Jo had recently discovered languishing in our loft, having been there for a couple of decades. It was bought when we were on holiday in Portugal. There was an existing nail on the wall on our porch and I used that to hang it, but Jo was nervous about it not being properly secured - a gust of wind could bring it down and it would shatter. "But it's been in the loft for over 20 years - what would it matter?", says I. Unsurprisingly, I got little sympathy for this remark. Anyway, it's now survived a couple of nights and hopefully it'll last a bit longer. Here it is:
This morning, the surveyor was due at 9 am to look at our various roof leaks - nothing major, we think, but some work is required. I was just about to shower and get dressed when I looked out the window and there was the D & D van arriving - and it wasn't even 8:15 am! We had to do a bit of scurrying around, but we coped OK in the end and he was finished his review well before 9 am - just before the rain came on. We await his estimates with interest.
This afternoon, I went for a bike ride - I thought it would just be me and Archie, but a bunch of others in our cycling group showed up, so 8 of us eventually set off to Drum. Nice scones and a bit of exercise on what turned out to be a glorious afternoon.
Tomorrow night we're off to the Marcliffe for the big fund-raising dinner for the planned new Banchory Sports Village (http://www.banchorysportsvillage.co.uk/). Jo's picking up Luca as usual but she's bringing him back here for tea instead of taking him home to Inverurie, and Gary will pick him up from here before we have to leave at 6:30 pm.
What else is on this week? On Friday, I go back to Albyn to see my knee surgeon, and then we have a Headbang in the evening. On Saturday, it's the do for Lucy Bannatyne's 21st - still not sure yet whether we're going or not.
This will be a session where they give a prescribed level of glucose orally and you have to sit there for 2 hours, doing nothing other than read. They expect to see a parabola of an initial spike, followed by a reasonably sharp reduction in the glucose level. If it's a long, slow reduction, that's not good news - I may be pre-diabetic.
Any kind of diabetic diagnosis would obviously mean a change in lifestyle - particularly diet - and also means a marked increase in my stroke risk factors, affecting the blood thinning medication I would have to take, which was the very reason I underwent these blood tests first of all.
I was disappointed, of course, and I then checked my previous annual health screen results, the last of which was in June, 2013, when my glucose level was at its lowest ever reading of 4.3. The recommended range is from 4.2 to 6.1, so my latest reading is only just outside that, and my health screen last year was right at the lowest level. I'm told you become diabetic at 7.1. Go figure.
Looking on the bright side, Lucy finally got her results today and she's had the all-clear - that's a great relief - she's been worried sick. She still has to go back in 3 months to check again, but it's a very positive sign.
Enough of all that medical stuff. We had a lovely time at the Kilgours on Saturday night, but we struggle nowadays when we get home after midnight, and, for me, that was the second night in a row. I still managed golf on Sunday morning but Sunday afternoon was a lazy one - even more so for Jo, who had a couple of hours' kip. We went to bed reasonably early, but had to watch the latest episode of Homeland first of all, of course. Great series.
Before we went out on Saturday night, we had a discussion about the external porcelain/pottery/china lightshade that Jo had recently discovered languishing in our loft, having been there for a couple of decades. It was bought when we were on holiday in Portugal. There was an existing nail on the wall on our porch and I used that to hang it, but Jo was nervous about it not being properly secured - a gust of wind could bring it down and it would shatter. "But it's been in the loft for over 20 years - what would it matter?", says I. Unsurprisingly, I got little sympathy for this remark. Anyway, it's now survived a couple of nights and hopefully it'll last a bit longer. Here it is:
This morning, the surveyor was due at 9 am to look at our various roof leaks - nothing major, we think, but some work is required. I was just about to shower and get dressed when I looked out the window and there was the D & D van arriving - and it wasn't even 8:15 am! We had to do a bit of scurrying around, but we coped OK in the end and he was finished his review well before 9 am - just before the rain came on. We await his estimates with interest.
This afternoon, I went for a bike ride - I thought it would just be me and Archie, but a bunch of others in our cycling group showed up, so 8 of us eventually set off to Drum. Nice scones and a bit of exercise on what turned out to be a glorious afternoon.
Tomorrow night we're off to the Marcliffe for the big fund-raising dinner for the planned new Banchory Sports Village (http://www.banchorysportsvillage.co.uk/). Jo's picking up Luca as usual but she's bringing him back here for tea instead of taking him home to Inverurie, and Gary will pick him up from here before we have to leave at 6:30 pm.
What else is on this week? On Friday, I go back to Albyn to see my knee surgeon, and then we have a Headbang in the evening. On Saturday, it's the do for Lucy Bannatyne's 21st - still not sure yet whether we're going or not.
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