Tooth day

Way back in June 2011...the 22nd to be exact, I had some oral surgery to finally fix my multiple problems. One of those problems was a bad tooth that had a large pocket and decay in the bone around it.

The doctor I went to was fabulous, and since June, I've done my best to put his daughter through school.

He's patiently rebuilt the bone after removing the bad tooth and then he set the implant and I've been actively healing around all those different bits of bobs of surgery.

Today, we did the final step and they put the new ceramic tooth on the implant.

Okay, so that's not very interesting, except that I believe that there are people out there that have the same problem I did.

FEAR!

So, here's what you should know. For about 5 years, I struggled with my teeth, trying to keep them healthy, despite the fact that I'd been told that it wasn't getting any better time after time after time. I spent hours and hours caring for my teeth. And, my self image was crap because I was afraid my breath was so bad that I couldn't talk to someone at close range unless I had gum or a mint in my mouth.

And, still my FEAR kept me from doing anything about it. I'd heard horror stories of what people went through and I let those stories from others paralyze me. Finally, it reached a point where I got a bad absess.

I went to one surgeon and he made me feel worse and more hopeless about it than before.

I went back to my regular dentist and she talked me into seeing just one more guy...just to see what he had to say.

That guy, Dr Flores, spent 45 minutes with me and by the time he was done, I was so totally won over by his personality, confidence and straightforward treatment plan that I was pretty much ready to just hand him my checkbook and credit card and let him have his way.

At every step of the way, he told me what to expect. What to do if something went wrong. Provided his personal cell number and home number to call if I had any problems after office hours. Called me the evening after each of the surgeries to check on me.

He was GREAT!

So, here's the thing. If you're putting off dental work because you're afraid, don't be. Find the right doctor. Find someone that you trust and that makes you comfortable because there are pills to control pain, but there's no prescription for emotional peace of mind. And, then relax and trust them. There's going to be some pain and you'll want to control it. And, there's going to be some frustration because nothing ever goes as smoothly as you hope it will.

But, compared to what I was going through before I had the work done, that tiny bit of pain and few days of frustration are a small price to pay.

I'm proud as punch of my new ceramic tooth. I'd show you, but who wants to see a picture of the inside of my mouth??? Not even me.

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On a quilting front, I haven't done a thing but get my class samples together. This morning, I pieced and pin basted my 15" sampler quilt that we're going to work on in class. Next, I'm going to create a sample of different threads and needle sizes to pass around so everyone will be able to see how different threads look when they are used in quilting. And, on one edge, I'll show what bad tension adjustment looks like. To do that, I'm using a machine I've never quilted on before and, starting from the beginning, I'm going to set the tension, including all the settings that are "wrong" until I finally get it "right".

I finally got the greek key border all the way around the red silk quilt, but there's no filler yet. Thinking about using Leah Day's Circuit Board as the background filler to make the keys show up.

Okay, so that's it for me today. Take the N E and Y out of New York and what do you get? That's what I'm doing.

Lane