Edit: pics aren’t showing up, must fix this... sometime before I die.
I love New Year's Day because I tend to love the magic of new beginnings. I love a clean slate and the possibilities it offers, so I always have a carefully listed and numbered set of goals to achieve. This year, however, I forewent my beloved list because I had one main idea to tackle: fix your body and improve your health. This was not mesurable or goal-oriented, which kind of threw me off balance, but it has been my mantra for quite a few months. In the back of my mind I titled 2017 as "The Year Of Better Health," which has led me to check off several to-do's that I'd been putting off for ages. They are as follows:
1. I kicked off 2017 by getting LASIK Eye Surgery along with my brother Chris. It was unplanned, spur of the moment, and made 100% possible because of Chris. [His entire life is rather "unplanned and spur-of-the-moment"] I received a text from him saying "I'm getting LASIK next week!" and well... that got the ball rolling. Our entire conversation sounded very much like "Hey, I'm getting a drink, would you like one too?" "Sure, I'll take a drink, thanks!" (You can substitute drink with the word LASIK). He also proved to be my benefactor, because, of course, eye surgery cost was more than the usual pocket-chage amount I have available on any given day. And he allowed me to pay him back without hurry or interest. What a nice guy. (For the curious, LASIK in the U.S. with good insurance: $3,000. LASIK in Mexico at a moment's notice: $1,400)
So let me just say that the experience was TERRIFYING. The whole procedure only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was the most horrifying 20 minutes of my life. Every instict yells at you "BLINK! CLOSE YOUR EYES! MOVE AWAY!" and you have to just sit there and let a bright lazer burn off the messed-up part of you eye, and you can smell it. You can smell frying eyeball. And you lay there on purpose. It is also necessary to go blind for a couple of minutes while it's happening. *shivers*
Wewh, so glad that's never happening again. Big risks reap high rewards sometimes, and this was certainly the case here. I have worn glasses since I was 12, and contacts since I was 15, and they've been a royal pain in the butt the entire time. Even now, almost a whole year later, I lay in bed every night and thank my lucky stars that I don't have to get up to take my contacts off. I am grateful every single day for the gift of sight, and for the advancement of science which made it possible.
2. Fast-forward a few months to the most dreaded part of the Year Of Better Health: It was time to get my wisdom teeth pulled. Now, I know most people get these pulled before getting braces, or sometime in the teenage years, but #1, I'd never had health insurance until a couple of years after mariage and #2, I'm a huge cry baby when it comes to dental stuff. I haven't had a very good dental history (I blame the no health insurance issue) and for the past several years (as in, 5+ years) I've complained about my wisdom teeth hurting. The bottom 2 were fully impacted (see picture for reference) and were pushing against the rest of my teeth, which hurt plus screwed up anything my braces had fixed. I opted to be fully sedated, because duh, who wants to be awake while big, fat, gloved fingers are drilling away breaking stuff in there?
I knew I'd feel absolutely nothing during the procedure (I was 100% asleep) but I was really really not looking forward to the chipmunk-cheecks swelling I'd have the next day. I have fat cheecks because, well, I have fat everything, and I didn't want to imagine how much fatter they'd look after the surgery. Way to go, Mr. Oral Surgeon, because I had very little swelling, and thanks to the generous supply of hydrocodone, very little pain as well. Even now I still doubt he removed the two top ones because I had almost no bleeding (I pulled out unstained, saliva-soaked bandages) and absolutely no pain or swelling up there. The bottom two are a different story. Bye bye blood clots, because I got dry socket on those. I had these huge holes big enough to fit my pinky in, and Chris swears he could see my jawbone. They took forever to heal, and during those weeks either my mom or Chris had to syringe-pressure-wash them out after every meal (yeah, it was gross, now I will never doubt their love). Bless their hearts. Thanks guys.
I really have had zero dental issues since then. I've opted to get my teeth cleaned every 4 months instead of the recommended 6 (idk, I guess I'm trying to make up for all those times I skipped the dentist in the past?) and well... nothing to report. Finally no pain. Brush and floss guys.
3. Do you know what the "W" position of sitting on the ground is? See picture for reference, thats my adorable son who sits just like me. Last "big thing" to take care of during the Year of Better Health was this weird noise halfway between clicking and popping that my right knee made every time I extended it. It wasn't painful, just odd, like that noise shouldn't be there. It had been there, doing its thing for several years, and I would have probably just left it alone for the rest of my life, until one day it just became painful, and the next day more painful, and the next and the next until I couldn't walk right and my entire leg would swell up, mostly above the knee. I had a stash of leftover hydrocodone from getting my teeth pulled, and I popped those suckers like candy because the pain was so bad. Philip even had to come home from Louisiana during the middle of one week to take care of me. I finally dragged myself to an orthopedic surgeon, who sent me to get an MRI, and... turns out my meniscus was torn.
I always thought the pain was worse at night because I'd been walking/running/crawling/climbing around after my toddler all day, but I learned that easy movement was better for it. So when I lay still trying to sleep at night, it would swell and the pain increase.
Guess what the fix was? A steroid shot. In my knee. I used to be a big crybaby about needles, and then during pregnancy I got poked so often it just dissipated into nothing, but I swear, I would have run out of that ortho's office had my leg been in a functioning condition. I was scared but trying to play it cool, plus I'd left my brother behind with a napping Emmett in the car, so I didn't want to make them wait too long. That shot was the easiest thing ever! And seconds after it was over lady ortho made me hop off the exam table. Hop off onto both feet! It worked that quickly! It was slightly painful, like it hadn't taken full effect yet, but I marched right out of that office and have been walking fine ever since. It was an awkward walk, I'd been limping for almost a month and it's like I forgot how to walk properly.
And so that concludes any imporant-ish health issues I fixed in 2017. There's more things I need to address, mainly headache-related, but I've decided to call it a met resolution.
Cheers all!
-Dam.
