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Several weeks ago, I had a place on my upper gum that got all swollen and sore.  It got pretty big over a few days, and I thought I had likely gotten something lodged up under the gum and picked at it.  The swelling went down and away and I figured I must have dislodged whatever was in there.  Then, early last week, the swelling and soreness came back!  Since it was in the same spot, I figured it might be something to be concerned about and I went to the dentist on Wednesday.

When the doc came in the room, I said, "Hey doc!  You know, I'm turning 60 this year and I feel like I'm falling apart!  I need a hip replacement, I have a lipoma I need to have removed, and now THIS!" and I laughed.  He said, "You're getting a hip replacement?  Who's doing it?"  I told him I wasn't sure because I can't get my damn doc's office to call me back, so I'm considering another guy.  He said, "You should go see Dr. Jana - he did my brother's and both of mine.  He's by far the best hip and knee doctor in Omaha!"  Well, believe it or not, this is the doctor whose name and phone number I had JUST gotten from my work-friend, Sharon!!  I had been complaining to her about how this Dr. Hartman wants me to lose 25 lbs. but now I'm stuck and can't seem to lose anymore weight.  She said he did her knee without insisting she lose weight, and she's heavier than I am.  So his recommendation solidified my decision to go in another direction.  I figured this was a big arrow from the universe pointing me in the direction I need to go, so I made an appointment with Dr. Jana.  Unfortunately, he's so popular/busy, I can't see him until June 4th.  (YIKES!)  That means it'll be mid-summer before I get it replaced.  I hate that, but I feel like it's all working out how it's supposed to, so I won't make a fuss about that...

Ok, so back to the abscess... the doc gave me a shot of novocaine  (YIKES again!)... the first time I've had one of those in about 30 years!  I am a total weenie when it comes to needles, so I was a nervous wreck when he gave me the shot - he assured me he was really good at it and that I'd barely feel it.  And you know what?  He was right!  He put a little deadener on my gum first and I didn't feel a thing.  Then he poked and messed with the abscess for awhile - there was quite a bit of blood on my bib when he was done, so I was really worried it would be super-sore when the novocaine wore off.  The dental tech who had tried to take xrays had told me that usually an abscess indicates a dead or dying tooth and usually ends up in either a root canal or an extraction, so I was pretty nervous about that, too!  I have all but my two upper wisdom teeth and they're all in great condition.  I had one filling back when I was about 20 and that's it...the only other things I've had done is I wore a retainer for a couple years to fix a space between my two front teeth and had veneers put on those two as they seemed to want to get little chips...  Anyway, he tested the tooth and said the tooth is fine.  There just must've been something in or under the gum that caused the abscess.  Whew!!  He put me on antibiotics and off I went.  Thankfully, it really wasn't that sore a few hours later...

BUT, another positive thing that came out of this was that as the antibiotics started to work, I started to have all this gunky drainage from my sinuses.  Apparently, I've had a sinus infection brewing for some time and the antibiotics seem to be making headway with that as well.  So out of what seemed like a negative thing came these two positive things!  Isn't it funny how sometimes you look back and think "if not for this thing happening that seems like a bad thing, I wouldn't have done this or been led down this path"... 

Next up...  My plants.  I need to start talking about them and try to get back my enthusiasm.  I've been living vicariously (plant-wise) through Marco for the last several months.  He's got the perfect environment and they do so well for him!  He sends me lots of photos, which is a curse and a blessing... The curse part is that it makes me envious that no matter how hard I try, I will never get mine to grow and flower like he can!  (Unless I want to make a 1500 mile move, LOL!)  Of course, the blessing part is that I love perusing the photos, and I'm so, so happy for him that he has this great hobby to fill his time.  (If you read this, Marco, don't stop sending the photos!  I enjoy them all!)  But my point is that I need to try to regain my enthusiasm for MY plants before I lose more of them!  Since it looks like it'll be another summer with this hip, it's hard to look forward to taking care of too many plants, but I guess we'll see where it all ends up...

H. cardiophylla hangs in my bedroom, and it's got a nice new vine with baby leaves forming:

Today, I took down my H. macgillivrayii that hangs in the spare bedroom and it had a glob of scale on one stem!  I mean, where do they come from?  I've had that one hanging there for some years and never had scale on any of them in that room, and suddenly, there they are!  How weird... And it was strange that they were all congregated on one stem at the top of the plant - I couldn't find another single one anywhere.  So I treated it with BATS...

What a dreary day it is!  We started out with a thunderstorm at about 7:30 or 8:00 and it's been misty and overcast since then.  I know we need the moisture, but I'm sick of all the dreary days.  We need a stretch of sunny days!

Well, more later...