Doctor

This year was supposed to be all about taking better care of myself.  (And now that I think about it, 2011 was also supposed to be all about that, but it didn't quite happen.)  By "taking better care of myself," I mean making sure I go to see the doctor, taking care of ongoing and lingering issues, taking care of new aches and pains and stuff as they arise.  And I started the year off right, but got quickly derailed.  One of the first things I wanted to take care of was the one tooth that needs a root canal.  I would have done it last year, but I used up all of my benefit.  So my plan was to get a referral at my first cleaning of the year. About a week before that cleaning, another tooth that was going to need addressing sooner or later broke.  Luckily it was a small piece and it didn't hurt.  My dentist said because of the shape it's in, it needed a crown.  He insisted that it didn't need a root canal, but the crown itself would fix the situation.  I listened to him against my better judgement (he said the same thing about the two previous crowns I had and both ultimately needed root canals.... the root canal I mentioned needing above is for one of those teeth.)  And then it turned out his preliminary work upset the tooth so much that I was in massive pain.  So the crown was put on hold until I could get that root canal.  The whole experience was just awful.  My mouth had never been in that much pain for that long before.  And it was enough to put any other doctor visits on hold.

Well, the year is coming to a close and I'm biting the bullet and starting to do what I intended to do all year.  Today I had my teeth cleaned.  I also had an MRI done of the foot that's been bothering me.  I'm fearful that the MRI isn't going to show anything out of the ordinary.  But at least I'm addressing it.  I love that I managed to fall asleep while having this MRI done, as I've done with every other MRI I've ever had done.  I don't know how.  The machine is so loud, but I guess after a few minutes it just becomes white noise and I'm out.  

On the way home from the visits, I stopped and made an appointment to get my eyes checked.  My benefit renewed a year ago and I haven't taken advantage of it.  It's been three years since I had my eyes tested. 

I have a few other things I need to do.  I cancelled an appointment with my urologist a couple months back and haven't rescheduled that yet.  It's another follow up for my kidney stone (which happened two years ago this week!)  I haven't found the urgency in rescheduling because the last few check ups have all come out positive.  I'm sure I'm out of the woods.  I also need to schedule a physical.  I can't remember the last time I had one.  I'm getting older and it's probably not such a good idea to go so long in between.  I've worked so hard to get myself healthy.  I need to take some measures to maintain that now.

Getting old sucks.