Appointments Galore and a Realization

I finally sent out all of our Christmas cards today - yay!! I usually try to get them out a bit earlier than this, but last week was a little hairy... Ben had his stitches, but then he pulled out 2 of the stitches 2 days later, so we had to take him back to the doctor... It all ended up fine, the gash had already healed enough that he didn't need to have it restitched thank goodness. Then Nina had a well-child visit last Friday, which turned into a sick-child visit because we found out she had an ear infection and her reactive airway coughiness was acting up again so no immunizations for her, but back on the nebulizer and Xopenex she went. We have to take her back into the doctor this week when she gets better for her immunizations. And on top of that I had a dentist visit, I had to have 2 fillings which I was happy were not root canals because the cavities were apparently really deep - I've never had a root canal, but they don't sound fun. Oh, and then I had to take Ben back to the doctor today to have the last stitch removed and Adrian has his dentist visit for fillings on Wednesday. I am so sick of doctors, dentists, co-pays, and especially waiting rooms at the moment. I really think I just need to expect a couple of doctors visits a week for the next few months and then when we have a non-sick week it can be a pleasant surprise.:)

Oh, I have to write about a realization that struck me while I was waiting for my dentist appointment. I AM OLD. Let me explain. I was listening to the Eclipse audio-book on my i-Pod so I must have been in a teenage sensitive frame of mind (the main character in that book is full of teen drama) when I noticed this... There was a young woman there waiting for her appointment for a filling with her boyfriend - I'm guessing they were maybe 17? and he had to have skipped school to take her to the dentist appointment. Anyways, they were very teenage mushy-ish, holding hands as she talked about how frightened she was of having this filling done. I thought they were very cute actually, kinda like Lloyd Dobler and Diane Court sitting on the plane in the last scene of Say Anything. Cute. Then she and I were called back at the same time to see different dentists and the boyfriend asked if he could come hold her hand during the filling. They said yes and we all pretty much walked back together with the dental assistant - me to a cubical right next to the mushy teenagers.

I had my fillings done trying to block out the whole experience by listening to Eclipse turned up very loud. I have a huge dentist phobia and have totally looked into sedation dentistry, but haven't found a practice that does that within our DMO and I'm sure that's pretty expensive without insurance. My dentist is really nice and everything, but there is just something to me about the sound and vibration of the drill that is nerve-racking. So after I finish up with my fillings and half of my face is completely numb (I could not actually feel the i-Pod headphone in my ear anymore, but I knew it was there cause I could still hear Bella ranting :)) and I'm all shaky from being stressed out, who do I see come out of the cubical next to mine, but the mushy teenagers. He held her hand and talked to the front desk person and paid her copay for her and led her carefully out the door. Then it's my turn and I'm still all shaky as I write my check and try in vain to make my mouth work to answer the simple receptionist's questions like "Can you tell me your check number?" I couldn't make my mouth form the numbers to save my life!:) Okay, so at this point the teenagers weren't quite so cute anymore... They were completely annoying because I was totally jealous!:) I remember being young... I had a high school boyfriend when I was that age who would have doted on me like that and I know that when we just met Adrian would have been just as cute with me and put all teenage boyfriends to shame with his thoughtfulness... But now I'm old. I'm a mom. And I just don't have time or the need (even though I was a bit jealous:)) for that level of mushiness anymore. There's no way that Adrian could come with me to a simple filling appointment no matter how phobic I am because that would mean some serious child care arrangements and taking off time from work etc. etc. You just suck it up and take care of things.

So it was at the dentist office that I truly came to the realization that I'm old. Oh well, there are a lot of benefits to being old having left that season of teenagerhood behind long ago. And believe me I would never want to be 17 again - high school sucked - but every once in a while wouldn't it be nice to feel like the world revolved around you for just a moment like it felt when you were 17?? Maybe that's part of why I love those darn Twilight books so much!:)