I'm Back

Sorry I haven't written much lately. I've had a bad toothache. I went in this summer for a check-up. I didn't have any cavities, but I did need some repair work done on a tooth to try to prevent a future need for a root canal. It wasn't bothering me, so I didn't have the work done right away, plus I needed to save up the money for it since we don't have dental insurance.

I finally had that work done a couple weeks ago. Teeth are miserable things! My tooth didn't bother me before, but I sure was in a lot of pain after. Several days later, I returned to the dentist and he decided that the procedure had actually made things worse and I likely needed a root canal now. I wanted to go with the "wait and see" approach since I didn't have money for a root canal anyway, but he hated to see me in so much pain and said his partner would do the procedure for me and I could pay it off in installments.

Our check-ups this summer were the first visits we had made to a dentist here and when we went, half of us saw one partner and half saw the other. The other dentist is from Colombia, so we had Jon Felipe see him. He was so pleased that we had adopted JF and emphasized that a person with JF's physical struggles would have no future in Colombia. It was so amazing to us to find someone who grew up in Colombia working as a dentist here in northwest Iowa. How cool is that!

Anyway, this other dentist has only done a few root canals, although not on molars, which is what I needed done, but he was willing to do it for me. Amazingly he was even willing to do the procedure for free! So, I went to see him last week. The ache is getting better so we explored whether I really need a root canal or not. The decision: likely not. Yeah!

Apparently that particular tooth is hard to numb and so when they try to inject the Novocaine, they have to slide the needle between the muscle and the bone in the hinge of the jaw. Sometimes they pierce the muscle and, because the muscle is so thin in that spot, it causes a great deal of pain. Sometimes they also end up piercing the nerve. It appears that both occurred, which would explain why my jaw ached, why it was painful to try to open my mouth, and why it felt like my jaw had been paralyzed on that side. He also told me that it usually takes at least 6 weeks to repair itself.

So, I'm cancelling my root canal appointment and enjoying the fact that the pain is definitely receding. It is amazing to me how much being in pain like that can affect your ability to function. I felt like it was hard to even focus on a simple task. For my friends who deal with chronic pain, you are amazing! I am so grateful not to be facing that kind of pain any longer.

Views From The Porch

As it appears that our lovely fall weather is coming to an end, I thought I'd share some of the views from our front porch. I love seeing all the bales in the fields. These are the ones in the field across the street from our place.

Jon Felipe is very into trucks and plans to be a trucker when he grows up. Our neighbor "drives truck" as they say around here and this is his truck. The other day, he let JF ride along when he drove the truck across town to park it. He even let him honk the horn. Jon Felipe is still talking about the experience.

Colin's Birthday

We had a lovely weekend celebrating Colin's 22nd birthday. Dwight and I took him out for lunch yesterday. Today (his actual birthday) we made pizza for dinner and watched a family movie. He chose apple cobbler with real whipped cream rather than a cake and it was very yummy. We enjoyed getting to spend so much time with our first-born this weekend.

Birthday Pictures

Wow. Jon Felipe is now 10! He had completely planned out months ago what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday. This included having George and Regina and their family over, having a Sponge Bob cake, and having Sponge Bob plates and noise makers. His birthday was on Friday, but there was so much going on this past weekend that we decided to get together on Sunday after church instead. We all had a good time and Jon Felipe totally enjoyed his party.

Wordless Wednesday - Pumpkins

Pumpkin Carving

We had fun carving our pumpkins Saturday afternoon.

Jon Felipe got a remote control car for his birthday and he was having entirely too much fun playing with it to stop and carve pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago, Dwight took Luke and Jon Felipe out to the pumpkin patch on Dordt's farm to pick out some pumpkins. It was one of many, many beautiful fall days we have had this year. The guys came home with eight pumpkins, six of which we carved this past Saturday.