posts tagged with 'medical care'
had the new jab
Leah and I got our first covid vaccine shot yesterday. I had expected challenges in getting an appointment—challenges that Leah would face, since she does the communicating with medical professionals in this household—but as it happened her parents' health care place had tons of vaccines to give out, so we got in just about two weeks after Leah first thought to look. And the appointment was really quick and easy too. Plus the shot hardly hurt a bit! Although it did make Leah feel a little sick, and leave us both with sore arms today. We got the Moderna vaccine, so we have to wait a month for our second dose; then we'll all vaccinated on June 10th. Pretty good!
(The title from this post is a reference to a song on Youtube by the Marsh Family: it's really good, you should check it out if by some remote chance you haven't heard it already.)
there's gold in them thar teeth
Well, I guess it's not gold any more... resin or something. Whatever it is, they use UV light that comes out of a little gun to make it dry, which necessitates the patient's wearing a set of orange-tinted rock-star shades not unlike the pair Bono one affected. Perhaps he still does, I don't know. He was in Somerville yesterday, we hear, but I didn't have time to stop by and see him. In any case, what I mean is that I got some fillings this afternoon, fillings for cavities that have been developing for at least three years since they were first discovered way back when I worked in Newton (the last time I had dental insurance)—if not longer, of course!
It was all very impressive and even fascinating—the part that didn't hurt, that is, and even that was pretty cool. (The pain didn't last long and they were suitably apologetic). I don't mind dentists at all, as long as they're doing stuff to my mouth and not preaching about dental hygiene and whatever. Two cleanings a year?! You know that's just to give them a reliable income stream, right? And I wouldn't even complain about that if it weren't for the off-putting quackery that attends some of their other advertised services, such as orthodontia and teeth-whitening. That's where the money is, and when socialized medicine comes in both those useless, built-on-artificially-induced-social-phobias procedures will not be picked up by the government tab. And good riddance! It'll be just like England, and we'll all have good English teeth.
super-strength? er, not so much...
Rascal is on steroids this week, part of our ongoing effort to stop him from incessantly biting at his tale. So far the medication seems to being doing its job reasonably well, but I had assumed that there would be, you know, some evidence of increased strength or better-than-usual speed in our little pup. It's steroids, right?! No such luck, however (although I suppose I'm glad he isn't any faster than he is regularly, which is plenty fast thank you very much). Instead, he's just been drinking alot more and—a natural consequence—peeing a great deal more as well.
Now, they warned us that that would be a side effect we could expect, but man! I never would have imagined the effect those tiny little pills could have. Poor Rascal has to go out at least every two hours, and if we delay at all in letting him out when he makes his request he's almost visibly hopping from foot to foot (to foot to foot) with the effort of being a Good Dog in the house.
On the plus side, though, when he does get outside there's no more wandering about aimlessly before getting down to business. Nope, he goes right at it as soon as he can, and his relief is all too clear.
We wonder if he notices the difference, or if it's all the same to him.