So,last Friday, I had dental surgery to remove my upper teeth and snip my frenum. If you don’t know what a frenum is, it’s the little piece of connective tissue that keeps your upper lip down. Mine was in the way of the denture I was getting. I was completely out during the surgery, but when I awoke I got the best surprise. The denture was already in my mouth. They handed me a mirror and I saw myself with a smile that I didn’t hate for the first time in my life! Unfortunately, it took a few days for the swelling of my face and upper lip to go away, but I was taking pictures anyway.

The above shot was taken just after I got home from surgery, so that’s why you can see some blood. I have to say I’m impressed with the denture as this is only the first of two I’m getting. The second one will be more natural looking. It’s not just the frenum that got snipped, I also got a new haircut.

My phone seems to straighten my smile unlike my tablet. So this was taken mere minutes ago, with a lot less swelling and blood. I’ll be living happily for the next 6 months with this temporary denture and then I will get the permanent one. Don’t worry, those of you who were squeamish over the picture of me holding my just extracted tooth, there will be no pictures taken of me without the denture in.

So here I am, the 3rd generation of my family to have false teeth, but everything else is real and spectacular.

If you ask your dentist for a tooth cleaning , the hygienist will clean your teeth which means you’ll leave the office in good mood, unable to keep your tongue off of your sparkling teeth.

If you ask your dentist for a tooth cleansing, a dentist, or, more likely, an oral surgeon will remove some of your teeth and you will leave the office in pain. And you’ll be in pain for a couple of weeks, unable to keep your tongue off of the new holes in your head. And also unable to keep the part of the movie Poltergeist, when the old woman says this house is cleansed out of your head. Although you’ll likely be thinking, this mouth is cleansed.

I am officially 54 years old. Went to a wonderful dinner with my husband and parents. And this was the picture of my side of the table.

The meal was terrific, it’s just too bad that it occurred before my dental surgery. I was really hoping to have my makeover done before the birthday, but it’s one last before shot. I’m sure it seems to you that I’m whining over nothing but I’ve been living with a hole in my smile for over a year now, and the wait is less than a month away. I’ve never liked my goofy smile and to finally get it tended to is literally a life long dream come true. Even the dental professionals I’m working with( a dentist, an oral surgeon and a denturist ) have all said how excited they are to see the finished product. Although the finished product won’t happen for about 7 months, I will be fitted with a temporary plate next month. I have all the faith in the world in my denturist’s abilities. He’s done some fantastic work and I’m already vibrating with anticipation and excitement.

It’s been a while. The good news is that things are about to change in a good way. In just over a month, I will finally have a great smile. After more than a year with missing teeth, I’m getting my upper teeth taken out and havng a denture put in. A few weeks later, once the pain, swelling and bruises are gone I will be vlogging on this site . My eyes are still having trouble with the typing and the reading, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still have opinions that I’ll need to vent. Hang in there through this last period of silence because things are going to get interesting. .. very interesting indeed.

The final episodes of the big bang theory left me feeling so disappointed. Not because the show was ending, but because of a tiny, little thing that was added.

Apparently, women don’t have the right not to change their minds.

It started with Bernadette. Years ago on an episode where Howard was performing his magic for some kids birthday party and Bernadette assisted. After the party, Bernadette tells Howard that she doesn’t like kids, having help raise her siblings, to which Howard responds by telling her that he would happily stay home with any children they have like an enlightened man. So the writers got Bernadette pregnant, not once, but twice and back to back.

On the last episode it was revealed that Penny is pregnant. For 12 years, we’ve heard Penny say things like she doesn’t want to ruin her body with kids. Then, even when Leonard is asked to provide sperm to a barren couple, Penny reiterated that it wouldn’t be fair of her to say no, because she doesn’t want kids. Then all of the sudden she’s pregnant and we’re supposed to buy that she’s just fine having a baby?

There exist many women, like myself who, for whatever reason, chose not to have children and stuck with their decision.

It may be a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, but with the big decisions it doesn’t happen frequently.

Were there no women in the writer’s room, Mr Lorre? Rhetorical question, I know there weren’t.

I need to cut myself some slack.

Three celebrities about who’s health I’ve blogged ( Luke Perry, Emilia Clarke and Mick Jagger each had something life threatening that I’ve had except I’ve had all three things happen and had them all in the same time frame. The order for me was massive stroke, open heart bypass surgery 3 weeks later, and 6 cerebral aneurysms currently growing in my brain that were a delayed response to the stroke, 3 years later.

I’m way too hard on myself. I’ve been telling myself that I have such a long way to go with my recovery, never seeing how far I’ve come. Until those 3 posts made me realize my own strength of body and of mind. Today marks week 3 of exercising 4 days a week 45 minutes each day and I ended the day by chastising myself because I could only climb and decend 21 steps and I had planned to add 7 steps, but I just couldn’t do it.

I’ve never been an athlete. I’m not training for anything. There’s no practicing dance routines. No deadline exists, that I’m aware of. But here I am, obsessing over not being able to add 7 bloody steps. Oh I will be trying to add those steps tomorrow, but if I lack the required stamina again, instead of self admonishment I vow to try my very best to let it go.

I’ve been waiting and worrying over any news of recent heart valve replacement surgery. Every time I clicked on another article that quotes from Mick Jagger’s twitter account, that I, of course, follow and check each morning. This morning the most recent tweet finally changed to this.

“Thank you everyone for all your messages of support. I’m feeling much better now and on the mend- and also a huge thank you to all the hospital staff for doing a superb job ”

At last I could exhale. My heart could relax. This was the news about the health of a celebrity about whom I care. And he was having heart surgery, something I know about, first hand. But, lucky for him he was having minimally invasive heart surgery.

The surgery I underwent was maximally invasive, involving cracking open my sternum and cutting a hole in my heart big enough to remove a large tumor, then patching the hole with an actual patch ( guaranteed to last 100 years ) 💯. My zipper scar is long and is proof of my strength.

I still think of the scar as a sexy line that enhances my ample cleavage. Ironically, it’s mostly women commenting on it.

While I’m a little sad that we won’t have a scar in common, I’m more than thrilled if a wee bit jealous that his recovery will be quick and relatively pain free.

Note to Jagger, you’ll be playing with the kids and grandkids and the boys in the band in no time. 😉

Who would have thought that this is the guy in the band who doesn’t have the bum ticker.