First You Fly to Lima; Later You Clean the House

Yup, today was the first Big Cleaning Day since we got home from S. America. Our 2 wonderful cleaning ladies did their thing while I did mine. Result: a clean house! Hardly a loose cat fur or hair or whisker anywhere to be seen. Oh glory!

No, I haven't called the oral surgeon. I don't want to. The tooth is feeling better today. Fine most of the time, in fact. Mostly, I'm in denial. Sure, I've always wanted to go to Egypt and see the pyramids.... Why do you ask?

Flying to Lima. Now that was a trip. Plane was to leave San Francisco for Lima at 1:00 p.m. on a Saturday, thus getting us into our cozy Lima hotel bed by, oh, say, about 1:00 a.m. Sunday. It was me and Randy, and another couple in our tour group. We were the last 4 people scheduled to arrive in Lima. Randy and I had arrived in San Francisco the night before so we wouldn't have to get up before dawn or risk getting stuck in some traffic snarl somewhere. When we got to the LAN counter, we discovered that the flight had been delayed by 4 hours, leaving at 5:00 p.m., thus guaranteeing that we would arrive in Lima with time for a cup of coffee before our first full tour day. Swell.

LAN managed to add plenty of insult to the injury. We stood in line at the check-in counter, on those lovely, soft terrazzo floors, for 3 hours. No explanation. No comfort or aid of any kind offered. Three solid hours standing on concrete. At which point we were forced to check our carry-on luggage. We had both very carefully packed to ensure that we could carry-on our bags to Lima. And now they were taken from us. Too heavy the bitch, oops, employee at the counter said. Can I tell you how many "too heavy" carry-on bags other passengers carried onto the plane??? Lots. ... Lots. I was in a lovely mood when we finally boarded and took off. I hate LAN. A month later, by the way, I still hate LAN.

The flight was long and sucky as these things usually are. Jam packed. We 4 were so happy to see our driver in Lima, ready to pick us up and deliver us to our hotel. God bless him, where ever he is. It was just about sunrise then. We did manage to get an hour or so of sleep before that cup of coffee before -- hello! -- it was time to get on the bus and start the tour! The thrill of discovery kept us going and we survived. And thrived.

Now? Here and now? I still have to put clean sheets on the bed. More tomorrow.

Tooth #14

Apparently there is some call for The Return of the Blog. Mostly because of our recent trip to Peru and Bolivia, but I'll pretend it's all about ME. So first you have to listen to me talk about ME.

For the first time in many weeks I actually cooked (sort of) last night. My favorite. Oven roasted veggies. Parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes and yellow beets (in my eternal efforts to sneak beets past Randy's lips). Accompanied by sliced cheese, crackers (including the last Argentinian sesame crackers purchased in La Paz), and a new product--homemade sopressa sausage made by the Paso Robles Buon Tavola Restaurant. This is a new venture for them. The stuff is obnoxiously expensive, even purchased at the Templeton Farmers Market. A true "artisanal" food. But oh so good.

Now, about the damned tooth. Tooth #14. (Apparently teeth no longer have names, just numbers.) Same tooth that underwent a miserable, painful root canal nearly 2 months ago. You know, when I first felt a twinge in the upper left jaw, my immediate thought was, "cracked tooth -- it'll have to come out." Keep this mind as you learn the rest of the story.

So, local dentist did a root canal on the tooth, trying to save it, since no crack was immediately evident in the X-rays. It was a "challenging" procedure for both dentist and patient. Hurt like hell for some time afterwards, but I took cipro and vicodin and the whole thing was starting to settle down by the time we left.

However, apparently (according to all dentists concerned), the long flight to Lima and subsequent move to high altitudes (over 10,000') in Cusco, did me in. I now have a lovely dentist in Cusco, Peru. Her name is Jenny. Jenny took the top off the temporary cap and cleaned out a nasty, nasty infection. More cipro. More vicodin. The infection cleared up, but low-level pain persisted as did gum tissue that wouldn't quite heal.

I already had an appointment with my general dentist for the Monday after Thanksgiving. He listened to my long story, checked things out. Took yet another X-ray. And declared that the root was probably cracked and would probably have to come out. So now it's off to the oral surgeon for further evaluation and most probable extraction. Which is what I said in the first place if you've actually read this far.

I was just about in tears last night. I had another failed root canal due to a crack that didn't show up in the X-rays a couple years ago. The extraction occurred on an emergency basis in the dentist's office on a Saturday morning. I was in so much pain. The extraction was gruesome, from my point of view. When the novocaine (or whatever it is they use these days; personally, I would recommend direct injections of vodka) wore off, I thought I was going to die. Worst pain ever up to that point in my life. I just curled up on the bed in a fetal position and prayed to pass out, which I eventually did. It took a few days to recover just from the pain. There wasn't enough vicodin in the world. I do NOT want to go through that again, but it looks like I have no choice. Ignorance was bliss that other time. I am neither ignorant nor blissful this time.

As you can see, Tooth #14 was a major player in my experience of Peru and Bolivia. As was the cold-turned-into-bronchitis that I caught from Randy who caught it from the flight to Lima. As was the nasty case of the turistas that struck my gastro-intestinal system right after the Farewell Dinner in La Paz. I spent our last day there in bed with a fever.

Other than that, the trip was wonderful and I'm delighted, if still somewhat tired, to be back home. Stay tuned for further installments. I'll try to write every day.