May: Fewer Teeth, Fewer Jobs, Fewer Aches

May was unusual for me.

Teeth

I finally got my wisdom teeth out: just the ones that had come to the surface. My top teeth are still cowering in my upper jaw, which is just where I like them.

At the same time, I got my shark tooth removed (I had one tooth completely behind the row of all my other bottom teeth).

The surgery had to be rescheduled for two days later due to a family emergency. Then it had to be rescheduled again--I requested a date two weeks later, hoping the emergency would be resolved. But once again I got a call that it needed to be rescheduled.

As I said on Facebook: I have parties I want to be healed for. I have a job offer that keeps being put off. I have re-arranged my work days. I need this done while I have dental insurance. I have no solid food in the house. I have library books piled up that are going to be due. That I am not allowed to read yet because I am saving them.

Nevertheless, I tried one more time, thinking that if it worked, it would be a lot faster than starting over with a new guy. And the receptionist let on that the family emergency was a problem that required multiple appointments, and I had just been unlucky in the dates I had picked. Fortunately, the fourth time was the charm.

I had only local anesthesia, which apparently is somewhat rare and shocking these days. However, whether you go local, general, or something in between, it's not going to hurt during the surgery and it is going to hurt after surgery, so I went with the less invasive approach. After I told my oral surgeon my choice, he looked relieved and also told me that you tend to heal faster with local anesthesia. Sounded good to me.

He had already told me that my teeth did not look like they were wrapped around nerves or anything like that. Two came out easily. The right wisdom tooth took several tries but did not take terribly long to remove. I do not at all regret my decision.

There was a scary moment when my tongue was getting feeling back, but my lower jaw was still numb where I thought to myself, "this is the best I'm going to feel for a long time." As soon as I started feeling pain (a dull ache on the right side of my jaw), I took two ibuprofen, knowing that the sooner you take pain medication, the better it works and the less you need.

I knew it takes about 15 minutes for ibuprofen to take effect on me (for headaches anyway), so I decided that if the pain felt the same or worse after 15 minutes, I would take one of the scary pills (generic Vicodin laced with Tylenol). But 15 minutes later, it felt better.

So I was very lucky with my recovery, generally just taking two doses of ibuprofen a day (which I'm still doing, though I'm taking only one pill per dose now). My condolences for those of you who had it worse.

Jobs

I had been working for two colleges for a while, and one of the jobs ended, so I spent the rest of the month working only half-time for the remaining college. I like that. I really like that.

But my other half-time job ended last Thursday. There were a lot of things I hoped to get done, but at the beginning of the month it looked like many of those things were going to have to remain undone. So I worked like crazy and some things ended up taking much less time than expected (since when does that happen?), so I ended up being able to finish every one of those things plus a few other good ideas I came up with along the way. It was an excellent month at work.

I have enough money to last me until my pension kicks in, but only if I withdraw virtually all of my contributions to my Roth IRA. (You're allowed to do this with no penalty at any time, though you're not allowed to withdraw the extra part if your investments have grown.)

However, pretty much everyone but me agrees that this is a bad idea, including the people at the forums of a website for people who want to retire extremely early (in their 20s or 30s). I'd be cutting things too close and I should get my pension ASAP (the more I work, the quicker I qualify).

So I'm going to try for more half-time work, hopefully for jobs with the same pension. I've contacted two other colleges who had expressed some interest, but they have not yet gotten back to me. After my sister's visit (she and her family are coming into town from Indiana this evening for a week and a half) I will start doing normal job hunting if I haven't gotten any bites from my old colleagues.

(The job offer I referred to on Facebook was informal; the staff were going to get back to me once they had a salary to offer. But the Provost got involved, briefly, then decided not to work with me after all, but not until telling me that the college that had been about to make me an offer did not have enough funds. I have kept that college up-to-date via e-mail, but have not yet heard back from them.)

Aches

I've been having an aching heel (plantar fasciitis) and aching shoulder (strained rotator cuff) for almost a year. I tried doing physical therapy on my own, and it helped, but did not totally fix the problems. So I went to a physical therapist earlier this year for a while. I was to continue doing the exercises she left me with until I was healed.

While recovering from my wisdom tooth removal, I completely quit doing these exercises.

Now my heel doesn't hurt at all, and my shoulder hurts less. Surly it is just a coincidence that they happened to get better just at the time I quit doing the exercises. Right? So I'm going to start up the shoulder ones again soon.

Meanwhile, I walked around campus for hours on Monday with no walking stick (bringing packing materials to recycle at the local UPS, checking out library books from there while I still could, turning in all my keys, and asking about COBRA dental insurance extension), and there were no negative repercussions. I also danced Saturday night at a birthdave party (thanks, Dave! and Shari the DJ!), thinking I was probably overdoing it, but again with no negative repercussions. The heel is healed!

Still, I'm planning to go to one of those running stores to get my next pair of jogging shoes. As you age, you get less flexible, etc., and many of those lies I've heard (lift with your legs, not your back; always warm up slowly before aerobic exercise; don't wear cheap-o shoes to jog in) probably eventually become true even for lucky people like me.

I've resisted the fancy shoes before because running has not hurt my feet (or legs or knees or hips), because those shoes are pricy, and because I've read that it is recommended people with flat feet like mine wear concrete blocks shoes that offer support by not bending and not having any cushioning, which sounds uncomfortable to me. But now, in the interest of not being an idiot, I'm going to try out some good shoes.

[I'm sure you guessed at the beginning that "Fewer Aches" was a good thing, but did you guess that the other two were, too?]

New Running Shoes

Today I went to Texas Running Company (the north one) to get some running shoes that are good for my feet.

I explained all my concerns about wanting a comfy shoe that has padding and is flexible but also not wanting to injure myself.

I showed the customer service representative my old shoes with the huge wear on the outside back corners, but he focused on the wear at the balls of the feet and said it looked just about right. Weird.

He even said my totally affordable Reeboks were probably a good shoe for me. Weird.

Then he had me put on running socks and "neutral" running shoes in my size and jog on a treadmill for 30 seconds. Then he played back a video of my feet and lower legs in slow motion so we could see what the situation was.

I did not look like a dork at all. Weird.

Also, my left foot landed perfectly and my right foot had only a very slight pronation. (And my right foot was the one with the plantar fasciitis.) Interesting.

So I tried on six pairs of shoes with very mild support for people with pronation. One was too tight in front and too loose in the middle, several had uncomfortable lumps (arch supports) in various places, but two felt good.

He said one had slightly more flexibility and the other had slightly more padding. He had me put one on each foot and see which one I liked best. (They have a long rug you can try out running on. Fun! I miss running.)

And the winner was the hot pink ones with black and silver trim. Specifically, I ended up with Brooks PureFlow2 in my usual size, in "divapink/blck/anthrcte/slvr/wh" for $100 + tax.

I knew I would end up with ugly shoes, but of all the day-glo colors, pink is my favorite, and I am also pleased that pink, black, and silver do not clash with each other. And some of the silver bits look reflective, which is a good idea. I plan to use them only for jogging, so they don't have to look good for work or parties (or even going to the gym).

According to Brooks' website, they also come in mostly purple, mostly black, and mostly black with pea green instead of silver. Also, here are the features:

Like peanut butter and jelly or water and energy gels, the lightweight construction and lush cushioning of the PureFlow 2 are a perfect match. The key to blending the two is engineering comfort features in a lean way like a shaped BioMoGo DNA midsole that gives your feet a cushy feel without added materials. It's a match your feet will hunger for.

Just like our core line, we hold PureProject to the industry’s highest weartest and durability standards. Because of their lightweight construction and fewer materials, runners should generally expect shoes from the PureProject line to last approximately 250-300 miles.

Also, the writing on the box says that the box is 100% recycled and recyclable.

Well, that went much better than expected. When they wear out, I wonder if I'll go back to Reeboks. I'll use just my new shoes for a while, then try going back and forth between them and my Reeboks to see what I think.