Rant #1,767: The Rain, the Cruise and Other Things

Yes, with all the worry we had--much of it created by the media, just looking for latest weather-directed panic attack--we did go on our cruise, in full, and the only thing we didn't do was leave Miami on time. But I am not going to cry about an hour or so's lateness.

it is always good to get away from it all, and cruises generally allow you to do that.

However, as you know, this time, Hurricane Matthew stood in our way, or so we thought.

While incredible doom and gloom was presented by the national media which focused on southern Florida, what happened is that the northern part of the state got socked--Daytona, Jacksonville--while the southern part of the state got lots of rain and wind and some flooding.

The Carolinas were also hit pretty hard, but all the computer models said that southern Florida was going to get creamed. They didn't, or at least not to the extent that they were supposed to get hit, and I guess that these warnings had to be made because of the information that the weather people had, which said that Miami was going to get it.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, and then went on the ground to Miami, we saw very few remnants of what might have been. There were still big, puffy clouds in the sky, some puddles, but little else to alert us northerners that the south was supposed to have gotten saturated by Matthew.

That is not to minimize the devastation other areas felt, but for us, we basically dodged a very large bullet.

We ended up going to every port we were supposed to go to, and the weather at each port was amazing, in the 80s to the low 90s and terrific beach weather.

St. Maarten was particularly stunning, and even though the people can be very pushy there, certainly our time at the beach there was among the most fun times we spent on the cruise.

We also ate at the Hard Rock Cafe there, and really enjoyed the atmosphere at this restaurant, which was maybe one quarter the size of any Hard Rock we have been to.

The cruise basically ran out of steam during the last two days, which were sea days. There is only so much swimming one can do before one gets bored, and with my son under the weather and me hurting from ear to ear with my teeth, it got to be a grind after a while, and I can say that my family was pretty happy to come home.

That was the first part of my personal adventure of the past two weeks, and the second part was not that great, not that great at all.

As many of you know, I was slated for surgery to rid myself of a bothersome wisdom tooth, a problem that my regular dentist completely missed and for which I had to go to two other doctors to ascertain.

I made the surgery appointment for the very next day after our return, because I originally took it off, anyway, and I just wanted to get the procedure done.

Little did I know what I was in for, although I found out while in the surgeon's office before the surgery what I might have to go through on Monday morning.

I was told that based on the various scans and x-rays that they did prior to the surgery, there was a possibility that the entire wisdom tooth would not be removable.

It seems that wisdom teeth are to be removed when a person is a teenager or in the early 20s at the long end. The reason is that complications can set in after that age, making the tooth almost impossible to be removed in full in some cases.

One of the problems that I had was that because of my age--59 years old--and the position of the tooth, compounded by an infection that I had in my mouth, the surgeon could not guarantee that he could remove the entire tooth.

So, what the surgeon predicted came out to be reality.

The wisdom tooth, over time, had melded with my jawbone, making it nearly impossible to extract without upsetting nerves in my mouth, so I had only the crown of the tooth removed. This is called a "coronectomy," so only the top of the tooth was removed, and there remains the bottom of the tooth in my mouth.

The surgeon said that while my case "was the worst he has ever seen," I can live with this condition, but the surgery went from being a half hour procedure to one taking about 90 minutes.

The procedure was done, I was given specifics of how to handle this situation which I am following to the letter, and yes, I suffered on day one and am still suffering a few days into this and through my first day back at work, which was yesterday. I actually had to take off some extra time due to the severity of the procedure, so instead of going back on Tuesday, I went back on Thursday, actually a day earlier than the doctor signed me off on.

It is very sensitive on the side where the procedure was done, and it might be for some time. I will be eating on the right side of the mouth for the foreseeable future, even though that side is also sensitive, as I need to get a permanent crown put on a back tooth on that side. I have to wait for that to happen next month, and the whole situation is not a good one.

But I will make it. If I could make it through Korea and the Caribbean with my mouth killing me just about the entire time, I can make it now, now that the worst part may be behind me (I hope).

And yes, I am glad to be home, party because it puts me one step closer to finding a new dentist.

All of this should have been taken care of months ago, but it was neglected by my dentist, who I have no feeling of confidence for right now.

Let him put in my crown and I will be on my way (yes, I already paid for it, so I am stuck).

Anyway, good to be home, and I will be returning to write this blog regularly on Monday.

And yes, as I said, it is good to be back.