Update On My Life

Some of you realize that I have had weeks where I missed posting an entry. There were days when I was so busy with other things that I would forget to post. And then there were other days when the energy had just disappeared.

This week was a little bit different. It goes without being said that having a long weekend can sometimes throw your daily schedule off for part of the following week. Well, that happened to me this week. I have not been sleeping well lately, but I am hoping that over the next week or two, it will be rectified.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the Orofacial Clinic in St John’s. I had been to my dentist in early July as I was having some pain in my gum and it was also swollen. After an x-ray and some poking around, I was informed that it looked like one of my teeth had a fractured root. I was going to be sent to a specialist in St John’s who deals with root canals. It was going to be a six- to eight-month wait to get in to see him.

About a week or two later, I noticed something strange. After the antibiotics were completed, the swelling was gone but there seemed to be a white line in my gum. I didn’t do anything about it then, but within a week, it was starting to break through the gum. I did a quick visit to the dentist and, it turned out that the fractured root had decided that it didn’t want to stay in place and wanted to see the world. It had actually cut through the gum. The visit to the previous specialist was no longer the option. Instead, I was sent to the Orofacial Clinic to have the tooth and root fragments extracted.

This visit happened on Thursday of this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready to go and still forgot to take some of the paperwork with me. My husband had to go with me as I was in no condition to be doing any driving on Thursday. We left to arrive in St John’s early enough to go see the Star Trek movie that is currently playing at the show. Then we checked into the Comfort Inn on Airport Drive. I chose this one because it is very close to the clinic. Unfortunately, I did not set my alarm properly and woke up about twenty minutes late. We still made it in time and we got lost along the way.

I was put right under because I made sure that I didn’t get enough sleep so that I would have no problem going to sleep. Apparently, the procedure only took about ten minutes. I was woken up about 9:16. My appointment started at 8:00 am after I filled out the prerequisite paperwork. We were sent on our way by 10 am.

I had a couple of places that I wanted to go to since we were in St John’s. One of them was the Maritime History Archives at Memorial University. I had sent them a list of ships’ records that I wanted to get a copy of. This was our first stop. We had the work done by 11:45. From there, we went to the library of the Newfoundland Family History Society. I asked some pertinent questions regarding cemeteries and found that my best option would be to join the society and I would be able to do what I needed to do to start that particular research at home in comfort.

From there, I had wanted to make a stop at the Family History Library and the St John’s Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to see what records they have and a quick trip to Avalon Mall to get the hand soap that I like. I decided that I had done enough and needed to start for home instead. I still hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before and the freezing was coming out and the pain was starting.

We decided to see about filling the prescription for the pain killer and the mouth rinse that were prescribed. We went into a branch of the pharmacy that I deal with in Gander, but I would have had to fill out the paperwork again and didn’t have the insurance information with me, so I decided that I could wait until we got back to Gander.

We tried a restaurant in Paradise but they didn’t have anything that I could eat. We then tried a pub about five minutes away, but they didn’t serve any food. So we drove down the highway about an hour, when I told Gordon that I needed a stop. Within five minutes we came across a gas station with a restaurant called Monty’s Restaurant. They were quite happy to give me what I wanted. I needed soft food and asked for scrambled eggs, with soft toast, and a bowl of seafood chowder. The chowder was fantastic.

I slept most of the way home, but the road is under construction right now and my sleep was not very good. I honestly thought that I didn’t sleep very much, that it was more of a doze. When I went to bed last night, I had trouble going to sleep. The first stop that we did when we reached Gander was to fill my prescriptions, of which I took the first dosage of painkiller when we arrived at home.

Today, I was able to function more normally, and did some of the things that I needed to accomplish today. I am at a point that I think that I will be getting a better night’s sleep tonight.

In a sense, I am happy that I have been able to complete the entries for the trip to Ireland, but now I am betwixt and between what I want to write about now. I will find something soon as soon as my head clears a bit more. I know. I want to rant about having to fill out more forms for the chain of stores where I already frequent one. More of this next time.

Have a good weekend.

Final Entry – Field Trip, April 2016

Well, I am home again. I arrived about mid afternoon, this afternoon. I really didn’t have enough time to write a blog post yesterday. I thought that I might have enough time as I was supposed to have about six hours between arriving in Toronto and leaving Toronto for St John’s. However, the plane that we travelled back to Toronto from Ireland was very late in arriving in Dublin. We were supposed to leave shortly after 12:00 pm Dublin time but it was well after 2:00 pm before we were able to.

Once we arrived in Toronto, we had to go through Customs and Immigration. Customs has installed scanners to scan our declaration paperwork as soon as we disembark and it gets checked right after we go through Immigration. Before we can pick up our baggage, it gets checked again. Then we have to collect our baggage, then go through Customs where it gets turned in. If we have a connecting flight, we then have to go to the check-in counter for the airline that you are flying with and check your luggage in again. You then have to go through the security check point again.

You know, it would be nice if Customs got their act in gear and allow the baggage that has to be transferred to go directly over to the connecting flight. This system that they have set up has your paperwork being checked about three times with the luggage being there only once. If there is a possible problem, they could easily contact the traveller before the flight leaves and pull that suitcase or let the next airport know that the suitcase has to be checked. It would save a lot of grief and frustration on the part of travellers.

I mentioned earlier that I should have had about six hours between flights yesterday. I ended up with much less time as the flight travelling from Toronto to Dublin was delayed as I mentioned. When we finally were able to board the plane, we were advised that the tail winds were quite good and that we should be able to arrive in St John’s ahead of schedule. Then we were delayed because the plane was waiting for two travellers.

I was hoping to get some sleep on the flight from Dublin to Toronto, but that did not happen. I knew that we would have an opportunity to have something to eat not too long after take-off, so I forced myself to stay awake. I did not want to be woken up or miss the meal as I was beginning to be hungry. After eating, I waited a bit of time, and then tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t. However, I was able to sleep for about a half hour on the flight to St John’s. We arrived in St John’s about 1:40 am this morning. Because I was in a window seat, I had to wait until my seat mate was able to leave. I still had to get my carry ons down and I let everyone that I would have held up go before I tried to get them down. Because I was the last on the plane, the steward lifted my carry on down. As I headed to the exit, I passed the pilot on the way and the three of us walked together to the luggage retrieval area together. There, my husband was waiting for me. I was so happy that he was there when the plane landed instead of me having to wait for him.

Once I retrieved my large suitcase, we headed for the car and drove to the Comfort Inn, Airport, in St John’s where my husband had already checked in. I had made the reservation before going to Ireland. I was very glad that I had thought about this. I was asleep about three minutes after my head hit the pillow and wasn’t up for the day until about 8:45 this morning.

We missed the continental breakfast, but I was okay with that as I knew that I needed the sleep more. After checking out, we went to Tim Horton’s for breakfast, then headed for home. I was able to stay away for about half of the travel time and then fell asleep again.

Once we were home, the cats insisted on a very thorough greeting. Even Angel insisted that I make a fuss of her and she usually just tolerates me. After all, I do feed her and clean the litter, and apparently, my head scratches are totally acceptable.

After the greetings from the two cats, I headed upstairs and proceeded to fill up my laundry hamper. It’s laundry day tomorrow and I will have a full load. After all, I was gone for more than two weeks and I only wore two shirts twice. The rest were only worn once while away. On the other hand, I did wash the underwear halfway through the trip.

I spent the rest of the day trying to finish the unpacking and going through the mail. It was mostly household bills. I was able to pretty much stay within my budget. I knew that I would have to use a credit card for some of it, but I was able to keep it at the minimum.

Well, my trip to Ireland is completed and I am back to look for a job, fill my church responsibilities, and work on my family history and blog until the next trip which will be for five days in Ontario for a wedding. I have already booked the flights for that trip. But more of that at a later date. Please watch for future posts where I fill in more details about each of the visits that we made in Ireland.