When it was decided to go ahead with the root canal, I had to move to another operating room within the office, one that had the necessary tools. In the time it took to make the move, the local anesthesia he had administered apparently wore off, and we didn’t realise this until he started drilling. I won’t be forgetting that moment for a while.

I have to return on Friday to finish the procedure and get another filling, and I’ll have a few more appointments over the next couple of months. I’m quite annoyed that I need to have so much work done. I thought I was fine when I was going in. I brush and floss twice a day, and didn’t have any pain at all, but I have been avoiding dentist appointments for years now. I’ll be making my regular cleaning appointments after this, though, as I’d rather not have to go through all of this again any time soon.

What’s even more fun is my work’s dental plan is terrible, so the root canal isn’t covered. Two surprises in one day – lucky me!

The new office seems fairly nice, and the staff are very friendly. The sort of friendly you usually only see when there’s some sick, dark secret lurking behind the scenes. Like Kathy Bates in Misery friendly.

It seems like everyone in town is sick lately, and my dentist had lost his voice. Not enough to stop him talking, but enough to make him sound like Michael Jackson, which would have been creepy even without the nitrous oxide in the room.

It turns out I have a few cavities, and one might need a root canal. Apparently, even though I floss once or twice a day, I suck at it and haven’t been hitting a few spots. He says when I come in for my cleaning, he’s going to have the dental hygienist give me a refresher course in flossing, which is nice and embarrassing. I have visions of sitting in a lineup with several eight year olds, being walked through the steps, in a Billy Madison situation.

Also, I still have all of my wisdom teeth, and the dentist wants to pull out two of them. Maybe I’ll have him pull them all and live off of tofu and ice cream for the rest of my life, avoiding future trips to the dentist altogether.

During the examination, the dentist said, “you have a high pain tolerance – that’s fantastic”. This worries me a little.

I go in for my first appointment next Tuesday. I’ll find out once I’m in the chair whether or not I’ll need the root canal. Hopefully it can be avoided.

The first day of riding nearly killed me, as my legs just weren’t used to it at all. After three days, the trip is already immensely easier, and I’m actually really enjoying myself. It’s nice to get a little bit of exercise before and after work, and I’ve had a lot more energy overall this week. With the traffic I have to go through while driving to and from work, it’s nearly as fast, if not faster at times, to ride a bike, so this is definitely something I’d like to keep up.

I bought a camera a couple of days ago, a Canon SD1100 IS. I haven’t had much of a chance to take it out yet, but I’m quite happy with what I’ve seen. This is the first camera I’ve had with image stabilization, and it seems to be worth the extra cost so far.

Thursday night, a friend and I went to see Wintersleep, an indie rock band from Halifax. It was a fantastic show, even worth standing in a crowd of drunk idiots to watch.

Unfortunately, their opening band, The Most Serene Republic, weren’t great. The lead singer looked like he was trying too hard to be quirky, and they sounded really messy most of the time. I just listened to a few of their studio recordings on their MySpace page, and they actually sound pretty good, so maybe they just have to get their live act together.

I’ve attached “Laser Beams” from Wintersleep’s Welcome To The Night Sky album for your listening pleasure.

The only real exercise I’ve had this winter has been spending a night in the climbing gym once a week and walking downtown for dinner and drinks, the latter being rather counter effective.

I have a gym membership. I haven’t been to the gym for months, but I’m still paying. I’m hoping the weight of my membership card, in combination with the weight of the guilt, might be having a subtle effect on my fitness. Every little bit helps, right?

I’d like to start biking to work. I live about 4.5km from the office, and I don’t have to hit too many high traffic streets to get there, so it should work well. Unfortunately, I’ve barely touched a bike during the last ten years of my life, so those muscles are embarrassingly underdeveloped.

Last week I decided I should start going for bike rides in the evening to build up some endurance, and then I’d start riding to work. I went out and bought a new helmet, a fancy riding jacket, dragged my bike outside, plugged in my earphones, and pushed off towards the horizon.

About ten minutes later I returned a sweaty wreck and slowly made my way back to the apartment, walking down the corridor like a newborn deer. I don’t remember this being so difficult. You’d think I spent the last ten years sitting in front of a…oh, right.

I’ve decided to just bite the bullet and try riding to work. I’ll just have to build up endurance as I go. So, tomorrow – today, technically – I’ll be riding to work for the first time. Wish me luck!

Saturday

• Brunch: Two slices of French bread with a bit of dijon mustard and sweet mesquite turkey meat from the deli. Mixed-herb salad with crushed pecans, pickled beets, tomatoes, and a balsamic vinegar, olive oil dressing. A cup of V8 tropical juice.
• Snack: a bit of blue Stilton cheese with some sesame rice crackers.
• Drink: A slushie from the corner store. $1.50
• Dinner: A couple of small spring rolls with a spicy flank and steak Pho. $15
• Drinks: Three pints of Blue Buck pale ale from the pub. $10 My friend covered most of this for me, to cover a previous night out.

Sunday

• Brunch: Two slices of French bread with an egg salad spread on top (two semi-hard boiled eggs, a tablespoon of mayo, and some curry powder).
• Snack: a bit of blue Stilton cheese with some sesame rice crackers.
• Dinner: Spicy BBQ chicken breast, rice, Mixed-herb salad with crushed pecans, pickled beets, tomatoes, and a balsamic vinegar, olive oil dressing, and a slice of French bread to soak up the excess dressing. A cup of V8 berry juice.
• Grocery bill: $36

Monday

• Breakfast: Cinnamon raisin bagel with light cream cheese. Glass of soy vanilla protein drink. Cup of coffee.
• Lunch: Leftover chicken, rice and salad.
• Drinks: Two cups of tea.
• Dinner: Chicken curry and rice. Glass of V8 berry juice.

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Cinnamon raisin bagel with light cream cheese. Glass of soy vanilla protein drink. Cup of coffee.
• Lunch: Leftover curry and rice. Bottle of Coopers Sparkling Ale.
• Drinks: Two cups of tea.
• Dinner: Grilled jem salad with mango balsamic vinaigrette and pancetta crisps. Braised Lamb Shank with Yukon Gold mashed herb potatoes, roasted vegetables, and rosemary port demi-glace. Flourless almond chocolate cake with candied orange crème anglaise. Two glasses of Sumac Ridge Cabernet Merlot. $45

Wednesday

• Breakfast: Cinnamon raisin bagel with light cream cheese. Glass of soy vanilla protein drink. Cup of coffee.
• Lunch: Chicken chowmein, beef brocolli, sweet and sour pork, and won ton soup. $9.50
• Drinks: Two cups of tea.
• Dinner: Chow mein with fried tofu and zuchini. Couple of glasses of V8 berry juice.

Thursday

• Breakfast: Stale coffee cake muffin. $2.
• Lunch: Turkey club sandwich and a yogurt cup with fruit. $8
• Drinks: Three cups of tea.
• Snack: apple fritter
• Dinner: Spicy Baconator meal from Wendy’s. $10

Friday

• Breakfast: Slice of banana bread. $2.
• Snack: handful of smoked almonds and salted pecans.
• Lunch: Fish and chips with a pint of Hermann’s Dark Lager. $20
• Dinner: Chunk of filone with some garlic, bruschetta turkey.
• Grocery bill: $30

Conclusions
My total cost for the week was about $190, which is sadly fairly close to the normal. This means I’m probably spending somewhere between $600 and $800 a month on food, which does seem a little outrageous. I’m slowly moving towards packed lunches, which will help with the cost, as everything near my workplace is fairly expensive.

I do usually eat a little healthier than this. We have a special event happening in town, and many restaurants are offering three course meals at a discounted rate, which is what I had for dinner on Tuesday. On Thursday, I was just too lazy after rock climbing to make anything, so I ended up with the Baconator meal. Anything named Baconator has got to be all kinds of bad for you.

So, there you have it. Possibly not the most riveting reading, but I found it interesting to do. I may look at being a little more frugal in the future. Starting tomorrow. Right now I’m off to grab some Vietnamese.

2007 was a fairly quiet year for me. This was my first year after graduating university, so I really just worked. It’s easy to measure life’s progress in semesters and city moves and trips abroad, but it becomes a bit harder when you’re stationary.

I’ve become a much better programmer over the last year and feel like my career is on the right track, I’ve been living a lot healthier and continuing to slowly lose weight, excluding the last month, and I’m generally happier and more comfortable with myself than I’ve been in quite a while. So this year has been a good one, I’d say, in a quiet way.

I say I’m not really into resolutions, but I end up making them every year anyway, so I might just be in denial about that. I’d like to be someone who’s not into resolutions, but I enjoy setting goals, even if I don’t really plan to achieve them. So here are a few:

Get off the habit of snacking all the time. My boss bought me a huge box of cookies for Christmas, and I live alone, so I’ve pretty much been living off cookies for the last two weeks. I eat some when I get home, lose my appetite for dinner, and then end up snacking again later that night. It’s a delicious, vicious cycle. Sadly, when I went to visit my parents for Christmas and detox, they had bought the exact same box of cookies. It’s a global conspiracy.

Write more. Not just here in the weblog, but actual fiction. I have written a little over the last couple of months, which is a step in the right direction, but I need to take it more seriously. This has been my longest running failed resolution, going about 15 years strong now.

Travel. The only travel I did in 2007 was for work, so I’d like to go on a personal trip this year. I’m slowly getting my student loans paid off and my credit card debt under control, so I’ll have more freedom to do this soon.

Take my bike out at least once. I brought my bike to Victoria last summer, and it hasn’t left my apartment once. It is an interesting conversation piece, though.

Catch up on my reading list. I have a towering pile of books to read, and I’ve gone through a slight reading drought this last month, so I need to start getting through them. I’m going to try and stop buying new books until I’m done these, which should save me money, because I pretty much have enough unread books right now to last me the entire year.

Be open to new experiences. Maybe join a club or take a class in something I’m interested in. Just get out there and try new activities and meet new people.

I hope 2007 was a good year for everyone, and if it wasn’t, here’s to a clean slate!

When last I visited, I was given Amoxicillin, had a swab taken, and was told to place a heating pad on the area a few times a day and to keep it wrapped in gauze. I had done that, and the wound was feeling much better, but the follow-up was just to be safe.

After sitting in the waiting room for half an hour, I was brought in to see the doctor, one I hadn’t met before. He asked me what the problem was, and I explained what had happened. Either the last doctor hadn’t written anything down in my file, or this man hadn’t read it. After dealing with him, I’m placing my bet on the latter.

I asked if the test results from the swab had come back, and he said he hadn’t seen anything about a test. I’m fairly sure the swab sample is taken to test for which bacteria caused the infection, allowing them to adjust the medication accordingly if needed. This seems like a fairly important safety check, but apparently he didn’t think so.

He asked to see the area, and immediately after I pulled off the gauze bandage he said, “An abscess can often be a sign of diabetes. That’s fine now, you can stop bandaging it. You’re cured, go home and have a shower.” Without another word, he left the office.

There are a number of reasons why I was dumbstruck by this:

1. He dropped the diabetes bomb and then left without any explanation. After researching it a bit and phoning my parents, who are both in the medical field, I’m not too worried about this. While it is apparently true that people with diabetes get abscesses more often, assuming someone could have diabetes from an abscess is a fairly large leap.
2. He just looked at it. He didn’t put gloves on and poke at it or ask me any questions about it, he just looked.
3. He told me to stop wearing a bandage on it and that I was cured, but the wound was still open. I’m not a doctor, but even I could see that it was most certainly not cured. You also don’t have to be a doctor to know that walking around with an open wound is not really a good thing to do, especially when it’s on an area that will rub up against your pants all day.
4. He left the office so abruptly that I couldn’t tell if the appointment was over or not. I didn’t know what he was doing. I spent the next few minutes standing there awkwardly, smelling myself because of the shower comment, before finding him in his administrative office and asking if we were done. On top of that, I had just showered an hour before seeing him, and I smelled mighty fine, thank you very much.

It occurred to me after leaving the clinic that he might have not even looked at the abscess. It seems like he just looked at the gauze bandage for signs of drainage instead. It’s possible that he assumed I hadn’t changed the bandage in the five days since my last appointment and, since the bandage was still in place, hadn’t showered. Upon seeing that there wasn’t much drainage on the bandage, he declared me cured. In reality, I’ve been showering, although awkwardly, and changing the bandage every morning.

Good thing I took time off work. I might have missed the chance to have a doctor completely brush me off. After leaving, I promptly discarded all of his advice, and I seem to be healing nicely.

I have this magical gift that allows me to find the stupidest doctors imaginable. If there’s a fool with an M.D. in the city, you can be sure I’ll track him down.

This hasn’t been the best month for me. Near the beginning, I was ill for the first time in ages. Then last week, I had a wee bump on my thigh, which quickly developed into an abscess of pain and misery. It was inconveniently positioned, so it rendered me crippled. After a very slow hobble to the doctor, much pain, and antibiotics, I’m now happily on the road to recovery. Thankfully I can work from home, so I was able to spend the last couple days of the week stewing in my solitary anguish.

I’ve narrowed down the list of any minor changes to my life in the last couple of months to find what could be negatively affecting my physical being this way, which sadly only really amounted to three items: planning to take part of NaNoWriMo, rock climbing, and more actively trying to eat healthier, non-processed, organically-grown food.

I’m either allergic to leading a healthy lifestyle or potential creative endeavours.