Extractions, babies, and boobs

Well, I took out my first tooth today! It was so exciting, I felt like a real live dentist. Specifically, an oral surgeon. Who only takes out nice easy teeth in the bottom jaw, with lots of bone loss around them and a professor watching over my shoulder the entire time. [:)]

No, like the professor said, I should give myself credit-- I did the injections all by myself and they were spot on because she got numb right away, and I took out the tooth and put a suture in all by myself. I was thrilled. I wanted to do a victory dance around the room, holding the tooth above my head and flinging blood all around, but something told me, Julia, that would not be appropriate. So I settled for a big happy grin behind my mask as I set that big honking molar down on the tray. It was very satisfying, and almost made me not mind that I still haven't had five minutes to myself to stop by the dean's office and get the dirty details on taking time off.

So that's school. I'm booked solid for almost the next two months, so I don't know when I'm going to get time to see the dean! In pregnancy news, I've started getting these migraines... which I used to get occasionally before I was pregnant, but they are really monstrous now. It's this horrible throbbing pain in my temples, often accompanied by really scary tunnel vision. I had one almost the entire week last week, it just refused to go away. I kept calling my doctor and they kept suggesting Tylenol (which did nothing for it), so finally I just quit calling them and suffered through it. It was pretty horrendous... maybe they are related to my seasonal allergies and will get better soon. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

This weekend, we took our dog Franklin to his first obedience school class. He's a really stubborn little dog (miniature dachsund), and he will bite me if I try to get him to do something he doesn't want to do, so we decided he was going to need some training before the baby comes. He was actually pretty good. I was picturing a horrific scene where he bites the instructor, all the other dogs in the class and their owners, gets loose and tears around the store, knocks down all the shelves and everything on them, and somehow set the entire building on fire... culminating with Tyler and me getting arrested and him getting sent to the pound. You know, best-case scenario. But he wasn't too bad. He did bark at all the other dogs and people, and probably would have bitten the instructor if she had insisted on making him sit, but by the end of the class he was sitting for a treat and walking on a loose leash, so I have some hope for little Franklin. We'll see how the rest of his classes go.

Also this weekend, Tyler and I did a lot of work on the nursery! It looks really cute, I'll try to get some pictures up. We (okay, he) put up the bumblebee wallpaper border, and I finally caved and let him put up the crib. Our glider and changing table came in the mail last week, so we put those together too. It's all cherry wood, which looks great with the light yellow bumblebee color scheme. I love going in there and sitting in the glider while I look around the room, imagining what our baby will look like and thinking about how it will live there in just a few months. Our big ultrasound is coming up (just two more weeks), and it's getting hard to resist the temptation to ask what the sex is! But we are going to stay strong. I just want that super-romantic moment of Tyler telling me "it's a __!" in the delivery room, rather than having an ultrasound tech tell us while I'm laying on a metal table somewhere. I'm not great at delayed gratification, but I can do this... hey, I'm waiting through more than 20 years of school to get my degree, so I can wait a couple months to find out whether I'm carrying a daughter or a son, right?? Tell me to hold out, ladies, my resolve is weakening!!

So that's it for 18-19 weeks-ish. We're probably going to register sometime in the next few weeks too... another thing I'm really excited for! The second trimester is kind of boring in some ways, but it has its good points too. I love feeling the baby kick around in my belly. It's started to do this squirmy thing whenever I'm in lab (can't really blame it, there are 40 dental drills going at once in there), so that's a little bit of a weird feeling. Tyler still can't feel it from the outside, though, I'm still waiting for that!

Oh yeah, and to follow-up on an earlier issue... to my boobs, if you're reading this: ladies, I appreciate that all is in good working order, I'm really happy about that. But it's getting a little uncomfortable, so it would be great if you could quit testing out the merchandise, if you get what I'm saying. Just hang tight until you're needed (that would be sometime around March 5.) Sweet. Thanks. Kisses.

Note to self: self, you are not Superwoman

So I got up early this morning and I felt pretty good. No nausea to speak of, and I wasn't even really tired. I thought, this morning sickness stuff is a crock. I've just convinced myself to be sick because pregnant women are supposed to be sick. If I just distract myself and don't think about it, I'll be fine. So I started to clean the bathroom, and whoa, the smell of the cleaner about knocked me on my butt. I thought, okay, I will just go for my run. Five minutes in, I'm dry-heaving on the side of the path and the other early-morning runners are avoiding me like the plague. I wanted to yell, "believe me, it's not contagious!!"

I really haven't been taking it that easy since I found out I was pregnant. I mean, I have the boards in two weeks, and since Tyler isn't here I have to do everything myself, including finding a new apartment, so I figured I didn't have time to wallow. Well, I think I need to start slowing it down a bit. I've still been exercising every day, keeping the apartment really clean, visiting friends, and being really hard on myself for not studying 24/7 for the boards. In reality, I am getting plenty of studying done, and I still have two weeks left... and I really don't need to run every single day, and no one's gonna die if the apartment gets a speck of dust in it. I need to quit being so Type A. If possible.

And I'm going to start right now, by lying down! (With my anatomy flashcards. Baby steps, people.) Before I go, though, here's a nice pic of my cat Simba, trying to figure out why I find the toilet so interesting these days:

"Mom, why are you always kneeling on the floor and looking in here??"

Things are looking up!

Thankfully this week has turned around for me before it's over-- I came home yesterday all bummed out about Simba and Tyler being gone, but then I decided I'd better snap out of it because I am not going to spend my summer all depressed.

I studied for my pedo exam which was today (easy!), and cleaned my apartment literally for six hours. We are neat freaks so the place is always clean, but I did some research on feline asthma and saw that if I minimize the allergens in his living space, he won't need as many drugs. Why this didn't occur to me before, I do not know. But I decided to keep the apartment closed up and use the A/C for the rest of the summer, and I vacuumed, dusted, and scrubbed everything in sight. I even cleaned under the bed and found the following, which must have been stashed there by my dog: six highlighters, a pack of flashcards on infectious disease, several dinosaur teeth and a claw, countless tissues and socks, and a bottle of Astroglide (this last provoked a yell of triumph, as I've been wondering where it had gotten to).

So I've only heard Simba have one wheezing fit since I cleaned, and I don't know if it was the cleaning or the prednisone shots, but something's working, so I am thrilled. I can't stand to see him so miserable!

I also found out I got an A on my oral radiology exam (not that it matters, since everything is pass/fail)-- the exam I had to take the day after Tyler left for Germany, so that made me happy too. And this afternoon I'm going to a BBQ at our friends' apartment. I'd better head out for a run first though, since I've eaten approximately 3000 pounds of chocolate since Tyler left and I'm starting to look like I'm with child. Unfortunately none of it has gone to my boobs-- what a rip-off!

Have lovely weekends!

But of course.

It seems like one of our pets gets very sick every time Tyler leaves for the summer. Last summer, it was our chinchilla Humphrey-- one of his teeth got infected, which made his eye infected, which made him stop eating, which made his GI tract quit working, which made him need to stay at the vet for a week while they tried to fix it all. They told me he would probably die, but somehow he pulled through and has been fine ever since.

This time, it's our cat Simba. He got diagnosed with feline asthma last year, but it's seasonal and usually one shot of steroids per year takes care of it. Well, he got that shot about a month ago and it worked for awhile, but then it got worse again and I had to start giving him an inhaler twice a day. This is just as ridiculous as you would imagine:

That's not Simba (thank you Google image search), but you get the idea. Anyway, the inhaler stopped working too and I had to rush him to the vet yesterday because he was having these constant wheezing fits. To make a long story short (too late?), I now have to give him subcutaneous prednisone shots once a day for 5 days every time he gets like this.

First of all, I hate sticking him with a needle. Sticking strangers in the mouth? No problem. Sticking my poor little wheezing cat? Huge problem. I practically threw a temper tantrum when the vet told me I'd have to do that (I'm sure he thought I was insane, since I just finished telling him that I was a dental student). Second of all, why do things like this always happen when Tyler is gone? I'm terrified that his asthma will keep getting worse and worse, since it's gone downhill pretty rapidly this year. I'm scared he won't live as long as he should because of this. I hate leaving the house because I'm worried he won't be able to breathe and I won't be there, but I'm not allowed to miss a single hour of dental summer.

And to top it all off, Tyler called last night and I was so relieved to be able to talk to him about it, but he said immediately "I can't talk, some people from England just got in and I have to take them out into the field, but can you do me a favor?" And I said, "yes, no problem, but I have to tell you about Simba really quick, he's gotten really sick" and he interrupted me and said "not now, I need you to do this for me, I'm really busy today." I freaked out and yelled "I am constantly doing you favors while you're gone and all you ever do is leave me alone while you run off to dig your dinosaurs, and now you can't even listen to me for 30 seconds when I have had the worst day ever with our poor sick cat! You've never even met our vet, and I've been there at least 30 times this year! You can take care of your own sh!t!!" and hung up the phone like I was in middle school. Awesome.

He kept calling back but I just didn't pick up. I was too upset, and when I get upset, Simba gets upset, which makes him have another wheezing fit. Sigh. I always try to be supportive of Tyler's stuff because I know it is his passion, but sometimes I have needs too, and I just couldn't deal with it right then. All I wanted was for him to at least listen to me for a minute and tell me he was sorry for me. I can't believe I hung up on him, how old am I, 12?

Ugh. This is a bad day.