Douglas E. Berry

Everyone knows that I haven't had any natural teeth for well over a decade. most of you know I don't wear my dentures because they are useless when it comes time to chew things, due to the amount of bone mass I lost in my jaw during chemotherapy. The lower plate just floats free.

I kept wearing them when I was still driving a truck and then through my time as a limo dispatcher, but after the stroke, I just stopped. There's no need. I'm not out to impress people with my smile, I can eat well enough, why spend spoons on the daily ritual of inserting, removing, and cleaning the teeth?

My feelings started to change when I started work as a crossing guard. It'd be nice to be able to smile at the kids. Hope for actual working dentures rose when Kirsten's insurance changed, and I was able to get covered under her dental plan. We knew it'd still be expensive, but with insurance and Go Fund Me, we could at least ask.

I'm just back from the dentist. $27,000 for each arch and the doctor wasn't sure if she'd even be able to do the lower jaw. Just for the record, we'd be able to fly back to Istanbul for another week, fly home, buy the custom Hiker trailer we wanted cash on the barrelhead, and still be able to afford season tickets to the San Jose Giants.

Healthcare in this nation is outrageous.

Yesterday I had my first dental appointment in a few years. Yes, people with no teeth are supposed to still see a dentist. This was to address my denture issues.

I got dentures back in 2008, and due to the massive amount of bone loss from my chemo, the lower plates never had nothing to grab onto. As a result, eating almost anything with my teeth in was impossible. I wore the teeth mainly for show, and for comfort when I was still driving for a living.

But after my stroke, and going nearly month without them between hospitals and rehab, I just stopped wearing my dentures. There was no need. I can manage most foods by carefully cutting and using my tongue to mash them up before swallowing. Also, i let my facial hair grow over my lip, which hides the lack of teeth most of the time. I've not worn my dentures in nearly three years. (I do keep them clean, just in case.

But in the last several months, I've been told by multiple doctors that I really need to chew properly to get all the nutritional value from my food. I also discovered that there is in fact a dental version of MediCal, called Denti-Cal which covers many things, including dentures. But not implants as a rule.

Which brings us back to yesterday's appointment. We went back to the same dentist who had done my extractions. They remembered us, which was nice. Got really cool X-rays (there's a machine that circles your head like a scanner; no more film shoved in your mouth!) a quick exam, and a discussion.

Turns out that getting what I need is going to cost close to what the Istanbul trip cost. But there is hope! I'm going to call my doctor to see about getting a consult with a dietician. See if we can't get my medical team to sign off on my getting teeth as a medical necessity to cover at least some of the cost. Also, there are payment plans. We looked at the brochure briefly and kshandra said we'd be making car payments on my teeth. I have an appointment to see an oral surgeon in a few weeks to get his take.

One way or another, we'll make this work.

I still need to pick up a new card holder for my wallet.

Also need to find new silencers for my dog tags. Yes, I still wear my tags. If for no other reason, they have my blood type printed on them.

But I'm not going anywhere. I'm trying to get back into the habit of wearing my teeth, and to help suppress my gag reflex I've taken a Vicodin.

OK, here's a question for the non-veterans on my friends' list. A standard set of US dog tags have five lines of information stamped into them. Without looking it up, can you tell me what those lines contain? I've already told you what's on line 4.

Had my teeth in for ten hours.

Doesn't sound like much, but with all the health problems and being home all the time it has been literally months since I wore my choppers on a daily basis. It takes time to acclimate to having big chunks of plastic in your mouth. Took vicodin to help with the transition.. not so much pain as keeping me mellow so I didn't start to gag on them.

Also tonight is the last Lovenox shot. I've had to use this instead of Warfarin due to the drug I was taken for the infection in my throat. I'm certain kshandra is just as happy about this as I am. Back on the Warfarin as of tomorrow, and I go in for a blood draw Monday morning. Yes, go in. Since I'm off oxygen and able to get around, I've canceled the home care nurse.

Have a phone interview for MediCal and food assistance on Monday. Hopefully we can get a quick resolution on those applications.

I should be OK for Baycon. I just need to sit and rest on a regular basis and be careful about potential falls and cuts. At least I won't be lugging around that bloody oxygen tank!

This has been your Doug Health Update.

Productive Saturday. We picked up some Cinnabon rolls last time we did a big shopping, and finally were awake enough (and had the right pan for them.) Great, if sticky, way to start a day. After some procrastination, we hit the road to do some errands. We had a ton of recycling to take in. Santa Clara does have curbside recycling, but there's a place only a few blocks away. Money is money, you know? We'll be back very soon, since they're doing a picnic for Tet. I had to laugh, because the menu was all over the place... Korean BBQ, Chow Mein... the Lunar New Year All-Stars.

From there we had to get gas for Kiri's car, and then onto Kaiser to pick up yet more meds for me. I swear, I could open a pharmacy. Nice thing is I now have a month's supply of everything. I'm having all my prescriptions transferred to the Kaiser Santa Clara facility. Not only does that hospital have four pharmacies, one of them is 24 hours and it is a lot closer to home. That was it for the things we actually had to do, but I've been good so we rolled over to Game Kastle so I could check out some Pathfinder books "in the flesh," so to speak. I need the Bestiary, of course, and I really like the stuff I saw in the GameMastery Guide. The GM Screen looks solid. While I prefer getting the books, I think I can deal with PDFs for most of these things. Looked miniatures, and nearly choked on the prices. Cardboard Heroes are going to be my solution. That and the associated products.

I swear, the +10 Game Store of Awesome is my first retail stop after we win the lottery.

Had a couple of reality moments. First of all, with all the crap going on with my breathing, I've been a bit loathe to put my teeth in... for almost two months. Tried it today. Lasted four minutes. I'll try again tomorrow. Also, it's appalling just how out of shape I am. Starting tomorrow, short walks, doing some stuff around the apartment, playing with the hand weights. I've got all this excess energy from the Prednisone, might as well get some use out of it.

Along with watching football, I'm going to try to get all my ideas for the religions of my campaign world in some sort of working order. Probably be very rough, but once I'm done, I'll be happy to share it for review (and cleaning up my atrocious grammar and formating.) After that, I start on the Gazetteer and history. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this, but hell, somebody might buy it. Or I might even actually run a game someday!

I was supposed to go back in today. I was up, dressed, and pout the door on time. Then, more than half-way to work, semi-liquid Fixodent ran down my throat and triggered my gag reflex.

The good news I didn't crash while hurling all over myself. The bad news is I hurled all over myself.

I'm going to put the damn teeth back in after they've had a chance to soak in cleaner for a while. I need to get used to them again. Just as soon as my stomach stops convulsing.

Well, i got up at 0430, got dressed, put my teeth in (as an aside: if any of you ever get dentures try to avoid going two weeks without wearing them. It's like they're brand new again.) and got everything together for work. kshandra, who deserves several sainthoods, got up to drive me in. Get to work, and discover that no one passed along the message I'd be back today. So I'm taking one more day of rest. And trying to get used to my dentures again.

Although I did learn that I managed to cause drama without even being there. When I had spoken with Adam about my flu, I encouraged him to tell everyone that I had H1N1 and that they should get the shots. Adam made up an announcement about it, and mentioned me by name. Which caused some consternation among higher management since it was disclosing medical information without my written consent. Understandable, but if they had called me I would have faxed in a consent letter. My main concern was the flu spreading around the company and hurting our operations.

The CD player in KL1001 doesn't work.

I want need my truck back!

Today was annoying in many ways. At three separate sites I had to sit for 30 minutes waiting to be offloaded. We've switched to a new software system, which resulted in some amusing paperwork snafus.

But when I got back, we had pizza. I had to take my teeth out to eat it, but I love the reaction my plates on my plate gets from people. You'd be amazed how people freak at the sight of me smiling at them.

This morning I tried to put my lower plate on my upper jaw. And it took me a good thirty seconds to figure out why my dentures weren't fitting.

Caffeine, stat!

.. what putting dentures in your mouth everyday for nearly seven months does to your ability to handle getting impressions done.

With luck, my bottom plate will fit tomorrow. In the mean time, I get to drive with no teeth. I'm really hoping there is nothing on my route and I get to come home early. Not just for the social aspects of not having any teeth, but because when I go without my dentures for more than a few hours while doing anything more strenuous than typing or doing some laundry, my jaw begins to ache. The problem is that without teeth my lower jaw can move higher than normal, which stresses the muscles at the back. This causes a whole lot of pain.