I want to marry my dentist and have his babies!!

Well c'mon girls, wouldn't you want to go to the dentist more often if yours looked more like mine?! Somehow it makes the unbearable so much more bearable when you have something pretty to look at and ohhh he's definitely good to look at!

This fine specimin of dentistry is otherwise known as Paul Winkley from The Strand Dental in Worthing. The photo is cribbed from their website - I'm not like stalking my dentist or anything! Hahaha Anyway, when I went for my first consultation it was after years (and I mean about 16 years) of not going to the dentist and being incredibly lucky with my teeth.

I'd had a bad experience when I was younger and been petrified of dentists ever since ... but as soon as I walked into the building I just felt at ease. It's private and not NHS, but I tell you --- you get every penny's worth out of it. This place is purpose built - ie not some crappy converted house with 1940s carpets that smells of old people and dental mouthwash! I must have phoned like eleventy hundred dentists, explaining what a nervous patient I was ... and saying I'd call back .... until I spoke to The Strand! They just put me at ease over the phone, and it cemented it when I walked into the building!

My very first consultation with Paul was a couple of years ago and I was in so much pain. It was excruciating! I needed root canal work AND an extraction, so fairly major work... but Paul promised me that I wouldn't feel *any* pain ... and as I was particularly nervous (it was like a white knuckle ride except I LOVE rollercoasters!) he even gave me an extra boost of pain killer!

Know what? I didn't feel a thing and even the initial mild discomfort I felt while sitting in the dentist chair was NOTHING compared to the feeling of being totally pain free when I left there!!

I would have gone to the dentist a lot sooner with this recent pain if I hadn't seriously believed it was related to my periods because the last couple I've had ... I've had toothache at the same time but it's been controllable with pain killers! It has been getting worse over this week to the point that the over the counter pain relief wasn't even touching the sides ... so today I got me a dentist appointment!!

An x-ray, extraction (and £92) later I am 100% pain free. I can even swallow REALLY cold drinks now without wincing!!

God damnit I'm going to sleep well tonight!!!

Nathan's quad bike ride!!

My mum organised a fantastic treat for Nathan as part of his birthday! She arranged for him to spend some time at the beach patrol office in Worthing. He got to look around the lifeboat - they let him sit in the driving seat and start up the engine ... he had a brilliant time!! I dosed myself up on painkillers for the toothache and smiled all the way through it for Nathan!

Ohhh and of course not forgetting the quad bike that the guys use to patrol the beach that he got to ride on!! OMG did he love this or what!!!

The guys from the office were really fantastic and showed him a great time! He said his favourite part was going for a ride on the quad bike around the beach!

Loved this shot of him talking in the mic to the guys out on the boat!

A great afternoon and a very happy little boy! This is the team that looked after him ... and of course his sister in the shot as well :-)

Grrrrrrrrr LOL

I woke up with astronomical toothache around 5am and it took a while for the painkillers to kick in, so by the time my alarm went off I really hadn't had enough sleep and woke up feeling groggy this morning. I swear toothache is WORSE than childbirth! At least with childbirth it's pain with a purpose and it may hurt like hell, but at least you know it's going to end!

This toothache is killing me. I'd originally thought that it was related to my period because it seemed to hit when I was on ... but even that has been hard to track recently. I didn't have a period for a few months after Christmas, then I had a nasty heavy one ... then I've had two in the last 5 weeks ... this last one has really dragged on too, but it seems to have finished today and I still have the toothache. If I could afford the dentist - I'd go ... meanwhile I'll just keep relying on painkillers!

I still went into work this mornig ready to crack on despite feeling like crap because my newfound motivation won't let a lil thing like toothache get in the way! I seriously felt like curling up on the sofa in my "staff room" and just going to sleep, but instead I got some orders poured, made some hurricanes for stock and paperwork wise, I have got my most outstanding year now filed into date order in my filing cabinet!!! Yeah, I rock!!

In true "Dee style" I've got pretty coloured dividers separating the months out so it's organised AND pretty LOL and I bought a pink notepad to staple my current cash receipts into! LOL Tomorrow's plan is to start on the rest of the filing and I've set myself a target of this weekend to have it ALL filed in monthly order! By next week I need to be going through my old bank statements (which I have also found and filed!!!) to add up all of the incomings and outgoings year by year. Once I reach that point, I'll be able to make an appointment with my local tax office and they will help me to fill in the returns once I have the numbers. This totally negates the need to pay an accountant and saves money -- something I love to do!!! Okay so I won't have a full accounts listing for those outstanding years, but I'll know the numbers and I'll be able to work out exactly what I owe the tax man and I'll have the paperwork to back it all up.

Plus ... with L's help I have been working out exactly what my current costs are ... ie the essential things that I need to pay to keep the business afloat and I have a much better idea of what actually constitutes a good and bad week now!!

The thing that has frustrated me today is that all of the data entry I did last night into QuickBooks has all been for nothing because I realised this afternoon that it was all screwy!! I realised this when I was invoicing a customer and recording it as paid, then marking the actual payment into my bank register ... I figured it was registering the payment twice as far as income goes and thereby giving a false profit reading! This is not good!! It's what you get for a free download version huh!

I do actually own a full working copy of QuickBooks with the key code and registration code .... mine is the 2001 version and I rang QuickBooks customer service hoping to get a download site so that I could re-install it without the CD, but unfortunately my version is so old now that they no longer support it! The woman I spoke to was really helpful and said that as I was an existing customer I can get the current 2008 pro version for a discounted price AND I could pay monthly via direct debit. I snapped it up! It also includes an upgrade to the 2009 version when that's ready. CDs are on the way and that will then be my way of getting the current financial year (from April 1st onwards) absolutely 100% up to date!

I haven't had a single anxiety attack or felt the real "rush" of stress and panic since I started going through the paperwork last Thursday. Funny that eh. The crazy thing is that I've know all along that THIS has been one of the root causes of my stress, yet it's been the thing that I have avoided doing for so frigging long now. I'm still very worried about it all because the more I get involved with the numbers, the more I worry I can't afford to make it ... but that just makes me MORE determined to sort it all out!!

Lettuces, pain relief and toothache ... a mixed bundle!

Okay I've been slack due to my migraine & toothache - so sue me! LOL This pic of my lettuces was actually taken a week ago and trust me these babies have grown a LOT since then!!! My arse is firmly planted right on the sofa right now though (with a glass of wine) and I'm NOT getting up to take new pics - I'll do that tomorrow, or the next day! HAH!

These were planted 10th March from seed ... so technically as "30 day lettuces" they should be ready about now - I promise to take a new pic tomorrow to show how much they have grown because the difference is incredible - I've just had a couple glasses of wine (or six!) and can't be assed to move right now and hook the camera up!! I HAVE however tasted them already and they are sooooooo nice! As it's my first crop of lettuce, I want to just wait a couple of weeks to see what difference that makes to the yield!

The new seeds I planted the other day that have been in a propagator have sprouted ... so plan for tomorrow is re-pot the tomatoes (doing fabulously since my "chop the crap out of the leaves with thrip" method of organic bug warfare!) as the roots are showing at the bottom of the pots ... use those empty pots to re-pot the lettuce seedlings and then get more lettuce on the go!

Anyway ok that's the gardening update out of the way!

Me update ... well the period from hell finally finished yesterday! I am now officially "back on the pill" so my oestrogen levels should increase and any "menstrual migraines" should techincally be gone! I woke up this morning and realised I'd been left with a *minor* headache that would be about a 1 or 2 on the 1-10 pain scale (10 being childbirth!) but it's one of those niggly "there all of the time" type of headaches so I didn't bother taking pain relief today because it kinda hasn't been that bad ...

Maybe it's just me but I don't like to take pain relief unless I absolutely HAVE to. I've always been like that though ... I'm not a weak person, I am a strong person and when things HAVE to be done, I am there to do them! It's almost like taking pain relief is somehow admitting defeat ... and anyone that knows me knows that Dee doesn't ever admit defeat!! Needless to say, with a headache that has niggled all day, I took some prescription pain relief about half an hour ago and oh joy, oh bliss ... it has gone ...

... along with the toothache!!!

Damn the frigging toothache! You know, I could cope with a 1-2 on the pain scale headache, but toothache at the same time is such a bitch. Funnily enough after Megan was born I remember saying to another new mum I'd rather go to the dentist than give birth, but that was before I had ever experienced real toothache!! Gimme childbirth anyday these days!

Okay see now I have been sat here for the last ten minutes thinking about how much I would love to have another baby again ... DAMN I have to stop thinking about that! Okay am gonna close now before I get all depressive! LOL

p.s.

Just a quick Sunday evening addendum! My headache has been better today ... still there but only a 2 on the 1-10 pain scale as opposed to the 4 it was yesterday, so that's an improvement! Btw childbirth/root canals are at 10 on the scale for a good measure! Alcohol is definitely working as a pain killer though!! My toothache on the other hand is still very much there, alive and kicking!

Mum said to me this evening (had dinner at her place) that if I've had a headache/migraine for 3 days in a row then I really should see a doctor. I guess ... but seriously, what is the doc gonna say though? Oh you have your period? Oh and you're a bit stressed? That'll explain the headaches, take some tablets and if it gets worse then come back! I may as well save us both the time and not bother!!

Mind you, it might be worth going to get the prescription pain killers! I love Solpadol ... it's paracetamol & codeine at prescription strength in a disolvable format so it starts working literally within 15 minutes!

I'll see how I feel in the morning!

Still hurtin' :-)

Today has been awful. I dosed myself up with pain killers last night before I went to bed and I did sleep okay so that was a bonus. The headache and toothache woke me up at stupid o'clock this morning and I have hardly been able to shift it since then.

I have new pics of my seeds etc but feel too crappy to post about that! I'll update on that when I'm feeling better! LOL

My period ... plus headache & toothache - oh joy, lucky me

It is official - I have the killer period from hell. I could probably cope with the stomach cramps, the lower backache and being slightly more emotional than usual - but damnit my body has to throw in an evil toothache and then just to finish me off completely, a headache too.

Short version of the day - my stress levels have been rising VERY VERY high and I've had a couple of "small" panic attacks throughout the day. A friend actually witnessed a part of it - and no matter what, I always try not to let people see how bad I can get when my anxiety and stress levels rise.

Thankfully, the friend who was there turned out to be the perfect person to talk me through it. I don't know what I would have done without being able to just talk and breathe and that point and have someone just listen, tell me I CAN get through this and remind me of light at the end of the tunnel.

I'd had a headache all day, but by the time I had picked up the kids from school, the toothache was much worse, and that was the point the headache seriously kicked in and made me wonder whether it was actually a migraine instead of just a headache. I took a first dose of pain killers at that point, then by 4pm I felt myself going downhill rapidly.

I did some research earlier and I think I have what is very affectionately termed "menstrual migraine" caused by a drop in oestrogen ... remember I'd had no period for 3 months and then I decided to stop taking the pill so I could try to have a natural cycle (it's been six weeks since I stopped the pill) so there is my reduction in oestrogen!

I feel dizzy and off balance like I've been on a roundabout and my head is killing me. Bright lights make it worse and all the while I stay relatively still, it hurts less. Moving around definitely makes it much worse.

So hi ho, hi ho it's off to take more pills I go ....