Every morning, I try to spend a few minutes meditating. I use an app, which is helpful and instructive. My mind wanders as minds do, but I am, over time, getting more adept at slowing down and focusing on my breath. This came in very handy on Monday, when I found myself back in my […]

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And so, on Monday, I got my new crown for my fifth dental implant. It feels odd to have all my teeth once again, always an adjustment after nine months from extraction to finish, living with a space in my mouth. As it was last month when my dentist and his team took impressions to […]

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So, on Monday I made another long drive for a not-so-short appointment, this time to my dentist for the next step in my latest tooth saga, measuring my mouth for the crown for my implant. While I’m grateful that there is a way to keep saving my teeth as I keep losing them to scleroderma-induced […]

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I am writing on Monday afternoon on my laptop, as I lie on the couch with an ice-pack propped against my lower left jaw—ten minutes on, ten minutes off, to reduce swelling. This, after getting an implant, following my tooth extraction in May. This is the fifth time in at least a decade, maybe 15 […]

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I am happy to report that I got through my extraction of a resorbed tooth with no complications last Wednesday—no fun, but it’s done. So I was able to get my spring Covid shot on Friday, also without complications. My lungs have cleared from pneumonia,and I caught up a bit on rest over the weekend, […]

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So, what I thought was “just” allergies last week turned out to be more complicated. When our geriatrics nurse practitioner came to our home for a check-up last week, she carefully listened to my lungs and informed me that I had not developed bronchitis, as I’d thought. No, I had pneumonia. What? That was not […]

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Monday afternoon found me in my hometown rheumatologist’s office. I see her twice a year, so that I always have a specialist nearby who knows my history, in case I need help pronto without driving into Boston. She is chair of the rheumatology department for our local health care organization, very thoughtful, compassionate. She also […]

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We could all use a reason to smile right now, and I have a good one. I finally have a full set of teeth. Back at the end of last July, I once again had to have a tooth extracted due to root resorption from scleroderma. It’s been a long nine months without my lower […]

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The city swept our streets last week, clearing mounds of brown leaves that neighbors had raked or blown into piles along the curb. Then the wind blew and rain fell and more leaves speckled lawns and sidewalks and pavement. The trees always win, and that’s fine with me. Fallen leaves return nutrients to soil. And […]

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It’s been nearly three months since I had #24 extracted from my lower jaw, due to resorption caused by scleroderma. The bone graft is well-healed, and in a couple of weeks I will get the post implanted for my new tooth. Then it’s another three to four months to wait until I get the crown […]

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