SLIGHT PROGRESS

I spent all morning by the pool, icing my face and going for a quick dip every hour or so to cool off. I read a bit but it was awkward to read and hold the ice up in the right places.

Around noon I went back to my room, showered, and sat up on the bed with more ice on my face and tried to watch HGTV (my favorite channel) but fell asleep - amazingly holding the ice to my face all the while; I had my arm propped up on a pillow.

I see a little improvement in the swelling from this morning. Hair and makeup helps!

I look just like Droopy Dog - fat cheeks and about 3" between my nose and mouth.

PLANS CHANGED

I can finally stop stressing out. I thought I might rub a hole in my forehead today from the stress.

After the fellow at TLC Dental office telling me that he would call back in an hour and a half after his boss came in, THREE times, and the last time not calling me; AND after telling me that the B&B was closed for the four day weekend so I was out of luck for a place to stay those days - I went into crisis mode.

I found the website for the dentist (in the same town) that my friend went to a few weeks ago, Dr. Roberto Arce at The Smile Shoppe. I wrote and explained the situation and asked if he had space to take me. He replied an hour or so later to say that he was all booked up tomorrow but could take me on Wednesday, which is perfect because I am traveling tomorrow so wouldn't be able to see him then anyway. He didn't say if he was open Thursday and Friday or not, but I explained the amount of work I thought I was going to need and he seemed to think that he had enough time before I fly out on the 26th. So I am booked in with him.

I then found a hotel in Yuma, with a pool, that will set me back about $240 more than what I was going to pay for the B&B but, at this point, I don't care. I feel so much better about going to a dentist that someone I actually know went to and was thrilled with. I will have to cab it to the border each day so that's an added expense but I am fine with it all. For the peace of mind it has afforded me, it's worth it.

Onwards and upwards!

IT CAN ALL GO TO POT ON THE TOSS OF THE DICE

(Note: There are two blogs for today so, once you've read this one, scroll down the page for the second one.)

Well, my trip report starts before I have even left for the airport. My flight is at 6:00AM tomorrow morning. I have muscled almost all I wanted to take into a carry on bag and one roomy purse, and now just need to wash my sheets, so I come home to a crisp bed, and chase some dust bunnies out from the corners of my room.

I was planning on heading down to the EI office (Employment Insurance) to apply for coverage just in case we weren't coming back for season two, but now that it's been officially announced that YTV has picked up a second season AND I have received an email from the Production Manager to say she will see me in July (I'm not fired - YAY!) I won't need to make that trip.

The reason my report starts today, however, is not a good one.

When I was looking at flights and dates for my trip, I realized that the week I was thinking of being in Mexico for the dentist fell on the week of Easter. So that meant that I could lose two days in the chair; Good Friday and Easter Monday. Being that most Mexicans are Catholic, I was pretty sure they'd be closed. I wrote and asked, specifically, if they were open "over the Easter weekend for Good Friday and Easter Monday". I received the reply that they were indeed open for "Good Friday and the Monday, so do you want me to book you in for the 20th?". I replied, yes, and went ahead with booking a flight and the rest of my plans.

Last week I sent three emails to them asking for a confirmation of my appointment for 9:00am on Wednesday the 20th, and for my 8 night stay at their B&B. I sent three because they didn't reply in their usual prompt manner to the first two. Today I received the reply.

They confirmed my appointment and the B&B but then went on to say that they were closed for Easter on Thursday and Friday so I wouldn't be back in their office until Monday.

I sat there re-reading the words for several moments, looking for where I was making this colossal error with my usually proficient reading skills, turning the - yes we have you booked in as planned - into this absolute nonsense.

When I initially contacted them about visiting, I asked if three days would be enough for the work I believed I needed doing. They replied that four would be more likely. So, in my mind, I had Wed, Thur and Fri to get most of the work done, the weekend to see if it was all fitting and feeling good, Monday to finish up and Tuesday to make any needed adjustments. Now, I have three days. And the weekend - FOUR DAYS - to sit around with a mouth that will have who knows what in it - shaved down teeth for crowns? I don't know but I know I don't want to sit around for four days waiting to continue the torture. I have steeled my mind for three days of hell and then it's pretty much over and I have the weekend to relax, soak up some sun, eat a bit of food and see how the teeth feel....

I am so upset I can't even express it. I am the sort of person (if you didn't guess by now) who plans everything down to the detail because I don't like nasty surprises and, being a bit of a nervous traveler due to not liking nasty surprises, need to have as much in place as possible. Look, the first time we took our small kids to Disneyland (and my first trip there) I walked through the gates knowing the place like the back of my hand. I had studied it until I knew not only the layout, but the little known gems that people overlook because they don't do the research that I do. When I first arrived on Tortola two years ago, I KNEW we were supposed to turn left up that scary hill even though the directions, emailed to me (and I had printed out) from the woman who owned the villa we had rented, said to turn right and even though half of the street sign was missing, because I had studied the route on Google Earth with all the diligence of Henry Morton Stanley mapping out his route to find Dr. Livingstone.

I also hate going to the dentist, that's why I haven't been in 20 years. So I really have had to do a mind job on myself to even be able to plan this trip and face going for so much work. A big part of being able to push through was knowing that it was three straight days of hell and then it would be pretty much over.

So this has really thrown me for a loop. I have never done well when I encounter incompetence in business dealings - whether it be bank, store, customer service, or this. The man I spoke to on the phone at the dentist this morning kept insisting that the receptionist (I have since found out that it was the OWNER) must have forgotten it was a holiday but I kept insisting that could not be possible given I had used the words EASTER and GOOD FRIDAY in my email and she had replied using the words GOOD FRIDAY (and I have never until now heard of 'Holy Thursday' so didn't think to ask if that was a holiday). Maybe she didn't realize they got the two days off. I don't know. But what I know is this: you can be as diligent and careful as possible when planning something but it's a lot like playing a game of strategy that also has a dice; if the dice doesn't roll the way you need it to, all the strategy in the world won't save you. I remember my ex-husband, who was not a good sport about losing when playing board games as a family, saying how he hated playing games that had a dice - he was an amazing strategist but would lose because of the dice.

This is a lot like that.

***UPDATE: I wrote the above right after getting of the phone to them to try to straighten it out. He said he'd call me in an hour and I just got the call back. The first words out of his mouth were, "Are you still planning on coming tomorrow?" Ummm... YES! Then he told me that the B&B is closed for the four day weekend.

Oh no no no, no it's not...in their dreams maybe. I told him I am confirmed for the week and he needed to figure that one out because that is where I am staying.

Not exactly the relationship I wanted to build with someone who is about to work on my whole mouth.

Need I say?.... I am stressed out to the max right now. Might be a good time to see how those Xanax work on stress.

A SMILE THAT CAN LIGHT UP A ROOM

I hate going to the dentist. It's a fear left over from when I was a child and lived in England where the dental practices hadn't changed in a hundred years, or so it seemed. Then when I was new in Canada, at the tender age of 8, a dentist here slapped me at the end of whatever it was he was doing to my mouth and declared that I was the worst patient he had ever treated. So yeah, not overly fond of dentists.

As a result, I haven't gone very often as an adult - usually just when the pain becomes more than I can stand and I end up needing a root canal or an extraction, or both in the case of a tooth that abscessed after a root canal. I have taken very good care of my teeth since the last visit, sometime back in the early 90's, so haven't had any pain until recently; the enamel, and more it feels like, has worn away from the back side of my front uppers and so now when I eat or drink anything cold, they zing with pain, and I noticed recently that there are fine cracks running vertically down each tooth. A couple of other teeth have started to feel quite sensitive as well. And I have a broken tooth from one of the root canals that never got a crown because I couldn't afford it at the time. So it would seem that I have scheduled this appointment with a dentist in Mexico none too soon.

I have wanted, for a long long time now, to fix my smile. I have a few gaps towards the back where molars were pulled, and my two front teeth cross over a bit thanks to one of those backwards dentists in England who determined that the best way to fix my buck teeth as a 6 year old was to make a plastic mouthpiece that went between my lips and teeth which I wore to bed every evening to push them back. So back they went - crossed. I have hated my smile ever since. In photos, the one tooth is always in the shadow of the one that crosses over it and so looks grey. And when I smile big or laugh, the gaps from the pulled teeth show. So I have altered the way I smile over the years to minimize showing any of these flaws and I laugh behind my hand. All I want is to be able to smile and laugh again without feeling self conscious. I have watched makeover show after makeover show for years and envied the women who get their smiles made over with pearly white veneers. Finally I am hoping to have my turn.

I have a limited amount of money to spend on this, $6,000 to be exact. I have saved for it over the past 8 months. If I were to be getting this work done in Canada it wouldn't even scratch the surface of what needs to be done. I was searching the internet a year or so ago on a totally unrelated topic when I came across a few posts from people who regularly go to Mexico for dental work and the incredible prices they pay. This piqued my interest greatly, and I began some serious research (I love researching stuff on the internet). I discovered that many, many Americans and Canadians travel to Mexico for dental work and that the cost of travel plus the dental work plus a weeks vacation costs less than the price of having the same work done here AND the quality is just as good if not better. Of course, there were the nay sayers and those who had work done that they weren't satisfied with or that they had to have redone at home, but many months of research narrowed my choices down to Los Algodones, a little town across the border from Yuma Arizona filled with dental clinics. I found a place called TLC Dental that had glowing reviews on many various sites dealing with other topics (RV lifestyle, Mexico travel, medical travel, etc) and was delighted to discover that they even have a B&B for their patients at the incredible price of $35 a night (since booking my appointment with them, they have opened their new B&B which has a pool!). The plan is to get the necessary work done first and then, hopefully, there will be some left over for cosmetic dentistry! I really hope so. The price list gives me hope that there will be:

Porcelain/Metal Crowns $250
Veneers Total Crowns - Emax $400
Plates Upper or Lower (Dentures)$350 ea.
Extractions /Normal $60-100
Bleaching (Home Kit) $125
Bleaching $200
Partial (Acrylic w/Metal Hooks)$180
Partial (Flexible)$400
Partial (Flexible w/Metal Mesh)$500
Fillings (White)$40-80
Pre-Fab Post (Pin)$125
Root Canals $350
Implants (for Crowns)$1200
Crowns for Implants $400
Cleaning $40
Wisdom Teeth Extractions $150-$250

And just a week ago I found out that a friend of mine had gone to the same town 6 weeks or so ago to get his dental work done. Estimate from his dentist - $12,000 - $14,000; paid in Mexico - $1,200!!! He had no idea I was going nor I him. I called him and asked him about his experience and he said that his dentist had done a fantastic job, that he would pay it again tomorrow for the same work, and that he was going back soon for more work after a bone graft he had done was healed. He even had a bone graft done for that money! Incredible. I was hoping he had gone to the same dentist I am booked in with but he went to The Smile Shoppe. He said that all of the dentists in the town are the same though. I know that the practice I chose is owned by an American dentist and that the other dentists he employs are well trained so I am not concerned.

Well, other than the pain involved to get the smile I want, that is.

In that light, I went to my doctor and had her give me a prescription for Xanax, one of the drugs highly recommended by those as terrified of the dentist as I am. She told me to try it out before I leave for my trip to figure out the dosage I would need; each pill is .05mg. So yesterday evening I took one and waited, and waited, and waited - and never felt any different so took another one. Woah! Within 10 minutes I felt very woozy and sleepy. Can't say I felt any less anxious, I have been feeling a bit of nerves about the whole trip (I am a nervous traveler but that's for another post) but felt off kilter when I tried to walk around. I ended up in bed just after 9, I was that wiped out. So... not sure if it will do the trick on the nerves but I might fall asleep in the chair.

I will, of course, let you know how it goes.

THAT'S NOT HOW I LEFT THIS!!

On my last three or four trips, my checked luggage has contained a 'love note' from the TSA - a letter stating that they felt it necessary to go through my luggage, mess it all up, and give it back to me without attempting to restore it to any sort of order.

I HATE THAT!!

As someone who is compulsively organized, there is nothing that upsets me more than to see my carefully placed items all askew.

The worst time this happened to me had nothing to do with the TSA.

Every time I go away, I like to leave a spotlessly clean house and clean sheets on all of the beds. I know I most likely will be coming home with suitcases full of dirty laundry - and when there were five of us, that was a lot of laundry - so the last thing I want to face is any sort of mess in the house. The laundry is enough, thank you very much.

Back in 1993 I was taking a trip with the kids to Seattle from Kelowna to meet up with their dad who was working there, to see if it was somewhere they would be happy moving to. I left the house in spic-span condition knowing that it would be lovely to come home to in a week. (We drove down in our mini van and hit the worst snow storm I have ever encountered on the Coquihalla Highway - in mid April!! but that is another story.)

We had a great time in Seattle and the kids loved it. We eventually moved there and hated it but, again, that is another story.

When I arrived home with the three kids and four suitcases full of dirty laundry I opened the door expecting to see my spotless house. Instead I found chaos! There were books on the floor, several ornaments and a precious domed clock which should have been on the mantle over the fireplace were all over the hearth and floor - the dome smashed to bits and the clock in pieces, and cracker crumbs and bits all over the couch and floor. In the kitchen the bread box was open and there was a trail of cracker crumbs and wrappings leading from it to the edge of the counter and all over the floor. A bunch of bananas looked like they had been chewed into. What on EARTH could have caused this havoc? And if it was an animal, which it was looking like to me, how did it open the bread box's roll front door?

I had spied a little pile of droppings of some kind on the arm of the couch, quite a large pile actually. It seemed this was the favourite resting place of whatever it was that did this. We soon found out what it was. A streak of silver darted past us into the dining room and we followed hard on it's heels. As we peeked under the table, a pair of beady little eyes in a furry face peeked back. We recognized him instantly; it was the squirrel the kids had been feeding peanuts to off of our deck all winter. Turns out I had inadvertently left the fireplace damper open and he had scampered down the chimney looking for his usual treats.

It took me an hour to get him out of the house, and three more to clean up his mess. Then I started on the laundry.

Anyway, back to my luggage issues. I always lock my luggage with a TSA accessible lock, and then, when I remember, zip strip the zippers together as an extra deterrent to anyone thinking of opening it up. Every time but one that my luggage has been opened by the TSA, it has been when I haven't used the zip strips. So there's a tip for you - use a zip strip as well as a lock and most likely they won't go through the bag.

There has been a lot of talk lately about TSA agents stealing items from luggage. To deter them from doing this I make an exhaustive list of every single item in my bag along with the line "owner in possession of a copy of this list" and place it right on top when I zip it closed. That way they know that I know exactly what is in the bag and will immediately miss anything they choose to help themselves to. As an aside - I also tape a piece of paper inside the mesh zipper part in the lid that lists my home address as well as my destination address and the dates I will be there, so that - should the unthinkable happen and my luggage gets misdirected - at least it shouldn't end up on the Unclaimed Baggage Center's website. So far I haven't had anything stolen. And my bag has only gone missing once; if you like, you can read about it here.

To help keep my items organized when they do decide to go through my bags, I ordered a set of Rick Steve's Packing Cubes from Amazon. I picked them up yesterday along with my Kindle. I plan on putting underwear and socks in one (not that I am taking any socks on my next trip), bathing suits in another, and not sure what I will put in the large one yet. They come highly recommended by frequent travelers and I am sure I will get much use out of them. Although I am going to try to have only carry-on luggage on this trip, I still like the idea of everything inside the bag being so organized. Once at my destination, I can just - easy-peasy - pull the mesh bags out of my luggage and pop them into a dresser drawer. And should the truly unthinkable happen and there's no room for my bag in the overhead compartment and it has to be checked, then I am prepared for the slovenly habits of the TSA.

Another thing I picked up in the same order yesterday was a Rick Steve's money belt. As I blogged about earlier, I am worried about the large amount of cash I must carry with me for the first leg of my trip, to Mexico, for dental work. They only take American cash as payment. And, as I don't have a credit card with a large limit, I will also need to take more cash and travelers cheques for the Caribbean portion of my trip. Reading stories lately of TSA agents teaming together to steal money from luggage as it goes through the scanners in security, I have been very concerned as to how I will safely carry so much cash and have concluded that the best way is a money belt.

The design of the belt has changed and so the one I have is different from the one pictured when I ordered it. Now instead of one small pocket for credit cards with a large one beside it for cash, the front pocket is divided straight down the middle meaning that the cash has to go in the back pocket along with any larger items, such as a passport. I don't like it as much as the one I thought I was ordering.

According to Rick Steve's, travel guru, this is what every good traveler should have in his or her travel belt:

Packing light applies to your money belt as well as your luggage. Here's what to pack in your money belt:
•Passport: You're legally supposed to have it with you at all times.
•Railpass: This is as valuable as cash.
•Driver's license: This works just about anywhere in Europe and is necessary if you want to rent a car on the spur of the moment.
•Credit card: It's required for car rental and handy to have if your cash runs low.
•Debit card: A Visa debit card is the most versatile for ATM withdrawals. (I no longer use traveler's checks.)
•Cash: Keep only major bills in your money belt.
•Plastic sheath: Money belts easily get sweaty and slimy (YUK!!!). Damp plane tickets and railpasses can be disgusting and sometimes worthless. Even a plain old baggie helps keep things dry.
•Contact list: Print small, and include every phone number or email address of importance in your life.
•Trip calendar page: Include your hotel list and all necessary details from your itinerary

That's a lot of stuff for one small money belt. I won't have a rail pass so that should leave some room! And this one has a waterproof lining so I don't have to worry about the plastic sheath.

With all that stuff in there, I wonder if I will have room for the cash?