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Today, I had the final appointment for my dental inlay. As long as it heals well and I stop having pain, I shouldn’t have any more trouble for decades!

This video explains the inlay process better than I could:

Last week’s appointment was prep. It took three injections and about 45 minutes to freeze me enough for a 5-minute procedure. In Canada, I know they would not have waited that long. The dentist said that she believes me about that because she has a Canada-trained colleague (who happened to be the one who did the emergency repair) who needs to be reminded to be more patient when it comes to anesthesia because there can be dire consequences to hitting a nerve, the patient jumping, and then the drill causing more damage than it was meant to repair. I was shocked by how much material she took out — I could feel it with my tongue and then I saw the mould she took. The mould was of my whole mouth to make sure that the inlay matches my bite pattern.

The tooth was achy with the temporary material and I actually woke up at 1AM on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in so much pain I thought I was going to have to get myself to a 24-hour pharmacy. Thankfully, after much digging, I found a couple of Advil that did the trick. The dentist hopes that the pain will resolve itself once the tooth heals from all of the trauma of the last few weeks, but she did mention the dreaded R word — a root canal. I’m optimistic, based on the pain type, that I won’t have to go that far.

The inlay looks and feels so natural! For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a huge dark grey filling in the top left back of my mouth. It’s kept me from eating and flossing properly. Now, I yawn in front of a mirror and just see natural-looking teeth!

I’ll be finished with the orthodontic work on this day next month, when I’ll be able to just start wearing my retainer at night. I’m going to give myself a year’s break from dental work and then I’m going to see about gradually getting all my metal fillings replaced with tooth-coloured ones or inlays if necessary. I wish I’d taken care of my teeth when I was younger, but I didn’t have the kind of parents who took care of that kind of thing and then as a young adult I rarely could afford routine dental care, never mind more specialized treatment. I’m grateful to be somewhere that I can take care of such things now, before it’s too late, and maybe I won’t need dentures in the future!

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(Post 214 of 263)

Kitchen update. I name names in this video but I’m not putting them in writing yet.

(Post 213 of 263)

The doorbell rang on Friday and it was a surveyor from INEGI, the Mexican “National Institute of Statistics and Geography.” My household was one of only 150,000 in all of Mexico selected to do a survey on household expenses to help determine services and social programs that would be needed in those select geographic areas. I understand the importance of such things so I agreed to participate.

It has been quite the process! The initial visit took over an hour and then the gentleman returned Saturday and Sunday for nearly two hours each time and will be here again today through Thursday, but just for a few minutes for those visits. I had to answer questions about categories of expenses over the last six months, last three months, last month, and last week. I also have to track all my daily food and transportation costs. It’s unfortunately a weird time of my life to be collecting such data, but he said he’ll take whatever info I have to give.

I finished the “big” survey yesterday, so today he is just coming to get my food spending for the last 24 hours. I actually got some groceries yesterday (and thank goodness it was a small shop because he put down every single item and its weight!) so I expect my only expenditure for today will be my post-Pilates coffee.

Even though this has been a huge time sink, I really did feel it is imperative to participate. I know that Stats Canada cannot be trusted because I’ve been denied participation in the census, telling me that no numbers that come out of their studies can be trusted to truly reflect the gamut of realities in Canada. So I’m hoping that the numbers here are more trustworthy. The questions definitely did seem to cover the full gamut of Mexican households, from those with dirt floors where people sleep in the food preparation area where they cook with firewood to the modern houses like mine that have all the amenities of the modern world.

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September 20th, the government announced that after much talk, ground has finally broken on what will be Mérida’s answer to Bosque de Chapultepec, Central Park, Parc Lafontaine, Stanley Park, a large park called El gran parque de la plancha that will provide a much needed oasis in a poorly planned deforested heat island of a city.

Also this week, there was confirmation that Mérida’s three electric tram lines are officially a go and will be breaking ground in about a month.

One of these tram lines will stop almost right at my door and take me directly to the new park. In total, the tram lines will cover about 85% of the “long distance” travel I do in this city.

My top two complaints about life in Mérida are the inaccessibility of green spaces and the poor public transportation. Both issues are getting sorted. Life here is about to improve greatly and I’m excited for the future!