So…I got the bad news from the dentists. Since I have several different problems with my mouth, I have to see several different dentists - there’s a specialist for everything nowadays, isn’t there? Well, the grand total for 3 lousy teeth that you can hardly see is a whopping $6,000.00 - give or take a couple hundred bucks. I have no health insurance, so that’s a major hit to my wallet (actually it’s a major hit to my credit card), and there are so many other things I would rather do with that kind of money - you know - things like NEW FLOORS! But, alas, the powers that be have not deigned that new floors are a necessity right now so I will, with zen-like acceptance, defer to the needs of my buccal cavity. My mother left me with this legacy, “Honey, always take care of your teeth, and buy good shoes.” When I told that to the dentist he said that after I saw my bill, a new pair of shoes would be lookin’ really good…and cheap. I did not laugh.

I’ve found that I’m taking better care of myself these days, whether it’s dental work or a pedicure. I’ve had my first designated preventive colonoscopy already (I’ll save that story for another time), have yearly mammograms, pap smears, blood work, x-rays and eat relatively well, save the middle of the night ice cream raid. I go to the gym about 4 days a week, don’t drink or use drugs (Duh!) and make sure I get plenty of rest, use a great moisturizer and floss every day. I do smoke, but I don’t want to talk about that right now.

For over 20 years I put my body through hell, and never thought twice about what I was doing, whether it was to the outside or the inside of this form of mine. I just read a blog by The Junky’s Wife in which she came home to find a turd in the toilet that was so big “it could only be produced by an opiate addict.” I, unfortunately, could identify with this image and pictured what the exact turd would look like, as I had, for years, ingested opiates on a regular basis and had excruciating bowel movements that produced the product previously described. Did it deter me? Did it stop and make me ask myself what I was doing? Did it even make me slow down? No. I’m an addict, and all it did was allow me to swallow the next handful of pills with a lightness in my step that was not there before the visit to the bathroom. I look back on that insanity, which was completely normal for me then, and I am grateful that, just for today, I live the lifestyle I enjoy right this minute. I have a respect for my body, and as it “matures” I am comfortable with the changes that accompany aging and am taking care of this container of flesh and bones as best I can.

Okay - a Centrum Silver every day doesn’t hurt - just coverin’ my bases.

Till Next Time-

Your Humble Road Warrior