Ginny Sanchez

Northrop Grumman Announces the FIRESTRIKE(tm) Laser, World's First Weaponized Solid-State Laser for U.S. Military Services

For all of my uncles, cousins, my dad, my son, and my son's dad...That I can think of offhand, more than a dozen men in my family in the past 3 generations alone (more if I go wading through my family tree)...

My dad

My son

I remembered Veteran's Day, and hope you did too.

The final death knell of the root canal from hell ended today--an odyssey that spanned two years with only one high point--the posts were found by an endodontist, who's actually really cool and I like to lurk at his blog.

Well anyway, that craptastic tooth was yanked today, as was the root of a wisdom tooth that would would not come out and was actually precariously perched in the vicinity of my sinus cavity. So today (or rather yesterday, it's after midnight) I went to the oral surgeon. This was the first time I was ever in for oral surgery and did not know what to expect.

What I discovered was that in oral surgery, they think you're such a wimp that they give you nitrous oxide before starting the IV that will knock you flat on your ass. It only got better from there; despite being knocked on my ass I was given novocaine. Parts of my face remained numb for 8 hours after the procedure. I went to sleep quickly and before I knew it, I was toddling off to the recovery room, with stitches in both my upper and lower jaw and a thumbs' up from the surgeon, who said everything went well.

Among the post-op instructions were to not blow my nose for at least a week and should I have to sneeze, to do so with my mouth wide open lest I blow out the weak part of my sinus cavity. I swear to glub it's true--it's typed up and everything. I have some facial swelling but no bruising yet.

This afternoon I slept off the meds and when I awoke, while I was still numb from the novocaine, I had intense pain--so I grabbed the nifty lil' painkillers I was prescribed and that that allowed me to sleep the rest of the day. Now it's the middle of the night...and I'm wide awake. Despite it all, I am going to try to go to work tomorrow.

Because I'm a can-do kinda gal, that's why.

A doctor gave a bone marrow transplant to a patient to treat his leukemia, and may have actually cured the patient's AIDS infection. The doctor who performed the procedure is a hematologist, not an AIDS specialist. It was completely accidental.

...and the world wants to tell America, "Thank you" for voting in Obama. :)

Next Monday I go in for oral surgery to remove the root of the wisdom tooth that gave so much trouble when they tried to remove it Saturday. The oral surgeon took a better x-ray of my face, and discovered why it was probably giving so much trouble. It looks a little like this:


The tip of the root of my tooth, which had never fully come out because there was no room in my mouth (so the tooth was impacted), had a root peeking up in my sinus cavity.

That's the root that is still stuck in my face. Nice huh?

I went to the dentist today to get my upper wisdom teeth removed. Anxious to get it over with, I encouraged the dentist to extract both today, to get it done in one shot.

The left wisdom tooth was extracted quickly and uneventfully. Happy with this turn of events, we moved on to the right wisdom tooth.

I noticed that I was not as numb on this side as I was on the other, so more novocaine was pumped in. Then more. Then we began...

...and the tooth quickly broke at the gumline, turning the everyday extraction into a surgical extraction.

Each time the dentist attempted to remove the root, it would hurt like hell and he'd have to give me more painkiller. He took a break and his wife (who is also a dentist at the practice) took over. At times, BOTH of them worked on my mouth at the same time, taking breaks to re-xray me and give me more pain killer. Once all but the final 5 millimeters of root was extracted and after an hour and a half of drilling, tugging, and prying, we all officially gave up...because I'd had the limit of novocaine. Even though no matter how much novocaine was pumped into me I still felt pain, I kept urging them to continue because I wanted it over with. However, when it got unbearable I would stop them and they'd give me another shot until they simply could not give me any more. I have to get to an oral surgeon on Monday to finish the job.

As I type this my entire face is a little swollen, and it feels like I got the living crap beat out of me.

Why can't dental care go smoothly for me? I don't ask for much. Ouch.

This was at my daughter's concert earlier tonight; it ended quite humorously.

I have a "Heavy Service Pullover" pattern from the 1941 Lux Book that I want to knit. (click here, scroll down for the PDF file)

It appears to be an Australian pattern.

So my questions: Size 7, 9 & 12 needles--are they the same in America? AND, "heavy Duty 5 ply" yarn...I can only find ONE manufacturer of 5 ply wool yarn, and it's cost-prohibitive. Anyone have an idea as to what to use as a substitute? I'm looking for a non-itchy wool or wool blend yarn or a cotton yarnt hat won't shrink to hell when it's washed. Preferably, I'd like machine-washable yarn.

Can you help an old chick out?

Edit: Taking into account the "old" vs "new" size needles and the UK vs US size as outlined here, I think that I need to make the following adjustments on needles:

Size 7 on pattern=size 7 US
Size 9 on pattern= size 5 US
Size 12 on pattern=size 2 US

Glenn Miller has been running through my head all day. Hey, don't complain.