Tooth Extraction Postponed Due To Weather So My Grandfather And I Talked About Death And Hockey

I was supposed to lose another tooth today, but when I woke up I found my little village under almost a foot of snow. I also found a message on my answering machine from my grandfather, who was going to give me a ride to the dentist, saying the weather was bad but he’d be at my place early and to meet him in the parking lot downstairs.

So, with the phone still in my hand, I looked out my window and of course there he was. It took us about twenty minutes to get out of the driveway because of the new snow and old ice, then after a hundred yards the road just mostly wasn’t there anymore. So we ended up at my parents’ place, the idea was we’d hang out until the snowplows took care of the road.

Over tea and cookies we went through our usual discussion cycle… politician X is an idiot; the Ottawa Senators are ruining hockey; life in his assisted-living residence is killing him; the British were assholes to the Acadians and French-Canadians in general; electric cars will bankrupt the energy grids… which got us talking about some of the jobs he has worked on around the world.

As an engineer my grandfather worked on some of the largest construction projects in the world, including the Churchill Falls hydroelectric dam, which is the largest underground powerhouse ever constructed and also one of the world’s largest power producers period.

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Posted in Bipolar, Bipolar Disease, Bipolar Disorder, Bud, Clinical Depression, crazy people with no pants, Dentist, Depression, Health, Living With Depression, Living With Manic Depression, Manic Depression | 9 Comments

Friday Conversations With My Psychiatrist

I’ve learned a great deal in my discussions with my psychiatrist. Which is good, because we’ve been meeting regularly for four years now… mostly for an hour every second Friday afternoon.

So it occurred to me after a meeting last month to start posting the things we’ve discussed somewhat immediately after the appointment.

Admittedly for the first two years (at least) our discussions weren’t entirely… memorable. Mostly because the PTSD was still raging, and the years and years of untreated manic depression was only in the early stages of treatment.

I started the Lithium as soon as I got back home, but the Seroquel and the Wellbutrin didn’t come until much later. So for that first year mostly I was raw and angry and during our meetings I was trying in that moment to justify my moods on whatever interactions I could remember from the previous week.

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Posted in Appointment Day, Awards, Bipolar Disease, Bipolar Disorder, Christmas, crazy people with no pants, Dentist, Diabetes, Health, Manic Depression, Salted Truths | 6 Comments

If I Win I’ll Let You Touch My Beaver

Salted Lithium has made it into the Final Five in the Best Health Blog category of the Canadian Blog Awards. Which means at least two people voted for my little blog because I voted for Kenn.

The Canadian Blog Awards is an annual event on the Canadian Blogosphere in which Canadian Bloggers and Blog Readers vote to decide which blog is the best – either overall or within a category.

Honestly, my sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to vote… and just to clarify, people outside of Canada are allowed to vote, and the winner gets to put a smiling cartoon beaver in their sidebar… because the national symbol of Canada is the beaver. Which is just awesome.

So I’ve just voted for myself. Which didn’t feel nearly as awkward as I thought it would. If anyone else wants to see a smiling cartoon beaver in my sidebar I suggest voting as well. Time’s up on Dec. 6, and hopefully the winners of the smiling cartoon beaver will be announced the next day because I want that beaver in my hands as soon as possible.

Some friends of mine also made it into the second round. Unfortunately Hella Stella wasn’t one of them, so she won’t have a smiling cartoon beaver in her sidebar. I blame communists. If you’re going to vote in other categories I suggest choosing:

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Posted in Awards, Bipolar Disease, Bipolar Disorder, crazy people with no pants, Health, Living With Depression, Living With Manic Depression, Manic Depression, Ottawa | 15 Comments

Searching For A Better Tooth

“I spent half my life thinking dying was the most important thing I could do… or — at least — that dying was my most likely accomplishment. What the fuck did I care about what shape my teeth were in? Who knew, ten years ago or fifteen years ago that I’d be here ten years later or fifteen years later needing to have a tooth pulled so my jaw doesn’t get infected which will require even more surgery?”
“When You Spend 6570 Consecutive Days Wanting To Kill Yourself The Little Things Get Neglected… Like Dental Hygiene”; Me, June 13, 2007

My brain is mush. I’ve barely slept since Thursday night and I’ve been shovelling Tylenol into my mouth like I was pre-diabetic and they were Smarties.

I’ve got another problem with another tooth. There is no pain like mouth pain. It started off feeling like a cold/hot sensitivity thing spread over three or four teeth, but by Saturday afternoon I recognized the pain as coming from an infection in the gum around the back right molar. So I called my dentist and made an appointment for Monday.

Then I bought something called “Orajel”, which is an oral pain reliever containing benzocaine. I thought I’d be okay for a couple of days with the gel and some Tylenol but both wore off after two hours. So by this morning I’d gone through about sixteen pills and half a tube of the gel.

I keep forgetting Tylenol doesn’t do anything to reduce inflammation.

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Posted in Dentist, Health | 15 Comments

Just An Honour To Be Nominated

Salted Lithium has been nominated for an award, and my sincere thanks to whoever did it, but I think I’m voting for the other guy.

The Canadian Blog Awards is an annual event on the Canadian Blogosphere in which Canadian Bloggers and Blog Readers vote to decide which blog is the best – either overall or within a category.

I’ve been nominated in the “Best Health Blog” category, where I’m up against thirteen other blogs… including Kenn, who runs “My Journey With AIDS”.

The way these awards seem to work is someone nominated me, then someone verifies I fit the category and then it becomes a two stage popularity contest. After this round of voting the top five blogs in each category go on to the next phase, where there’s another vote and a winner is selected.

Two rounds of voting will take place with each round lasting 7 days. The first round of voting will include all nominees. The second round of voting will narrow the list of nominees in each category down to the top 5 from the first round of voting.

Zoom! has also been nominated in three categories: Best Local Blog, and Best Activities Blog. I don’t see anything in the rules against bloggers suggesting people vote for other bloggers, so I’ll be voting for her Knit Nut blog in both.

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Posted in Awards, Bipolar Disease, Bipolar Disorder, Canada, crazy people with no pants, Diabetes, Health, Living With Depression, Living With Manic Depression, Ottawa | 17 Comments

No Post Day | Fired

squirrel!!


There’s a YouTube here of Kramer getting fired. If you can’t see it please contact Google and tell them to stop being evil.

My step-father told me over the weekend the architectural firm he works for is cutting fifty of the three hundred people who work in their Canadian operations. There’s a tonne more being cut in their worldwide operations.

His job is safe, but it’s a salary dump so most of the people going are basically his level. So he’ll be losing friends and colleagues.

I’ve been fired. Not in a while of course because I haven’t worked for a paycheck in four years. But it has happened.

The dumbest time was from my first reporting job after college. I did some really good work for them, but the paper was expanding into three new markets and the owner brought on a managing editor whose background was in sales.

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Posted in crazy people with no pants, Health, No Post Day | 13 Comments