The Root of the Problem, Gaming Activities, State Election

[tcpip]

Late last week I had a bit of a toothache, my immediate prognosis being that it was one of twenty-seven plus-year amalgam fillings on its way out. No problem, I book an appointment at the dentist for a couple of week's time. By Sunday I'm discovering that generous amounts of ibuprofen, codeine and cognac is necessary to relieve the symptoms and yesterday I'm down at the local dental clinic. Turns out that a lower right molar (number 30, apparently) has suffered a crack - how is a mystery - which naturally enough became infected, and thus requiring root canal therapy. The dentistry itself wasn't much a problem, but sweet lord, the symptoms are amazingly painful; I'm downing painkillers like a kid with a sweet tooth (to use a perhaps inappropriate metaphor).

Amongst all this however I ran a session of Mouse Guard/Warhammer on Thursday night, nearing the completion of the Death on the Reik. On Saturday there was some amusing discussion for GURPS Krononauts concerning an offer for time travellers in a documentary with references the the presentation from Terry Kelly of the Victorian Skeptics on the evidence of paranormal activity at the Unitarian Church. Sunday was a session of RuneQuest Prax, which involved the summoning of a volcanic eruption (pretty awesome). Yesterday I finished a review of Dragon Age, after playing Pendragon-Britannia, where my character managed to escape the clutches of the sidhe. I intend to do a review of Pendragon over the next few days as well.

We're having a state election in Victoria, although it hasn't attracted much media attention. I've been letterboxing for Labor canidate for Kew, Kate Jackson and will volunteer throughout polling day. I'll also be making a donation towards Maxine Morand, the Labor candidate for the ultra-marginal seat of Mount Waverly due to her work on the legalising of abortion in Victoria. The Coalition, for their part, have decided to preference Labor ahead of the Greens last which means that Labor isn't fighting on two fronts and the Greens will find it difficult to pick up the inner urban seats. I'm pleased that this also means that the Greens candidate for Richmond, Kathleen Maltzahn, is unlikely to be elected. Maltzahn is apparently a supporter of the "Swedish model" of prostitution law where the service is decriminalised from the supply side, but criminalised on the demand side. Sex workers in Sweden aren't very happy with the law, for economic and safety reasons and said candidate for Richmond has apparently not shown to two local meetings on the subject in the past week.

Comments

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

I haven't kept up with the research, but back when I used to know such things on a professional basis, the purest form of pain was delivered by running electrical current through metal braces on the teeth.

Sweet dreams. (I also hope you feel better soon.)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ouch! That would be quite sensitive. Although I've heard on the grapevine that nothing beats nerve poison - one can die from the brain simply deciding to shut the body down despite the fact that there's no significant corporeal damage!

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

when I had a cracked tooth I was cheerily downing 90mg of codeine at a go. Dental problem can seriosusly fcking hurt.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yep 90mg seems to be just right to quell it for a few hours. I'm trying to vary the painkillers and anti-inflammatories I'm taking (codein, ibuprofen, clove oil) in an effort to maximise their effectiveness - but when you're taking this many I don't hold much hope...

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

There's actually a federal byelection in my riding. It's been a Liberal Party stronghold for about two decades, but the guy largely responsible for that decided to become mayor instead. Conservative Party could grab the seat with their celebrity candidate, Julian Fantino, unless it turns out all along that the giant bloc of retirees votes for the party rather than the person.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I don't have too much of a problem with celebrity candidates; that's normal politics to pre-select someone who is already well known. What annoys me is when celebrity candidates clearly have no idea about policy and procedure and people still vote for them based on their celebrity career.

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Well, Fantino is certainly known for being a chief of police in more than one city over his career, and Commissioner of the OPP up until he made this political run. I suspect some people will vote for him just because they have heard the name and don't know who Tony Genco (main opponent) is. There's a Wikipedia article about Fantino and some of the controversies in his career.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I see... So he's an aggressive right-wing police chief with political aspirations... Honestly, if the riding is solidly Liberal as you say I can't imagine this person coming within Cooee of victory. He's not the sort that you could run in either a safe liberal or marginal seat, too controversial, too conservative. If the conservatives were smart they'd have him in an untouchable seat...

[kimeros.livejournal.com]

Yeah, tooth pain is crazy making :(

I found that beer was actually quite good for pain relief.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Despite the fact I've had ice-packs on my jaw and and handful of painkillers quietly whimpering, I am still surprised when some woman say it's more painful than labour....

Hadn't thought about beer as a pain reliever... Although plenty of people seem to swear by it!

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Oh your teeth Lev!

You may well be a tooth grinder, hence the crack - mine are quite cracked due to grinding. Don't worry, after root canal, you won't feel too much. Be careful not to OD on the pain killers though, it can make you very sick.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, after root canal, you won't feel too much.

I've now had one dentist tell me that it's normal to still be in pain and one tell me that it's very unusual. Not impressed with conflicting information over something this basic.

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

I still have pain from mine, but I put it off for about 10 years because it didn't hurt that much. It is major dental mucking about and takes a while to heal - I'm guessing they've removed the nerve and you have to go back in a month to get the permanent filling done? They should be able to prescribe you effective pain killers such as Panadine Forte if it's still very painful.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I just visited a dental clinic across from RMIT to get another set of antibiotics (I think I've lost my original ones). The response of the dentist? "Oh, I prefer not to prescribe panedein forte. Have some mersondyl instead."

I paid money for the privilege of that refusal!

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Mersyndol is pretty strong....

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you're still in the habit of crunching up cooked bones, I'd seriously reconsider doing it anymore - we're not equipped properly for that....

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

At the moment I'm not eating anything harder than a wet noodle.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

You should really consider replacing all those amalgam fillings with ceramics.

Btw have you tried the new StarCraft II?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

True that. I'll hint broadly about it when I'm at the dentist next for part II of the root canal therapy.

Haven't tried Starcraft II.... I could imagine that many hours could be sucked into it if I did so :)