Physicals, teeth cleanings, and eye appointments - oh my!

Within the last month, I have gotten my yearly physical, gone to the dentist to get a checkup and teeth cleaning, and had my eyes checked.

First the physical. I'm in good health, despite the fact that I'm overweight. I discuss this with my doctor, and she recommends the Pro Club 20/20 program. One of my co-workers is going through this program right now, and is doing really well. So, I say I'll consider it. My insurance covers most of the cost, but there's still a pretty penny out of pocket. Not to mention the fact that I tend to be a lazy ass, which is what got me to this point in the first place. Well, that and McDonalds fries. But, I've kicked the fast food habit, so now I just need to adopt a good physical fitness routine. I'm seriously thinking about giving this program a try because it has a very good success rate, and if anything, I'd be paying for part of it which would make me more likely to get my ass to the gym and meet up with my personal trainer and nutritionist. A little accountability might help me kick it into gear.

Now the dentist. I hadn't gone in almost 2 and a 1/2 years. It's not that I hate the dentist. It's just that I forget to make the appointment, and since I've never had teeth problems before, and I have a Sonicare, I tend to put it off way longer than I should. Well, all good things must come to an end. I've never had so much as a cavity in my life. Now I have two. They are matching cavities, in the two back upper teeth. My dentist explains that this is a fairly common spot, since it's really hard to get to. Meanwhile, I'm devastated that my goal in life to have perfect teeth is now over. I'm going to have two fillings next week. She tells me that she only uses teeth-colored filling material, so you won't be able to see them. But, I'll always know that they're there. Blech. The only thing I'm looking forward to are the massage chairs in the waiting room and the paraffin wax hand treatment that they do when you come in. Small consolations...

Finally, the eye appointment. I really like the optometrist that I saw this morning at Costco. He had a good recommendation for naturopathic eye drops to help with my allergies (which he noticed were bothering me when checking out my eyes). He also figured out that my last prescription was a bit of an overcorrection, and that I have a very slight astigmatism in my left eye. All news to me, but now I'm thinking that the overcorrection may be one of the reasons I have a lot of headaches (aside from the migraines). I've always had a lot of headaches. Things just come out in my head I guess. But, I'm optimistic that this may help a bit.

He also explained that the last people I got my glasses from were probably not crooks. I was really ticked off because I got glasses from Pearl about 9 months ago, and the lenses were wearing really weird - not scratched, but having weird spots on them that I couldn't get off. I kept them in the case that they gave me, and only ever used the spray and cloth they gave me to clean them. My new optomitrist explained that with the anti-glare coating, you have to be uber careful about touching them, what kind of case you use for them, how you clean them, etc. He says that he gets a new pair every year simply because they are more prone to problems. This would have been really helpful for the people at Pearl to explain to me when I went in an complained about the glasses, but oh well. All they could tell me was that I hadn't bought the extended warranty, so there was nothing they could do about it. So, I've now sent one pair of glasses off to have the lenses replaced by Costco, and I bought contacts with my new, not overcorrected prescription. And I opted not to have the anti glare coating put on these new lenses. I may get it for my second pair of glasses when I get the first pair back, but we'll see. I wasn't very impressed with the anti-glare coating wearing off like that. It's not like when I was a teenager and didn't take very good care of my glasses. I'm really careful with them now, but both pairs got really messed up just in the course of daily life. Not good.