Wordless Wednesday

My Dentist

I love my dentist!  Now before you think I'm crazy or that my dentist likes to turn up the gas a little too high, I will also say that I HATE going to the dentist.

I have always had horrible teeth.  Growing up I averaged 10 cavities a year.  And we had horrible dentists.  The mean kind, that yell at little kids and who seem to go out of their way to make it hurt even more.  As a young adult I finally just stopped going.  I saw no need to put myself through that horror any more.

Till I had a really bad tooth ache.

Even then, I let it go so far that it was abscessed and Oh. So. Painful.  We had just recently moved to Halifax, so I got a recommendation from a co-worker.  And that is when I fell in love with my dentist.  He was kind, gentle and took my fear seriously.  He fixed that tooth and even managed to convince me to go back.   So I did.  And over time I learned to trust him.  He even got me to the point that I could go for appointments without having to be medicated first.

I love him so much that I recommend him to everyone.  Anyone who has ever feared the dentist and goes to see him, falls in love with him too.  I've sent him so many referrals over the years, that he once sent me a huge bouquet of flowers as a thank you.  He is just that great.

So when my tooth started to hurt last week, I thought nothing of picking up the phone and making an appointment.  And not only is he nice and kind and gentle, he always makes time for people.  I've even had him stay past his last appointment to fit me in when I was having a lot of pain.

While I trust him, I'm still pretty scared and tense when I'm in the chair.  So when he finished examining  my tooth today, he and his assistant (who is equally as awesome!) pulled their chairs up on either side of me, knowing that my first thought was going to be to bolt.   And it was.  And unplanned, unprepared for tooth extraction!  You've got to be kidding me.  But I knew that if I left, I wouldn't want to go back, so I put on my big girl panties, started to cry and said okay, let's get 'er done.  I was in and out of the whole appointment in 12 minutes - that included talking me down and waiting for the freezing to take! It didn't even hurt; scared me to death and left me shaking, but didn't hurt.

So if you are in the Halifax area and need an wondrous dentist, be sure to look up Dr. Kirk Blanchard.  He rocks!

The perils of public transportation

I haven't owned a car for more then 15 years, so I am a veteran of public transportation. And by default, so is Liam. We hop on the bus to get pretty much every where we go.

I am also one of those slightly crazed, hyper vigilant, kinda OCD people. I will check my purse 10 times to make sure I have bus tickets, even though the walk to the bus is only 5 minutes. I won't close the driver door until Liam is out of a car so that he doesn't accidentally get locked in. I ramble on to him when we walk about looking out for cars that are backing up or making sure that he can see a driver's eyes before he starts to cross the road.

So when we went to get off the bus today I didn't foresee any problems. Liam knows not to stand up before the bus stops so that he doesn't fall. And he knows that I go out the doors first because he's not heavy enough to activate them to open, and if I'm already out, I can help him down (those steps are high).

Well......

I stepped down, the doors opened, I got out and in the nano-second it took me to turn around and hold Liam's hand the doors slammed shut and the bus started to drive away! With me still holding Liam's hand on the outside of the bus, while the rest of his body was on the inside!

Needless to say I was not very calm about the situation! The driver stopped pretty quickly and released the doors. Liam was not hurt, but was shaken and MAD at the driver. The driver parked and came out to make sure we were okay. I'm one of those women that tears up when I'm angry, so I end up looking like a sniveling fool. I kept my cool so as to not further upset Liam, made sure that Liam was not hurt and told the driver that we were fine and that he had better pay closer attention to his passengers and less attention to getting to the next stop on time.

Of course this happened on our way to somewhere today, so we had to take another bus to get home. Liam tried everything he could to convince me that we should just walk. I very much wanted him to get back on the horse, so to speak, since if he develops a bus phobia, our lives are going to be very complicated. I assured him as best I could that everything would be okay and promised him that we would exit by the front door so that the driver would be guaranteed to see us. When it was time for us to get off Liam shouted at the top of his lungs to the driver "Make sure the doors stay open!"

Phew, what a day! His arm is okay, there doesn't seem to be any lasting fear of the bus, but I suspect he's not going to be exiting by the back doors any time soon. And if I thought I was hyper-vigilante before, then I'm not sure what level of neurosis this incident has pushed me to!

Fear of Water

Aquaphobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of water. Aquaphobia is a specific phobia that involves a level of fear that is beyond the patient's control or that may interfere with daily life.People suffer aquaphobia in many ways and may experience it even though they realize the water in an ocean, a river, or even a bathtub poses no imminent threat. They may avoid such activities as boating and swimming, or they may avoid swimming in the deep ocean despite having mastered basic swimming skills. This anxiety commonly extends to getting wet or splashed with water when it is unexpected, or being pushed or thrown into a body of water.

I wouldn't say that I have a PHOBIA exactly. My fear of water doesn't interfere with my daily life. If I had chosen a career as a life guard, then maybe it would. But I have this fear of water you see, so being a life guard never even entered into the possible list of career choices. My specific fear of water is water splashing in my face, or having to put my face in water (bobbing for apples is out as an activity too - maybe this does interfere more then I thought!)


At a daily level, the only time that this fear manifests itself is in the shower. But I've been showering for awhile now so I have conquered how to do it (and wash my hair) without a single drop of water getting on my face. So I can hop into the shower with nary a concern. I don't wear make up or any other product on my face so I simply just don't wash it. I have a great complexion so that must be working okay.


Living with a 6 year old however has opened up many more opportunities for me to get my face wet. Babies splash when they are in the tub. When they get older they splash on purpose. It was inevitable that water guns would become a part of our outdoor toy selection. I do my best to not let my fear overcome me and stop me from having fun with Liam, because after all, water guns and splashing can be fun! I even took Liam to his mother/child swim classes starting at 9 months old in a hope that I could get over my fear. That didn't work out so well. And as a result, Liam didn't like the water very much either. Since he's been taking swimming lessons on his own, he has overcome that so it doesn't look like my fear has rubbed off on him.


I'm not 100% sure where this fear came from, but I have my suspicions. I have a very vivid memory of being at my Aunt and Uncle's house one summer when I was quite young - maybe 5-6 and someone threw me in the pool, knowing that I couldn't swim. And of everyone standing around the pool laughing while I struggled and panicked before someone finally rescued me. Now neither of my parents remember this (or are willing to admit that they remember it) but that could be because they were all DRUNK at the time which is why they all thought this would be a hilarious idea in the first place!


So there you go, I've shared 2 of my phobias, anyone else have any they want to share?

The Flume Ride

I don't know which demented person invented this ride from H E Double Hockey Sticks, but I'm sure they are having a great laugh at all of us folks who ride it for the first time!

I should have known from the moment we got to the gate that it was wrong. You have to walk across a moving platform to get to the log, which never stops moving. Yes, alright, it's going VERY slow, but it is still moving. Then I realized that unlike every other carnival ride possible, there was no seat belt, no shoulder strap, no bar that came down and crushed your pelvis ensuring that you did not fall out.

How do you not fall out when you go careening down the very steep hill you ask? You brace your feet. Oh, and there is a metal bar down the sides of the log to hold onto. However, since the logs keep going around and around, they are always wet. So the metal bar? Very slippery and not much help.

Now Hilary had been talking up this ride to Liam all week. It was cool, it was AMAZING, it was the best thing ever! And SHE was going to take him on it. This was a major to-do, since Hilary gets car sick when I back up in a parking lot and sea sick on the boat museum that has been anchored at the dock so long that the barnacles have cemented it to the ocean floor. The reason she agreed to take Liam on it is that I have a major fear of water, especially water that splashes in my face. So when we got to the park this was of course the first ride Liam wanted to check out. Hilary took one look at it and said "That looks an awful lot more like a roller coaster then I remember, I can't go on that!" Since this was Liam's big birthday weekend celebration, I couldn't disappoint him now could I? So off we went, with me sucking up my water fear as best I could.

So Liam and I navigated the moving platform, I got in, braced my feet and helped him in. Oh Oh!! He's too short to brace his feet against anything. I guess that is why you have to be 48 inches tall to ride on this alone. But the signs and the attendants all said that at 44 inches he was fine to ride it as long as an adult was with him. I always assumed that these warnings were more based on age and maturity, where the adult makes sure the kid doesn't freak out and keeps their arms inside the ride or what have you. I didn't think it was so that the adult could become a human seat belt, the only thing holding the child in the moving log as it hurtled down the hill!

We got to the top of the first hill and I started to panic! I had my feet braced so hard that I was starting to get a charlie horse. I didn't think that my legs alone would keep us in this coffin sized piece of plastic, so I held onto the slippery bar with one hand, and grasped Liam around the waist with all my might with my other arm. At first he was telling me to let go, it was too tight but then we crested the top of the hill and he was silent - for a fraction of the second, and then the screaming started! I don't know who was louder, him or me.

He didn't fall out! Of course, we had no choice but to finish the ride, which luckily meant only one more hill. I wasn't as panicked the second time, but I know understand the expression "my heart was in my throat". We both put on a very brave front for Hilary when we got off, and claimed that it was too cold out to go again and get all wet, why don't we try some other rides instead?

Never again will I ride the flume ride!! And I suspect that Liam won't either.

My weird phobia and yesterday's freak out.

A genuine master of the air, the swallow swoops low along the ground at
high speed, changing direction in the blink of an eye.

Growing up, my parents barn was full of barn swallows. Every corner of every outdoor building had their little mud nests hidden amongst the rafters. And I hated them. Mostly because they hated me. I kept my bike in one of the sheds and every year a family of swallows would nest right above the door. So every time I tried to get my bike out or put it away Mummy and Daddy swallow would go on alert and try to attack me before I could attack their nest. They would swoop and dive and I would cover my head with my arms and run screaming into the house.

As a result I now have a full blown phobia of birds.

My biggest fear is that a bird is going to swoop towards me and get their beak stuck in my forehead.

Yeah.. when you type it out it sounds pretty dumb. When the birds are swooping at you it seems very realistic!

And that is what caused yesterday's freak out. Liam and I were walking home from soccer when out of no where a Blue Jay came swooping at my head! He pulled up at the last second but I still felt his feet brush through my hair. He landed on a tree branch at my eye level right behind me! Before you think that I'm exaggerating due to my already quite pronounced phobia, let me tell you what Liam's reaction was. Keep in mind that Liam is 2 feet shorter then I am, so he did not have the same bird's eye view that I did! He saw the bird coming at us, screamed and DUCKED! Because of my recent falling-down-the-stairs injury I was not able to move very quickly and really, it happened so fast that I don't think I could have ducked anyway.

It was all I could do to not freak out in front of Liam. One of my parenting goals has been to NOT pass on my weirdnesses and phobias. Luckily we were only a few houses from home so I was able to send him running ahead to tell Mummy all about it. I made it home to find Hilary laughing in the doorway (spouses are SOOOO supportive of their partners fears aren't they?)

I think I'll be carrying an umbrella with me for the rest of the summer! Either to protect my forehead or to use as a bat for any incoming projectiles!