The First Implants Are In!

Tuesday February 26

 My confirmation of not returning to the restaurant that we ate at last night- I woke with a splitting headache and swelled fingers!  MSG-ugh, it would take me,1 Advil,  most of the day and a few gallons of water to rid myself of the horrible side effects of dinner the night before.  For those who don't know me, I don't take drugs for my headaches, but this was the exception, I didn't want to be miserable all day since Bakty was having his first dental appointment for his implants to be done.  He was going to need me in top form to help him in whatever way he needed. 

  When we were up and moving we went out to the pool area to have breakfast. Breakfast is served from 6:30 am to 10 am.  It is a nice combination of options to choose from.  Coffee, milk, tea, juice, yogurt drinks, a fruit or 2 of the day, eggs however you want them cooked, meats & cheese, breads, jellies, fried plantains and of course beans & rice.  The menu varies somewhat from day to day, but it is all good! We got our food and sat down at one of the tables near the pool.

  The weather was pleasant, mid 70's.   There were quite a few people at breakfast and a few of them we had seen the day before at Dr. Cavallini's office.  We struck up a conversation with a mother and daughter who were there to get the daughter's teeth completely redone.  They had an appointment that morning around 11:00, as did we, and they asked if we wanted to walk with them to the office.  We accepted and agreed to meet them in the lobby around 10:30. We enjoyed the rest of our breakfast, meeting a few more people before we left to go prepare for the trip to the dentist.

  Not knowing how long we would be there this time, we took the laptop and more snacks with us.  We met our new friends in the lobby and proceeded on our way.  They were very helpful with information about the area; the museum and the park and the consistent warning of "don't go out after dark for safety reasons".  They gave us options for the route we could take, and told us about the different places they had eaten and shopped at.  All a great source of information for us newbies!  We were very appreciative of their company and knowledge.  They also expressed their gratitude and satisfaction with Dr. Cavallini and his staff, another happy client!  It took us about 20 minutes to get to the office walking at a slow steady pace.  Here is our route, which is the safest & most direct route to take.

  Upon arriving we signed the sheet and proceeded to get settled in for what we figured might be a long wait again.  Our friends asked if we had seen the hotel that is directly linked to the office, which we hadn't, so they took us on a tour.  The hotel is very nice and extremely convenient!  If you don't mind not having the pool, you might want to choose to stay there, if rooms are available. We finished our tour and sat back down in the waiting room.  Surprisingly enough, it was only about 10 minutes and they called for Bakty to go to one of the procedure rooms.  I followed him back and waited until Dr. Cavallini came in.  Dr. Cavallini then asked me to leave, but before I went, he had to tell us a blonde joke, about a blonde in a first class seat on a plane headed to New York.  Just in case you haven't heard it, I won't spoil it by retelling, but it was funny!  Maybe he moonlights as a comedian?

  So, I went back to the waiting room while Bakty was getting his first implants done. Thirty Five minutes later Bakty is walking back to the waiting room to tell me he is done.  Done?  He'd been there for just a few minutes!   Yep, done for the day.  He said Dr. Cavallini did the upper 2 implants instead of removing the bad tooth first.  His reasoning was, better to help the wounded first instead of the dead.  He does have a point. I think he knew that the other implant was going to be a bit more painful, so he delayed it another day.  So we stopped by Diana's desk and scheduled another appointment for Wednesday to have the last implant done.  We would need to be back at 2pm the next day.  Well that suited us just fine, and gave us opportunity to go shopping, and exploring.

  We walked back to the hotel, making a stop at the Mas X Menos grocery store.  Bakty was still a bit numb and we knew he would need soft food for the next couple of days.  Chicken soup was the menu of choice for him, so we ventured in for our first shopping experience since arriving.  The grocery store is laid out pretty much like the ones we have at home.  We hit the produce isle first, purchasing bananas, papayas, avocado, a coconut, organic carrots, onion, garlic, spinach and parsley, as well as other spices for the soup. We then moved on to the meat department and picked up a large package of chicken thighs.  Plain yogurt, rice, pasta, saltines and some  sweet rolls and a tasty treat from the deli. Total spent:$30 and I had enough food to last us for several days.  We spent quite a bit of time roaming up and down isles to see what they had.  Lot's of interesting things to be checked out at a later time. 

   Our kitchen was stocked with 4 of each of the essentials; cups, plates bowls, glasses and silverware.  We also had plenty of pots and pans and utensils to complete the task of making chicken soup. I proceeded to get the chicken  cooking for our supper.   We ate a quick lunch of fresh fruit, rolls and some of our snacks, Oh, and the cream filled pastry.  After that we went to the pool for some sun and then on to the lobby to meet more new folks.  We then returned and Skyped home to our family.

  The numbness was wearing off from the anesthesia injection.  Bakty didn't feel much pain, just a bit of throbbing.  He took some Advil and that seemed to ease the throbbing for the rest of the evening.  Bakty noted that unlike getting numb at the dentist office at home and having it last for hours, this seemed to wear off within about 2 hours.  Not a bad thing, very helpful when trying to eat soup.  These carrots were delicious!  Very sweet and very large.  One good thing to come from the restaurant was our to-go containers they served us well in keeping all of our leftovers without having to buy any type of plastic wrap or foil. 

  We ate our dinner and went back out to explore up and down our street,since it was only about 5pm and still daylight.  Just a few hundred feet from our hotel is another hotel, Palma Real, which houses the exercise room.  It seems they don't have a pool so they allow guests from Cristina to go there in exchange their guests use the pool at the Cristina. We would check it out on Wednesday morning before going to the dentist.  Around the corner from there is the casino, great place to exchange your dollars for colones.  We got the best price there.  We walked down the street all the way to the park and then decided we wanted to just relax, so we went back to the pool and struck up conversations with others relaxing for the evening.  It was great!  We met more interesting people and heard their stories; people from Alaska, Florida, Pennsylvania, all in Costa Rica for dental work.  Again, very positive experiences from all. 

Next Post: The Final Implant