There Is Going to Be Some Downtime in Our Coverage - UPDATED 6 Nov 2025
Someone had a dental emergency, and it is resulting in 6 separate trips to the dentist in the coming 3 weeks - namely, me.
Today wasn’t the “big one” that will be removing an impacted tooth, which will be next week (Wed, Nov 12th), and I may be out for a whole day or more afterward.
The days I can work, I will be making up for lost time - and I will do my best to focus on the news that impacts our lives more than those that don’t, save the weekend posts in which we give news a rest (somewhat) with lifestyle and self-learning content.
UPDATE 6 November
On top of the impacted tooth taking me away from my desk…
If you ever had stones, you can relate - woke up this morning feeling like someone had planted a huge ball in my gut. Any sudden movement went right through me. Getting stones is common in Brazil - I had changed things with my diet and the house to keep them to a minimum, as I had been getting them about 2 times a year. My last stone was 2 years ago - and it was making up for lost time. It feels like a gut punch, yet the stones are only a few millimeters in size. At least mine are; my wife is the champion in this family for the size of stones.
The hospital that handles this best is an hour’s drive away, passing 3 hospitals and a clinic on the way. Brazil has a national healthcare system, and it is an eye-opener for anyone advocating such. Rationing, long waits, overcrowded hospitals, less than the best medicines (sometimes WAY less) are all normal in Brazil. But hey, it’s free, they say: the only thing free is the patience needed to get anything done. EIGHT hours after arriving, I finally had my meds in hand for the pain. I refused the meds to dissolve the stones and will be drinking a lot of water with 2 tablespoons of organic vinegar stirred in.
Will be returning to my desk tomorrow afternoon - my wife has some tests first thing in the morning for a long-standing health issue she just has not been able to shake. Nothing life-threatening, but aggravating enough that it needs a “maintenance schedule“ that can’t be put off…
Again, I apologize for the unforeseen hiccups - as we tell everyone, your health comes first.
God bless and make it a great week!
We will be contacting our paid subscribers via email - we want to make up for the week of slow coverage but we have to be sure Substack can handle what we would like to offer.
