A Rough Week

This past week started with my health crashing.  This happens once or twice a week, typically, but it never gets any easier.  Actually, it is more frustrating than anything else because, in some ways, I have normalized the frequency and severity of my health problems and what is more frustrating is how it messes up my schedule and puts me way behind in accomplishing things around the house. 

 I cannot remember being pain-free and able to do whatever I want so these health problems have become normalized.  Now, I need a few days each week of riding a couch and, even on the "good days", I still experience pain and I need to be careful not to overdo it.  I definitely had one of those lousy, painful days at the beginning of this week. 

Back about two weeks ago, I noticed that our dryer is making noise when it is tumbling.  It sounds like a bearing on one or more of the guide wheels holding the tub in place as it tumbles so I ordered the parts I need for that job.  These parts have been sitting around waiting for me to either get to this repair or waiting for the dryer to break forcing me to jump into this job.  

Earlier in the week when I felt quite lousy, I noticed that the dryer isn't drying as well as it used to dry clothes.  Clothes are coming out wrinkled and oftentimes needing more time than what used to be necessary.  My first thought was, "great...  now I need to replace more parts".  

As best as I can tell, the heating element and thermostat(s) are working properly.  I checked the power source to make sure it was still getting the necessary power.  Then I pulled the dryer out away from the wall to see about a clogged vent being our possible issue.  The vent was crushed, broken and out of place.  The dryer not being vented properly could be a possible cause for clothes taking longer to dry as well as clothes coming out wrinkled.  Combine that with some bad bearings and it likely is the problem.  It's not tumbling easily and the vent isn't venting at 100% means problems shouldn't be a surprise.  

In the meantime, Sheila didn't sleep last night because of another tooth infection.  Three months and the third infection in the same tooth which means the infection never goes away completely with each round of antibiotic.  The pain today was into the intolerable levels so she couldn't sleep and couldn't eat.  So, she was going back and forth on the telephone with her endodontic office all morning (where she was supposed to have a root canal done).  This has been an ongoing problem for three months now and neither her dentist nor the endodontic office that is supposed to be doing this root canal has been able to help her nor do they seem to want to admit that this is a serious infection issue.  They kept referring to "the odds" of it not being an infection rather than having her come in for another x-ray to actually see what is going on.   

So, while she was getting more and more frustrated on the telephone this morning, I was busy working on the dryer vent.  I needed to cut the hole in the floor larger so I could move the vent hose over about six inches.  When we got a new dryer a few years ago, I never moved the vent placement in the wall and it is not exactly right.  I just directed the flex vent hose over to where we needed it.  At this point, however, I found that the vent hose was crushed and broken open behind the dryer where it disappears under the floor before running out to the outside wall.  It was time to correct this problem so I had to pull the dryer out and cut a larger hole (see the photo below).

I ordered the parts I need for the vent and they should arrive tomorrow.  After enlarging the hole in the spot required for the new in-wall vent kit to be placed properly for our dryer, I cleaned up the area, covered the enlarged hole with wood to keep critters out, and pushed the dryer back into place and found that Sheila was in worsening pain while the endodontic office continued to claim they can do nothing.  They even claimed it can't possibly be infected again!  I made the decision that we should head to the hospital to put more eyes on this problem and try to get some relief for Sheila.

The ER doctor took a quick look and determined that Sheila's tooth is likely infected.  Actually, he said, "it is definitely infected" but wrote in his notes that it seems infected.  He just lightly touched the tooth and Sheila was in tears again.  He prescribed another round of antibiotics and said she needs to see her dentist as soon as possible.  

Quite frankly, I've always hated dentists and this experience is only confirming my deep-seated negative feelings.  Hopefully the antibiotic will provide some relief for Sheila very soon!

So, as I mentioned above, I was busy working on this dryer vent issue this morning.  Here is a photo of the work I did this morning...

I elongated this hole.  You can see the crushed vent hose inside the hole under the floor.  I have a coupler coming as well as a whole in-wall dryer vent kit.  This kit has a magnetic ring to easily connect the hose coming off the back of the dryer to the part of the kit that gets mounted to the wall.  

I needed to order a coupler too because I actually need little more length on this vent hose.  I think it is going to be a bit frustrating working through this rather small hole but I should be able to accomplish this with little difficulty.  These parts should arrive around lunchtime tomorrow.  

In the morning, I plan to completely disassemble the dryer to replace the bearing wheels and the belt.  The whole dryer needs to be disassembled for this so this little project should be fun too.  

Hopefully, Sheila will get some sleep tonight and the pain will subside at least to tolerable levels by morning...  hopefully.  And, of course, I'm hoping my health holds up long enough for me to fix the dryer so we can do laundry again and for Sheila to move into the tolerable levels.