Day 114

Today was a horrible day, one I have been dreading for a while - I had to go out!!!

I have been suffering from toothache for a while, and phoned the dentist for an emergency appointment. Now most people would at this point be saying, and, what's the big deal.

Well the big deal is as we have been shielding as a family since late March this would be my first time going outside into the big ugly world. 

The dentists were really good in terms of the virus. You can't get into the dentist, but have to ring to let them know you are there for an appointment, at which point you are greeted at the back gate to the dentists and made to put your face mask on. There was no-one else visible in the surgery, apart from receptionists.

Unfortunately my treatment didn't go as smoothly. It appeared the defective tooth needed to come out, no problem, I'm a big boy and can handle that - besides which I just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.

I should have known it wasn't going to go well when it took several injections to get my face to go even slightly numb - it does worry you a bit when the dentist says "can you feel this" and the answer is yes. To be honest I have never encountered this before. "Can you feel this" she says after giving me my third injection - er! yes...

After 5 injections she informs me she has given me as much anaesthetic as she can and asked me if I had driven to the appointment - at that point I started worrying - but it was ok, she wanted me to go and sit somewhere to let the jabs take effect. 

15 minutes later I was back in the chair and she started yanking on my tooth. Worryingly it wasn't totally pain free and I had to raise my hand several times to get her to stop. She twisted and pulled and turned my tooth, poked at the gum to loosen it and generally did everything she could to get it out - at one point I thought she was going to stand on my chest and pull with all her might that way.

The long and short of it, was despite her best efforts the bugger didn't want to come out, so she decided to cut the tooth in half. What the heck. Well after the lovely smell of burning hair as she sawed into my tooth, she then attempted to pull my tooth out - crack and it comes out, or so I thought, well no, it didn't that was only half the bloody thing coming out. She took another yank on the other half, only for it to snap off at gum level. Great!

I now have the prospect of having another trip to a dentist who specialises in extractions. The dentist and pain bit doesn't bother me in the slightest, I guess it's the masochist in me, but the thought of going back out again quite frankly scares the shit out of me!

It was nice to go from there to the 4 of us going to see the wife's mum and dad. Now this was another milestone, as the remaining granddaughter (remaining as in living with us, not as in alive), has not left our home for, well over 114 days. Fortunately at present she appears to have little or no interest in following her sister out of the door, and with no work to go to she doesn't have that apparent desire to return to normality.

I am so glad she is happy to stay with us at the moment, as I just know she wouldn't have a clue how to handle social distancing. It's really scarey knowing that those with learning difficulties aren't really clearly catered for in the government advice, so all the while we can keep her and us safe all the better.

Anyway, I digressed, we turned up at the mother-in-laws where our little one decided to eat them out of house and home, well garden. We have only been to their's to socially distance visit in the garden twice now, and on each occasion I have had to empty the two bird baths in the garden, as they are like a magnet to our little man. It was just good to see him wandering around, and granddaughter getting out - I keep using the word "normal" but for a few hours it seemed just that - normal!