Grateful

I needed to get two of my back teeth removed, they'd been painful for a while and were just getting worse!

I'd organised to go through the most expensive surgery in a Darwin simply because they were one of the few who offer an anaesthetist to do a twilight sedation and they were offering one soon!

All was going well until I had to visit the anaesthetist! I tried not to judge his sadly neglected yard, the pitiful waiting room with the continuously yapping dog and the tiny sparse office (I use the  word office VERY generally) with dust so thick on parts of the desk you could literally write your name in it.

He said very little, but what he did say was very arrogant, particularly when asked questions about the procedure. Sorry mate, telling me "if you vunt it to vork it vill vork" does in no way allay my fears and it's not a fucking medical term - you're not hypnotising me you tosser, you're sticking drugs into my vein and I'm paying you $500 for the privilege. I tried a few different angles to get more information - same response (I kid you not, Harrison was with me, he can vouch for this stupid mantra).

It bothered me so I called back a few days later with my concerns. Long story short he refunded my money. Great I couldn't have him touch me but what the hell was I supposed to do now - no way was I brave enough to do this without some kind of mind altering drugs.

I'm fucked and my teeth hurt like a bastard! I'm bawling my eyes out (as silently as I can cause I'm driving the car with 5 kids in it).

A desperate call to Northern Anaesthetist and they put me on to a dentist, Dr Pham, who was using one of their dr's on Friday (this is 2pm Wednesday).

He's a defence Dental surgeon but that's ok because he's prepared to help me. He does his work at the private hospital under a general - a little over the top I said - nah that's ok, we use the same stuff, but more of it - great!!!

Now this excruciatingly long story is about being grateful and that sometimes things happen for a reason. This lovely man went out of his way to get me on his surgery list, with less then 48 hours notice. He didn't mind, he was sincere about that (you can tell). He made calls to the hospital and my dentist to organise my records and discuss. He called me back after hours to let me know what was happening and called last night after dinner to see how I was feeling post-op. AND  lucky for me I went under a general (he tells me) because one of my teeth (the root canal one with the abscess) shattered when he tried to remove it so the 10 minute job took nearly an hour!

Now it's not that I needed my faith in humanity restored because I know we're a pretty decent bunch but I can't begin to tell you how nice it was to have a stranger really help me out when I needed it (word has it ....I don't handle stress well). So today I'm feeling ....... grateful, thankful and lucky.

Sorry it would be remiss of me not to also mention  - the whole procedure has cost me less then half of what I was quoted with the other dentist - sooo nailed it!!!