One down, one to go...

...another town and one more show...

No, seriously, the root canal is over and it wasn't bad at all. Tedious, like people said, but the only actually painful part was the freezing beforehand. And even that wasn't too bad (though it did make me grab the arms of the chair and suck in my breath, because, you know, giant stainless-steel needles jabbing into your gums? Not fun.) Anyway, I now have a nice new porcelain crown, and because the tooth in question was still wobbly, the dentist put a wire across it for stability. I have a mini-brace. It looks really freaky. But in any case, it's over and the pain is gone. Hooray!

Now for Simon's cast. He's been managing really well these last couple of days -- you wouldn't even know his foot was broken most of the time, except that he hobbles when he walks and occasionally says "foot hurty" in a contemplative sort of way. Anyway, we're going to the specialist at the hospital this afternoon, so he can decide how to cast it. I'm told the waiting time just to see this guy can be an hour or more... not looking forward to that, but what can you do? I just hope that when the freezing in my mouth wears off, it doesn't ache too much... but we'll see.

A friend of mine from church phoned up this morning and said that she'd heard about my woes and was going to make dinner for our family tonight and bring it over. I was so touched and grateful, I nearly cried.

So, things are OK. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, kind words, and prayers.

O_o

Dear people at Myhometown General Hospital:

I do understand that this is a fairly small town, and thus the orthopaedic specialist only visits once every eight to ten days. And I understand that this would cause long waiting times. I even understand that, having so many patients with so many different needs, you might end up being an hour behind. Or two hours, even.

What I do not understand is why I had to wait two hours just to have the orthopaedic specialist glance at the x-rays and say, "Oh, yeah, that's a fracture. But he'll start walking on it when he's ready. Should be healed in about a week. No need for a cast. Bye-bye."

I mean, I'm very glad that Simon doesn't have to have a cast, but sheesh. Couldn't the specialist have looked at those x-rays, phoned the info in to my family doctor, and saved us all the grief? Two hours for a two-minute consultation seems a wee bit excessive, here...

But at least this week's ordeal seems to be over now. Except for this really annoying wire across my front teeth, but I'm sure I'll get used to that eventually... probably just in time for the dentist to take it off. :)