Last time I had booked to go to Budapest with Denis, I missed out on going because John got sick and I decided not to go, which I thought at the time was me just being cautious but turned out to be the correct decision. John ended up in hospital with (viral) meningitis. This time, flying out last Thursday, I also nearly didn't make it. D will begin to feel there is a jinx on me going to Budapest with him!
This time I was having problems with teethache (not toothache). Went to dentist previous Friday and he X rayed the 2 teeth that were causing problems but both looked okay so said take antibiotic and see which/what developed. I did but pain just didn't go away, though I was kinda getting used to it, despite taking painkillers. Met Patrick on Wednesday in Dublin and he saw me in pain and at 6 pm started looking for what you do in an emergency dental problem in Dublin. Found a dentist which opened until 7 pm. Went, dentist said probably a crack in back tooth leading to an infection, keep taking painkillers and antibiotics and come back in morning for 9.30 am and his colleague would sort it out. We were flying out to Budapest Thursday around 2 pm. Dental surgery was a very 'down at heel' sort of place, in not a great area but seemed to be efficient
I went to the dentist for my 9.30 appointment, arrived early because traffic was light. Dentist who arrived into work late (lots of apologising from staff saying not to worry, (I wasn't), she would be in - not a very auspicious start) took me quickly and worked on me until 11.45. She was 80% sure problem was not as her colleague had indicated - no crack in back tooth but that problem originated from dead front tooth. This was not inspiring great confidence in me. (Dentists differ, patients ... etc). I asked her what was the worst if her theory was wrong. She said I would have wasted €500 getting a root canal treatment done to a perfectly good tooth but tooth would look no different. I decided to go with her theory, (hadn't a lot of choice). She then drilled a hole at back of front tooth as effectively had to take out the contents of the tooth. She said having drilled the hole, no blood came out, no nerve so her theory was correct - tooth was dead and therefore her recommended treatment was correct.
I apologised to her for messing up her morning schedule. When I emerged at 11.45 there was an overflow of patients outside the waiting room. God knows how long some were waiting. I felt sorry that I had caused their delay also.
Moral of the dentist story - Don't judge book a by its cover. This dental surgery was not the sort of place I would choose in normal course of events, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Two days later all pain is now gone.
Normally I am very fussy about whom to go to e.g., which dentist etc, so continuing in my 'don't judge a book by the cover' theme, since hadn't a chance to get hair cut at home before leaving, walked in off the street to get it done in Budapest. This was a cut/colour job with the problem of language. The upshot of it was that I got the job done 1) as good as I would have at home, 2) much faster and 3) at 25% of cost it would have been at home. I loved the job the Hungarian lady did yet she didn't have a word of English.
So the new me is - no pre-judging!
