Toothy tale

I nearly didn't get a blip for today, but this evening hubby offered to hold Jack on his lead in the garden for me, & I managed to crawl out of bed & snap this through the window.
I stuck my own two fingers up at 'nice' yesterday, as when I got to the dentist he said that the tooth was so infected he couldn't do anything about it until I'd had a course of antibiotics; so he was impressed to hear that I was already on day 2 of antibiotics, & agreed to get rid of the offender - just as well really, as I'd got myself all psyched up to say goodbye to the tooth, & had even self-medicated with a sedative to help me get through the ordeal! He's only been our dentist for a very short time, & his chair-side manner hadn't exactly warmed me to him, but he's now my new super-hero: he did everything possible to put me at my ease, explained each step & told me what to expect, & almost before I realised it, the tooth was out! And best of all, I remembered to request - & he didn't argue with said request -a non-adrenalin anaesthetic, so I didn't require oxygen or show any signs of shock.

Predictably, it's still knocked me for six; I came home & slept for the rest of the day, & could happily have slept most of today too, except I had another, pre-existing, date with the dentist, this time to have some more impressions taken. Today he was running late & I was almost falling out of my wheelchair with exhaustion, so the receptionist shuffled things around so that I got seen ahead of somebody else; it was almost a relief to lay back on his couch, & I couldn't have cared less what he did to me. We had a talk about the hospital & all the teeth they're planning to take out in one hit: as much as I've been worried about losing so many teeth, the 'one hit' plan worried me more - it's a lot of trauma for me to deal with, added to which there's the worry of getting to the hospital (& finding a parking space!), plus dealing with the journey home afterwards; & finally the uncertainty over when it's actually going to happen (could still be weeks/months away). So we've agreed that since I coped so well yesterday, we're going to give it a try doing it locally - in both senses of the word; he can't give me a general anaesthetic & wouldn't want to anaesthetise my whole mouth in one go, so the work will be done over 3 sessions which I somehow feel happier about (Happy? About three impending dental sessions? am I a masochist?!!). The first session (top right quadrant) is in 3 weeks time.

Things we've learned about Jack
He's A Very Good Boy about being left home alone: he still refuses to have anything to do with 'that crate', but with just a makeshift barrier to confine him to one room, he was fine for an hour yesterday, & fine for even longer today - of course he 'may' have been barking his head off the whole time we were away & only stopped when he heard the car (though we haven't had any complaints from the neighbours!), but all we've heard is a bit of whimpering/whining as we left & again when we got back; and apart from finding him on top of the dining table yesterday, he hasn't got into any mischief, hasn't soiled, nor destroyed anything.

It's amazing to think that he hasn't even been with us a week yet, & the past couple of days with my tooth thing have hardly been ideal circumstances, yet already he's settled into a routine, & is getting more & more responsive - enough so that he hasn't pestered me when I've needed to rest - well, apart from waking me up by barking at the doorbell!

Yes, barking is something we really need to deal with?. and soon.
Oh, and there's been some paw-chewing too, which I'm pretty certain is an anxiety thing .....