Ears, sinuses....and teeth!!!

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...rough night for Reubs with it ending up with us watching cartoons at 4 am. I just don't get Pokemon! Complaining now of tooth ache...suspected he was just misreading the pain from his ear and sinuses but the pain medications were not assisting.

One good aspect to the start to the day was the travel insurance company emailled us e-tickets for our return home, Qantas on the 15th so only one more night here before we can get home and in particular get the little guy fixed up and comfortable at least in his own surroundings. Only downer, and not a significant one, is that the flight is at 11:30 pm so long day and long night - but it will get us home. If Reubs was 100% the delay would not be an issue but with him being off we just want to get him home.

Finally, left with no option but to get the teeth issue ruled out so by 10.30 am had him at Sun Smiles Dental Clinie of Del Mar, San Diego. They were fantastic and apologised for the expense as they were having to charge us $50 for the consult and x-rays up front. The consult went on for 45 minutes and the upshot was that the dentist determined the boy needed a root canal in one of his adult teeth at the back. De ja vu to an incident in Paris in September 1994...but that is another story.

This dental office then organised an immediate appointment with an Endodontic Surgeon for around 12:30 and only 5 minutes down the road. The receptionist even negotiated a discount for cash... by this time I figured it was going to be in a trailer on a service station forecourt but we did not have any option but to follow up. The quoted cost was US$140 for a consult and $1260 for the root canal, to be done this afternoon. Whilst not what we wanted, the cost was at least less than anticipated. While Reubs was in the murder house, Caitlin was across the road getting her hair braided at a little salon there catering solely for kids...in fact front of the salon is a toy shop. Cunning we thought. The little one has been a real trooper, waiting in hospital waiting rooms, disturbed sleep and stuck in small hotel rooms, and she has not complained once really and has been brilliant. A little bit of a princess moment for her to break up her day.

Headed down from the dentist to the Endodontic Surgeons office, expected a cow boy outfit, oh no, more like Endodontic to the Stars...most dentists have fish tanks in their waiting rooms... this outfit has an enormous aquarium with tropical fish that rivals some of the displays at Seaworld. Plush fittings, choice of tv channels in the waiting room and the friendliest most helpful staff...just fantastic. Reubs had further x-rays and this resulted in him in a great deal of distress and a generally horrible hour all round. Then we met the Endodontic Surgeon himself and the one and only tosser of the day. Basically this guy was not in the mood for extra work today, from his surgery he is doing very well and does not need the money, and had a 3 pm tee off somewhere he couldn;t possibly miss it seemed. We got the brush off and he offered absolutely no assistance and that was that. Believe even his nurses were embarassed at his lack of assistance as when we left they would not take payment for the consult and of there own volition wanted to review his pain maintenance medications and ended up contacting pharmacists on our behalf for alternate ways of managing his discomfort. It would seem that we have now established that Reubs is codeine resistant and just does not respond to this medication. Met with a pharmacist they organised for us at a nearby shopping centre and she offered alternate options and recommendations for pain maintenance. So far so good but we will see how we go overnight.

This has been a little bit of a surprise...how the majority of people we have dealt with throughout this trip have been prepared to go out of their way to assist tourists who may appear to have any degree of difficulty or require directions. A number of times we have been approached on the street and asked if we needed help or knew where we were going.

Reubs call for what to do this afternoon, after 3 pm by now, and he elected to go back to a shopping mall... there was a toy shop he needed to check out it seems. Returned to the La Jolla UTC mall, well think that is what it is called, and just had a wander around and chill out time and got some dinner a little later.

Kids in bed by 8 pm and now fingers crossed for a better night.

We are just flat out confused. Started with a doctor diagnosing ear infection, then a house surgeon contradicting this to a degree with a sinus infection and temporary equalising issue, a dentist who was rock solid it was a tooth issue requiring a root canal and then a endodontic surgeon who is unsure of the root canal and offers compacted tooth coming through and a gum inflammation. Need to get him home and get it sorted and just manage his pain as best we can until then.

Hate to think that this bummer of an end to the trip will cloud the memory or spoil the great trip he had had up until this time.

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Photos

Getting a braid..
..one of the only highlights of the day...

The little Princess..
..she even got to pick her own ribbon..

Comments

[Andrea]

Fingers crossed!
Hope you have a restfull night and a good flight home tomorrow! Hopefully Reuben is holding up well until he is back home and can be checked over by his usual doctor in his usual suroundings. Hope all goes well and looking forward to catch up with you back home! Take care and all the very best, see you soon!