Of Dental Mishaps and Stolen Shrubbery....

I have had one gigantically fucked-up day. Two of them, in fact.

Yesterday, Jonathan took Phoenix to get an abcess drained and a baby tooth pulled, while I headed off to the pediatrician with Eden for shots. Phoenix had been to the dentist on Monday for the X-rays, and I didn't anticipate any problems.

I was sorely mistaken on that count.

The idiot dentist removed THE WRONG TOOTH. Instead of removing one on the left side of his face, she took one from the right. And the abcess was still there. Jonathan was stunned, but remembered something odd from the procedure: when the dentist first entered the room, she had the wrong chart. She then went back and got the "right" one, but now....he's not so sure it WAS the right one after all.

The part that really chaps my ass (besides having to put my child through unnecessary pain), was the half-truths and outright lies the dentist and her staff threw at me over this un-fucking-believable situation when I called to find out how the hell this had happened.

First, they insisted that Phoenix was supposed to have TWO teeth removed, and that the one they removed on Thursday was already scheduled to come out. When I asked why A) No one had said a word to me about in on Monday, and B) why the second tooth had to come out, I was told that A) it must have slipped their minds, and B) the X-rays showed another abcess forming on the removed tooth. They were less than pleased when I pondered---aloud to them, of course---how incredibly advanced thier X-ray machines there must be, to find a problem on the side of his face they DIDN'T take X-rays on.

That lead to story #2: the nurse wrote down the wrong tooth number on the chart during the examination, and that led to the problem. I didn't buy that crap, either: I was in the room during said examination, and the nurse confirmed with the dentist TWICE on the number. I find it pretty damned distasteful that they tried to blame it on the nurse....who'd done nothing wrong.

I then asked them when they could remedy this situation. This led to yet another round of utter bullshit for no apparent reason.

First, I was told I could bring him in this evening. No can do...Jonathan has to work and I have no sitter for this evening. These complete morons actually told me it would be ok for me to "leave" my baby and special-needs child in the waiting room while I sat with Phoenix to have his tooth extracted! Are they completely nucking futs? Who does that?!?!?

Then they told me that as I could not bring him in this evening, I had to wait until THURSDAY. Meaning, my son had to suffer with the pain of an abcess for nearly a week because of their fuck-up.

At this point, I was too angry to continue dealing with these assjacks. I handed the phone to Jonathan, who let them know (in no uncertain terms) that waiting that long was unacceptable. The office manager then had the giant brass balls to tell my husband that she had told me we could bring our son in right away! She said no such fucking thing, let me assure you, or we would have been out the door.

So, off my husband and son go to the dentist...AGAIN. And they sit in the waiting room for nearly TWO HOURS before the dentist sees them and fixes the fuck-up.

I then get a call from the dentist, apologizing to me (about fucking time) for the mistake, and blaming it on "a serious of small miscommunications." I have learned over the years that it is just abso-fucking-lutely impossible for a doctor to apologize for anything they may have done wrong. They will always blame it on something or someone else...the buck never stops with them. Apparently, they teach that in dental school, too.

They wanted to schedule a regular check-up....cold day in hell, folks. I'm calling my insurance carrier on Monday to find the name of a REPUTABLE dentist in my area. I won't be taking anyone in my family back to these incompetants again.

This experience, I believe, is heading me down the road to serious anti-Dentitism. (Bad Seinfeld reference there).

The cherry on top of my sundae of crap today came when I went to check the mail...and discovered that someone had stolen a shrub from my lawn. I am completely serious...a shrub.

We have a series of shrubs lining the house in the front yard, wrapping around to the back. The one closest to the door on one side has been dug up and removed. Even the roots are gone. All that's left is a pile of dirt where my shrub once was.

I have no idea why the thief stole my shrub, why they chose that particular one, why they wanted it, or what they are doing with it now. WTF is wrong with people?!?!?

I thought about putting out an ad:

Missing: one shrubbery. Britton man in medieval royal garb with coconut-carrying servant suspected. Will reward return with an taunting.

You gotta laugh, or else cry, when the world gets this wierd on you....