Survival

So, I survived and my bank account is considerably lower.  I'm tapering off the pain meds today and, over the serious objections of my Manager, taking today off work to catch up on what didn't get done yesterday.  He seems to feel that since I am free of pain, I can now jump right back into it since he got so many shipments through the door yesterday.  I seem to feel that since he had told me to take both days off, I scheduled my work accordingly and he will just have to live with it.  And so he will.  I may still get called in if there is an emergency, but I'm going to hope that doesn't happen. 

The Black Gate was intimidating, but fell rather quickly in the end. 

I basically made it through the whole dental ordeal with the incredible aid and good thoughts from my friends throughout the world.  I kept feeling that if people are brave enough to do the impossible, if a small group of 6,000 warriors were brave enough (or foolish enough) to storm the Black Gate of Mordor, then I should be able to make it through this.  My friend CW suggested that I take my iPod along and listen to music, that also helped a lot.  I was still terrified, but managed, then came home and slept for four hours, and got a good night's sleep last night.  I'm almost off all pain meds, and by tonight should be fully recovered.  I'll call my dentist today to set up an appointment to replace the temp filling with a permanent one and I'll be done.  "Whew!"  What a ride!