It's nearly 9:00 pm and I'm happy to report, I'm feeling much, much better than I'd expected: I'm sitting in the tv room, watching the game and thinking about dinner. What a difference from the last time!

The dentist (oral surgeon, technically) I had this morning was by. far. the best I've had. Before the surgery, he sat with me in the waiting room and described the entire procedure, down to "and then I'm going to recline your chair and we'll put a blood pressure indicator on you, then we'll place a pulse monitor on your finger tip..." He was the nicest, most understanding dentist. He even called me from his cell later in the afternoon to see how I was doing. "You don't have to wait until your post-op appointment Thursday if you have any questions; just call me, any time up until about 10:00 pm. And don't forget - a towel on your pillow tonight."