[MargaretR]

What a rubbishy weekend I'm having.

Saturday I planned to have a day out in Cleveleys -cancelled due to lack of sleep - caused by some inconsiderate young persons revelling past my home twice in the early hours. Well I thought never mind there are 2 more days left of this long weekend.

Spent most of Saturday regaining lost sleep and planned to get the coast bus today Sunday -but - I woke with a swollen face and toothache - yet another dental abcess -had qiute a few in the past 4 years - now have only 8 real teeth left because they have been going down like dominoes.

I know what I need - some dental specific antibiotic to get the swelling down prior to extraction.

My dentist which costs me £16 a month on Denplan will be on a cruise for the next week anyway (had abcesses 3 times before during bank holiday weekends and I know the score by now). There is no provision for having Denplan emergency treatment with another dentist unless you are away from home eg on holiday. Denplan didnt even refund the £6 it cost me to get a prescription from an NHS emergency dental clinic at Accy Vic in almost identical set of circs 2 years ago.

So I have spent an hour on the phone trying to get some antibiotics from somewhere. I am doped up with Solpadol so rang a wrong number and got passed about amongst the West Yorkshire hospital service for a while.

Several things I have established by now-
1 - my own docs out of hours number is giving out an emergency number which says 'thank you for calling Voicemail' then cuts off
2 - there is no 'small injuries' clinic operating at Accy Vic today.
3 - I am waiting for a call back from an NHS emergency dental
service person who may or may not provide me with an
appointment -'expect a wait of a few hours for the call, due to it
being a Bank holiday weekend'.
4. Even if I get some antibiotics today (slim hope), I wont be able to
insert my partial denture until the swelling goes down, so my
planned trip to the Colne Blues Festival tomorrow so see my
son's band performing is off too.

So for the first few sunshine days we have had this summer I am grounded, in pain, and looking more like Les Dawson with his teeth out than I ever expected to do
Bank Holidays!!! st**f em - I hope you are enjoying yours