Washington day 1

August 30

I spoke with Sarah's father this morning. He said he no longer extracts teeth but his junior associate Mike in his dental clinic does. He called his associate and shortly afterwards I did the same, as instructed. The receptionist at the clinic was expecting my call and told me I could be seen early in the afternoon. This was very good news. My tooth has become a worrisome issue for me by now to the point that I dare not leave Seattle for far-flung places without first having this tooth extracted. My own dentist in Beer Sheva wrote earlier, after I sent him a micro-cam photo of the tooth, that the tooth was not worth saving. I dreaded what this might cost, but I dreaded even more the effects of doing nothing.

Razelle and I spent the morning interacting with Yossi and Moshe, Joel and Sarah's 6-year-old twins. Their two youngest boys were too young to interact with us. We ate breakfast with them, Joel included. Yossi, in particular, bonded with me and loved to interact with me. Razelle entertained them both with her witch's-cackled rendition of "double, double, toil and trouble" from McBeth, which they enjoyed repeating often in their own voices the rest of the day. They asked if they could see our "RV" (our van) and I showed it to them.

I left Joel's place right on schedule and drove to the dental clinic in Renton, WA. Because traffic cooperated I arrived early and was able to take my time filling in the forms I was given. I was then seated in a dentist chair and the dentist's assistant and I chatted about our round-the-world trip. Finally, Mike came in, examined all the material presented to him, and agreed the tooth should be extracted. Special attention and care were taken that I feel no pain and that my jaw bone remain as undamaged as possible. Compliments to Mike on both counts. I asked to be able to keep the tooth in case my own dentist found it useful later for restoring my mouth. I also asked for antibiotics to fight what had caused the swelling. Mike said antibiotics wouldn't be necessary because the cause of the swelling had been removed (the tooth – now in a plastic jewel-box). I deferred to Mike's medical experience, although my experience told me that antibiotics were called for. I was given a supply of pain pills until I could buy my own, and instructions to follow for the next two days.

I carefully drove back to Joel's house. The extraction had been done; I had good dental health to look forward to now – finally. That tooth had been more of a preoccupation with me during this trip than my stomach ring. It had caused me to need emergency root canal in Singapore and now emergency extraction in Seattle. I held it in its jewel-box. I only needed time to heal. My stitches would disintegrate later so no more visits to clinics would be necessary. We were free to enjoy the rest of our round-the-world trip.

That afternoon I got to interact with Yossi and Moshe and Joel. We made a game of pushing them on their swing set. It was great fun. Joel and Sarah and their foursome are a wonderfully cohesive and harmonious family unit. I admire them for their parenting skills.

At bed time I had the honor of reading two chapters of a bedtime book to Yossi and Moshe before they said their prayers and got into bed. They sat with me on the floor and I read with inflection from a story book that had many chapters to go. I will never know how the story ends, but I'm pleased that I could be part of this family's story and they part of mine.