Thanks, everyone, for remembering Nate in your prayers. He is doing much better, praise GOD. Things did get worse before they decided to get better but let's just say that emergency surgery in a government-run hospital was not necessary after all. What a nightmare that would have been!

We did have to see a dentist in UB to clean the tooth out yet again and put in a temporary filling. This dentist was really rough and pretty much undid all the hard work I'd put in to Nate during previous dentist visits to keep him calm and cooperative. She insisted on giving him a shot to numb the area and, well, it didn't go well (even though he was prepped for the possibility). She tried tricking him and it just made it worse. Nate had a melt down and I almost did, too.

We got back to Darkhan and went to our dentist (whom we like VERY much) who checked him and cleaned the tooth again. She said that the swelling/infection was gone. All that was left was to put in the permanent filling. When she went for the syringe-looking thingy to fill the tooth up, Nate freaked out and clammed up. We explained to him that it was not a needle and that it wouldn't hurt. I let him hold it and squeeze it and everything but he just wouldn't budge. I pleaded, groveled, and bribed all with no luck. We left (after 45 minutes of unsuccessful cajoling) with yet another temporary filling. I'm praying to God it holds for a while. At least until he forgets what a syringe looks like. Yeah, right.

This whole experience has left me exhausted. I sooooo appreciate the prayers and encouraging comments. I personally have been through the ringer lately. I won't go into detail here because I'm saving it for my book. Tee Hee...