I woke up this morning and can't remember big chunks of yesterday, but enough to know it was a totally fucked day.

There was only one thing that I had to do - go to the dentist's and get my tooth extracted - and that was totally stuffed from start to finish. The plan was simple - catch the bus to Charlestown, have the tooth out, then come home and recover. I was going to catch the 10:10am bus from Barnsley, swap over at Glendale and arrive at Charlestown at about 11am for a Noon appointment.

I got at the stop by 10:05 and was still waiting there at 10:35. Another woman came down to wait for the bus and said that it hadn't come because if it did it would have driven past her house. I walked back to my home, got the car, gave Gwen (as the other woman was called) a lift and got to Glendale, where I might catch a government bus.

On the way we stopped in at the Sugar Valley Depot. It seems that the 10:10 bus had been in an accident! When I got to Glendale, I found that none of the buses would get me to Charlestown until at least 12:30pm. I phoned the Dental Surgery, and as the appointment was scheduled to be 20 minutes long, it was re-scheduled for 2:30pm that day.

I drove back home, and waited a bit, and then (successfully) caught the 12:10pm bus, getting to Charlestown at 12:49pm. Did a bit of window shopping, and went to the library, before the appointment. Then the real hell began.

Instead of the "big beefy bloke" dentists I'd had before, I got a short small women Dentist instead. Before you say that I'm sexist, realise that I have inherited teeth that are both "chalky" (mother's side) and have claw like roots (father's side). When extracted they tend to break, and the roots hang on regardless - it needs both strength and leverage to get them out.

Not only that, but her bedside manner was shit - saying things quickly and once only, and not even stopping to see if you've heard/understood them. After over a week of waiting (the tooth first ached not last Friday, but the Friday before) I wasn't really in a good head space. I just wanted the bloody thing out.

But, the dentist kept on saying "please cooperate" or "I can't cope with crying patients" or "maybe we should continue another day" (halfway into it!). I was on the verge of a panic attack for most of it. After the tooth broke and she realised that she'd have to cut the gum, she went off to finish on another patient, and came back 10 minutes later. In the mean time, the broken tooth felt very sore, and I was getting a sharp pain in the socket beneath it!!!!!

She ignored that pain, and started cutting away. Most of the tooth came out, but the roots are still stuck in there. The dentist asked me if I was allergic to anything and I got very angry over this, because while I'd waited I'd filled out a form with all that information on, including my allergy to penicillin!

The nurse (who had sat with me while the dentist was elsewhere) guided me out to the waiting area.I sat there with a glass of water and lots of tissues to wipe the tears away while they arranged a new appointment for assessment with the Dental Clinic at Wallsend.

I have a 10:30am appoint there today. There's more to this, but I have to go now and go under more torture.