ALAN CARLTON
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A Day in the Life

13/5/2016

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Mary automatically smiles.  Irrespective and everybody smiles back.  Even Jessica likes her.  Two days ago she came in for a routine exam.  We talked about a few things and I told her everything looked good, she was doing a fantastic job and there was no need for any treatment.  She smiled, thanked me and rang up the next day to say that a tooth had broken.  To me this is embarrassing.  Not to her.  Perhaps this is why I like her.
Years ago I asked her, "How's your husband?"
She burst into tears, sobbing hysterically and managed to squirt out, "He left me."
I sat there squirming, fidgeting and looking at the clock.  Half an hour wasted.  I could see the goldfish laughing at me.
Today she wants to talk about her daughter.
She asks me, "Could you please talk to my daughter?  She says she wants to be a dentist.  She's obsessed about her teeth.  Can you talk to her?"
"Sure no problem."
And then she continued," and tell her that being a dentist is a terrible job, and that she should do something else."
"No I can't do that."
She looks puzzled and confused and hurt.  After a couple of moments thought, she surfaces, forgives me and says," Oh I suppose not."
 
Beryl is peripatetic; endlessly moving between reception and the surgery.  Wherever the action is.  As soon as Mary leaves the surgery, Beryl sees an opening and approaches me.  She always has something to tell me.  This time she says, "Mrs Parker rang up and she says, 'what a good job you did yesterday and she didn't even feel the injection.'"
"Who?"
"Mrs Parker."
"That's not enough information.  Give me a clue."
Beryl doesn't.  She is on the move.  Walking away from me and shrugging her shoulders in disgust.
 
The next man lies in the chair.  His phone awakes with the sound of a horse neighing.  The man squirms and says, "My children did that."  The second time we hear from the horse he is not as embarrassed.  By the third and forth time we ignore it.  When he leaves Jessica snorts, "We need a sign about these phones.  We have to train these people."  The goldfish laugh.  They know nothing is going to change.
 
A lady rings Beryl, "The filling is still painful when I bite.  It's already been fixed once.  Still sore.  Can't get time off.  These people I work for are bastards.  Shit.  Shit.  I'm only a single mum.  Now I've got an aching tooth as well.  I work for complete morons.  The teacher says my son needs extra work in maths.  What are you going to do about it?"  She is talking faster, louder and shriller.  Beryl makes her an appointment for the Friday after next and then comes and tells me about it. 
 
An old friend comes in to have her teeth cleaned.  I have been seeing her irregularly for years.  She has sent her son and other friends to see me.  The routine is for us to talk about her work and once again I do this. She says that she is no longer working.  She has just had a heart attack.  While she is saying this she gets out a sheet of paper with her medications listed.  She looks reasonable well.  Not like some people who when they begin chronic medications age decades within years.
When cleaning her teeth I see that she still smokes.
"Are you still smoking?"
"I'm cutting down."
I've had enough of this nonsense.  Her gums are a disaster.  The teeth should have been taken out years ago.  This routine cleaning of teeth is a complete waste of time.  And she still smokes.
After cleaning her teeth she prepares to hurry out.  I prevent this by placing my chair in front of her.  I sit facing her and say,  ''I'm a bit worried about your gums."
She looks stunned.  Where did this come from?  I don't want this aggro.  She looks irritated.  Desperate to leave.
"These medications you are on…some of them can have a very bad effect on the gums…I don't think some of these teeth are going to make it…if we are talking five to ten years then I doubt…"
She gazes into the distance, "I'll be dead by then".
"Don't say that, look at it this way, at the moment we have two options.  Take out all the teeth and have dentures or keep going the way we are going.
"I'll be dead in ten years."
She walks out, leaving me staring at an empty chair.
Jessica says,  "Ah well, that went well."
I can hear the goldfish.  They are saying, "You don't have to be that sarcastic."
 
 
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    Author

    This blog is the fictional story of a dentist.  The dentist  works with Jessica and Beryl in a town a lot like Hobart.   The blog tells the story of what these people get up to and the work that they do.  If you feel that you recognize yourself in one of the stories please remember it is fictional and the characters and stories are all fictional. Though  all the stories are based on my time as a dentist in Hobart and  are based on things which actually did happen.  
    ​Writing these stories I often had to think about what is true and what is fictional.

    Categories

    All
    A Day In The Life
    An Old Lady Goes To The Dentist
    A Small Sad Lonely Death Notice
    A Teenage Girl Anxious And Stressed
    Back In Control
    Black Sheep
    Cementing A Single Veneer
    Dear Alan


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  • Home
  • Photos
    • photos >
      • All Saints Church
      • Anglesea Barracks
      • Art Mob
      • Boer War
      • Botanical Gardens
      • Brooke Street Pier
      • Brunswick Hotel
      • Campbell Street
      • Castray Esplanade
      • Cenotaph
      • Constitution Dock
      • St David's Cathedral
    • photos >
      • St David's Park
      • Elizabeth St Mall
      • Elizabeth St Pier
      • Franklin Square
      • Hadley's Hotel
      • Hobart GPO
      • Hobart Congregational Church
      • Hobart Rivulet
      • Hobart Town Hall
      • Holy Trinity Church
      • Heading South Sculpture
      • Hutchins Old School
    • photos >
      • Kunanyi / Mt Wellington
      • MacQuarie Street Primary School
      • Maritime Museum
      • MacQuarie Wharf
      • Parliament House
      • Penitentary
      • Railway Roundabout
      • Regatta
      • RHH
      • Royal Visits 1868 1901 1920 1927 1934
      • Royal visit 1954
      • Salamanca Place
    • photos >
      • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
      • Theatre Royal
      • Victoria Dock
      • Saint David's Cathedral
      • Saint David's Park
      • St George Anglican Church
    • Street art: photos >
      • Bidencope Lane
      • Criterion Collins Liverpool Streets
      • Elizabeth Street North Hobart​
      • Kemp Despard Streets
    • Streets: photos >
      • Argyle Street
      • Barrack Street
      • Bathurst Street
      • Brisbane Street
      • Brooker Highway
      • Campbell Street
      • Collins Street
    • Streets: photos >
      • Davey Street
      • Elizabeth Street
      • Goulburn Street
      • Harrington Street
      • Hunter Street
      • Liverpool Street
      • Macquarie Street
      • Murray Street
  • Places
    • Places >
      • All Saint's Church
      • Anglesea Barracks
      • Atheneum Club
      • Baha’i Centre
      • Boer War Memorial
      • Brook Street Pier
      • Brunswick Hotel
      • Boats in the docks
      • Constitution Dock
      • The Drunken Admiral
      • Franklin Square
      • Gas Works
    • Places >
      • Hadley's Hotel
      • Heading South Sculpture
      • Hobart GPO
      • Hobart Synagogue
      • Hobart Town Hall
      • Holy Trinity Church
      • Hunter Street
      • Ingle Hall
      • Old Wool Factory
      • Ordnance Stores
      • Parliament House
      • Penitentiary
      • Princes Park
    • Places >
      • Princes Wharf 1
      • Scots Memorial Church
      • Saint David's Cathedral
      • Saint David's Park
      • Saint George Anglican Church
      • St Michaels Collegiate School
      • Supreme Court
  • History
    • History >
      • Tasmanian Timeline
      • Early Tasmania
      • Mid Nineteenth Century
      • Late Nineteenth Century
      • 20th Century
      • Tasmania’s aborigines
      • Convicts
    • People >
      • John Lee Archer
      • William Bedford
      • Andrew Bent
      • Louis Bernacchi
      • James Blackburn
      • William Bunster
      • William Buckley
      • Thomas Bromfield
      • Luke Castray
      • William Champion
      • David Collins
    • People >
      • John Colvin
      • Charles Darwin
      • Governor Eadley
      • TT Flynn
      • John Franklin
      • Lady Jane Franklin
      • Charles Gaylor
      • Haig: Elizabeth and Andrew
      • Henry Jones
    • People >
      • James Kelly
      • Robert Knopwood
      • Lachlan Macquarie
      • Douglas Mawson
      • Charles McLachlan.
      • George Mure
      • Pearce: Henry and John
      • Robert Pitcairn
      • Poulett-Harris
      • Reid: Arthur and Alison
      • James Clark Ross
      • Ikey Solomon
      • Phillip Smith
      • Abel Tasman
      • Mark Twain
      • AJ White
      • Andrew and Elizabeth Haig
  • Community
    • Hobart Marathon Festival
    • Hadley's Hotel
    • history is not set in bronze
    • Wooden Boat Festival 2019
    • What do you think of Hobart?
    • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
    • The Mountain
  • Walking Tours
    • Dave's Walking Tour
    • The Tench Walking Tour
    • Botanical Gardens Circuit
    • ​Alfred’s feeling religious walk
    • Battery Point Sculpture Trail
    • Lachlan gets to the point
    • Street art: Luffy paints the town
  • Blog
    • healing through living
    • This website
    • about another website
    • Acknowledgement
    • Contact
  • The Full Complement
    • Alan Carlton
    • Daniel Frank
    • Paul Barrington
    • Jodi Sutton
    • Jodi Sutton talks about mistakes
    • Jodi Sutton: The phone
    • Ann Heath
    • Maddie Atkins
    • Karen Wong
    • Jo-Anne Cherry
    • Jo-Anne Cherry: Retirement
    • Errol Kilov
    • Garry Owen
    • Katherine Janney
    • Jacques Cawood
    • John Chung
    • Gordon Henry
  • Songs
    • Forty Years Ago
    • Tomorrow
    • Clouds in the River
    • I Woke Up
    • Hold My Hand
    • Cornelian Bay Boathouses
    • Dance on the Deck
    • Eucalyptus Globulus