I'm not alone with the cobwebs

Phew. Excellent. I hate cobwebs, mostly because of the possibility of lurking spiders. Shudder. As far as bone-chilling moments go, walking into a cobweb in a darkened garden is right up there at the top of my list. I know you all see me as calm, serene, together (cough), but believe me when I say that occurrence reduces me to a quivering, shaking, screaming (there must be spiders, I can FEEL them, get them OFF me!!!)

But this post is not about spiders, although it is about another of my pet fears. Dentists. I have a new dentist. She came highly recommended and all the recommends were spot on; she is lovely. Yet as I sat trembling in her chair, trying to explain in a thickened, quavering voice, my illogical fear (no real reason, no traumatic childhood events, just the sound of a drill sends me into nightmarish cold sweating terror), this made no difference. She might as well have been wearing a Freddy Kreuger mask and claws.

Anyway, this is one of those many reasons I haven't felt like blogging. First there was the post-conference lurgy, a rotten heavy headcold that would not go away. Only good thing about that; I curled up with a few good books (more to come). Then, the toothache. At first a dull not-quite-an-ache that I tried to ignore because, well, acknowledging it meant dentist. If I kept busy with physical work -- gardening, cleaning, more to come -- then I could forget it was there. Sitting at the computer, not so easy to ignore.

Eventually it got so I couldn't ignore the tooth. Lovely new dentist looked, tapped, prodded, xrayed, hmmed worryingly -- but nicely and non-judgmentally, which goes to show what a lovely dentist she is -- and then she gave me the bad news. One tooth is past redemption but she couldn't pull it out. Off to day surgery for that one. Its neighbour is worth saving but it was off to the endodontist with that one.

First visit yesterday went as well as anything involving the words root and canal can go. Endodontist has an awesome view of the Sydney skyline. She also dispensed plenty of medication, necessary she said, as she hmmed worryingly. Two hours later she decided that she couldn't turn a three-visit treatment into two visits, which she'd hoped she might do seeing as I have a 5 hr drive each way. 6 hrs, I discovered, when you leave Sydney in peak hour.

Today my tooth is no longer hurting and I am not rueing the long drive and the ouchy needles and the almost-as-ouchy bill.

So, what is your pet fear? What makes you, illogically and irrationally, lose it?

Labels: fears, my everyday life