The saga of Monday October 21, 2024 to Tuesday October 22, 2024 in Caesarea, Israel
Our plan to take the kids sailing on the Sunday of chol hamoed Sukkot was thwarted again. Eitan’s tooth pain and swelling were back after finishing his first round of antibiotics. Per the previous dentist’s recommendation, I searched for a pediatric dentist. I found someone in Netanya who looked fantastic and who could squeeze us in that day. My mother came with Eitan and me to the dentist in case there were additional questions. The truth is, I have been very lucky in the dental space with minimal dental needs. I felt completely out of my league talking about Eitan’s needs because I had no frame of reference. I was grateful that my mother was with us.
The dentist was just as good as she seemed online, she made Eitan feel incredibly comfortable, an impressive feat given his aversion to going to the dentist. After checking his teeth, she sent us a few blocks away to get new x-rays. Although we could have gone home after getting the x-rays there was no way I was leaving without a clear diagnosis and action plan from the dentist this time. We returned an hour later to await her opinion. The dentist diagnosed Eitan with a dental abscess (old news) that needed an immediate root canal (new news), or he would lose the tooth (frightening news). However, the problematic tooth was an adult tooth, not a baby tooth (old news). In Israel, that meant Eitan needed a root canal specialist who could work on both children and adults (new news). This was not her specialty. I asked for recommendations and only left once I had them in hand along with another scrip for a second round of Augmentin.
We returned home and tried to put the dental woes in the back of our minds. That night, after a scrumptious meal in the sukkah, we roasted marshmallows outside while Chaim serenaded everyone with a guitar he’d left in Israel when we lived there for a year in 2017. The night ended with an extended night swim and a plan to get in touch with a root canal specialist first thing the next morning.
As soon as I woke up I was on the phone trying to get in touch with the right dentist who could see Eitan within the right time frame. Our timing was becoming increasingly tight and nerve-wracking. Not only did Eitan’s tooth need immediate attention, we were scheduled to leave for Tanzania at the end of October, which was only ten days away. Luckily, I made a new friend – Dafna, the receptionist of one of the dentists our Netanya dentist recommended. Dafna quickly became my champion and new best friend. It took most of the morning, but she had Eitan on the schedule for the following Sunday.
With half the day gone, we nixed sailing (again) and looked for other options. The older kids found an escape room nearby in Binyamina. The younger cousins were happy playing at home so we opted to take the older cousins. It was so much fun. The clues were challenging, but everyone worked together to figure it out. In true Israeli style, we got the last clue correct but received the wrong key in return. The kids loved it and are eager to go back for another one. Afterward, we gathered both our families, Poppop, and Grandma and went to Sdot Yam beach to watch the sunset. The kids had a grand time burying each other in the sand, singing and dancing, taking selfies while trying to capture the sun inside heart fingers, and overall just enjoying being together. The sunset itself was gorgeous. The kids’ joy made it special.
The next day we were awoken abruptly at 6:45AM by a siren. It was hard to go back to sleep after that. Friends (who we found out a few years ago are our fifth or sixth-degree cousins!) came over for a swim date in gorgeous weather. All seemed to be righting itself, until I received an email stating that our flight from Tel Aviv to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia had changed and was going to land after our flight from Addis Ababa to Arusha, Tanzania departed. I spent much of the night working to reschedule our flights. There was no way we were missing Tanzania. Amazingly, Ethiopian Airlines was easy to work with. They quickly rescheduled our flight for the day before and provided a hotel voucher for an overnight stay in Addis to ensure we would make a day early flight to Tanzania.
