Woke up feeling great as I have been doing, in terms of my back, for a few days now.

I have a dentist appointment at 10:15am.

It was a beautiful day out and I walked to Stratford station giving myself plenty of time to get into town.

The new dentist was nice. Friendly in that way private doctors are friendly and enthusiastic.

I’ve noticed that’s what you get when you pay for healthcare in this country. Everyone acts like your best friend almost to the point of flirting.

I do like this place because in the past they were honest about what I needed and I didn’t have any unnecessary fillings.

One of the first things he asked me was if that I had any long-term health conditions or allergies and so I started telling him about my ankylosing spondylitis.

He said, me too, he has it as well.

I couldn’t believe it. I think this is the first person I had met with ankylosing spondylitis since being diagnosed.

I almost wanted to cancel the appointment and just chat to him about it for an hour or two.

I blurted out the no starch diet and “had he tried it” and “that it was really amazing and stopped my pain by about 90%”.

I probably sounded a bit manic.

He politely explained that he had tried things with his diet and with exercise and that it helped a bit.

But it seemed he really didn’t want to linger on the topic and maybe thought I had my head in the clouds. I’m sure he’s heard it all before and doesn’t think this kind of thing works.

Anyway, I wasn’t deterred. Everyone thinks diet is nonsense at first.

I told him I would print out and bring some of the studies about it next time and he pretended to be interested.

The appointment was fine and mostly everything is ok but I needed a follow up for a cracked filling. I managed to get another one for 3pm that day (just wanted to get it out of the way).

Lunch today was the usual salad and ham and mushrooms.

The second appointment was fine. The injection to numb the area took ages to kick in. After 15 minutes he started poking at my gums and asked me if I could feel it and I said I could.

He said that didn’t seem right and wanted to give me more to block the pain. I said not to bother because I didn’t really want to hang around for too long.

It was really painful but definitely bearable. I’d been through worse before at the dentist so I felt ok with it.

It was mainly drilling and cleaning out the old area that hurt because it seemed to be quite near the nerve.

Once it was done he was great at making sure it was the right height. I’ve had fillings before where it hasn’t and it feels like this big alien thing in your mouth and you can’t bite down properly for a few weeks.

He got it just right so that was good.

Had a grim drip down the back of my neck for the next few hours. Felt like I had a scratchy throat as if I had a bit of a cold.