August 21. Dental cleaning that felt like my teeth were getting ripped out. The specialist undoubtedly knew what she was doing. “Now your fight-or-flight reflex kicks in”, she commented gleefully, reminding me every few seconds to relax again. She told funny and frivolous stories of which I understood hardly twenty percent because of her dialect, but then I couldn’t answer anything anyway. She advised me to enjoy the pain. I was glad when it was over after an hour, but also glad that it hadn’t been over for an hour.