Bad timing, maybe not

Today is the day I have been counting down to since August 15th.  That was the day that I booked a flight to go visit my “little bears” that live in Germany.  My suitcase is packed, my Euro’s are at Atlanta-Hartsfield airport, and my grandchildren are going to be as bummed out as I am that I had to cancel my trip.

All I can do is take a deep breath, watch the episode of “This is Us” that I was unconscious through last night and convince myself that this is working out for the best.

Saturday evening I awoke at 2am with a throbbing molar.  All I could think was “this cannot be happening”.  I took some Advil and it settled down.  On Monday, after a lot of thought, I decided to get it checked out.  Nothing is more miserable than a toothache, except for maybe having a toothache on a 10-hour flight.

The oral surgeon said I could get a treatment which may or may not work, or extract the tooth due to the abscess.  I have clearly made my mind up since the last horrible “root canal”, that I would never do that again, so out came the tooth.  With two days to recover, I prayed for quick healing because I didn’t want to disappoint the bears (my grandchildren).  At 5pm yesterday I reluctantly made the call to the airline.  They were very accommodating even allowing me to board today if the situation improved.  After exploring all the options offered,  I rescheduled for next week and am going to stay positive that it will happen.

The travel insurance phone call, I’m sorry to say was not as accommodating.  It took three calls to get anyone knowledgeable regarding cancellations.  They also will not commit to covering the fare difference even with a true medical emergency.  Apparently, because I rescheduled they do not consider it a cancellation.  I’ve always purchased this “add-on” and now have second thoughts because it has many loopholes.  This confirmed my decision to postpone the trip was the right choice.  If the insurance folks are giving me a hard time about changing flights I can only imagine what a frustrating time it would have been to rely on them to coordinate an emergency dental procedure if that would have come up while visiting my family.

Lesson learned: read the details of the policy

Warm wishes

Alice