Dr Joseph, Cath, and the Art of Salvage
**Dr Joseph, Cath, and the Art of Salvage**
*Truth Sequences | Field Dispatch · Warrnambool, Victoria*
*By Thomas Brecelic · 10 November 2026*
Why was it the longest five minutes of my life? Because I couldn't talk.
The tooth was out. There was a hole where it used to be, I was trying to stop the blood coming out of it, Siri was counting down five minutes, Cath was calling out the time, and all I wanted to do was talk. Say thank you. Say that was incredible. Nothing. Mouth full. So I'm saying it here.
**Tonight**
I'm back at the showgrounds, parked out the back where nobody sees you unless they come looking. I've spent the day cleaning the car. I got rid of the pissy smell, cleaned the mat, and bagged a heap of rubbish, a lot of it food I never needed. Front seat's done, the back's done, the driver's side is much better. There are taps here and there's power, so I'm charging the Dell, the Lenovo, the Daisy reader and a pile of battery packs that start, stop, start, stop. Useless.
I'm walking laps. The tooth is starting to wear off, but I feel so much better than I did this morning.
**Why the car was such a mess**
Because I was. When you're in extreme pain you lose things and you get confused, and the car reflected my state of mind. I spilled the piss pot. I had diarrhoea overnight and had to deal with it outside. I've blamed the antibiotics, or maybe the orange juice, milk and yogurt I mixed together. Probably both.
Saturday I went to emergency. Three hours. Nothing. I complained and wrote it up. Then I got an after-hours script for amoxicillin and celecoxib. No codeine, just a light substitute. Sunday I emailed South West Dental: severe pain, active infection, I need emergency treatment.
**Playing the system**
I did all the right things. Assessment Tuesday. X-rays Thursday. Updates from Saturday on. That shows you're serious. And think about it. How many people could do that from a car, full of pain, and know how to play the system so it works for you? You walk in and it's "Yes, sir, three bags full."
Monday an unknown number rang. I thought it was a predator. It was Samantha from South West Dental. A dentist had looked at the scans and didn't like the infection, and they'd booked me for Wednesday. Wednesday wouldn't do. The pain was getting worse and worse, and there was real danger of infection. So I turned up at 8:30 Tuesday anyway. Someone had missed their slot. Chair's yours.
Am I just a lucky son of a gun? Maybe. I reckon they'd have squeezed me in anyway.
**The chair**
Bridgework. The easy move is rip the lot out, write it off, next patient. Dr Joseph and Cath didn't. From what I could follow, flat on my back, they cut through the bridge, got the bad tooth out clean, then reshaped and polished what was left so it could stand on its own. Cath went and found a better bur to finish it. I watched her working hard, and I appreciated it. God bless her. (The treatment notes are the record. I'm the bloke in the chair.)
Music on. Teaching going on between them. We asked about photos and kept to their rules. I wasn't a case file. I wasn't a guy living in a car. I was a patient.
Compare August. Private practice. I'm helping the receptionist chase my old records and X-rays and the dentist says something like, "We've got work to do. Go." That's my memory, not a transcript. I've asked for their notes and I'll publish the reply. Different tooth, different month, so one good day doesn't prove August wrong. But you remember how you got spoken to.
**The signs**
I only saw the union signs on the way into the dental area, so I can't tell you who's behind them. I've got a feeling dental runs separately from the rest of the hospital, maybe under a different banner. That's a feeling, not a fact.
What I do know is that all they want is another dentist. Then people like me can get a free service, and so can everyone else who needs one. I reckon I got at least $1,500 of treatment today.
That's why I've been firing off emails, politicians included. More funding, fair pay, another dentist on the floor. I doubt they get much feedback from people on the dole, unemployed, homeless. 0.1%? That's a guess. Even a tooth extraction goes in the file. Probably another hundred emails and notes by tonight.
**Dinner**
Red Rooster. Large peas, large mash, roast chicken, a Coke, because we've got to start looking after our health. Couldn't eat all of it, but it was good. Soft stuff.
Back at the showgrounds it's dark and quiet and there was a beautiful sunset. The speed bumps mean nobody races through, they arrive quietly. I've parked facing the hill with the light off. If someone wants to come and say hello, they can. I can reverse out fast.
Homeless, but living in a car is a different kind of homeless. It's almost tolerated.
Samantha, Dr Joseph, Cath: thank you. I'd have said it in the chair.
*Author's note: my account of care received at South West Dental Service, Warrnambool, on 10 November 2026. Procedure descriptions reflect my understanding as the patient. The clinic's treatment notes are the record of techniques, materials and follow-up.*
*Suggested Blogger labels: Truth Sequences, Public Health, Dental Access, Warrnambool, South West Healthcare*
---
What I left out and why:
- **Rocky the sheepdog** isn't in the record, so he's out. If you have that recording, send it and I'll write him in.
- **The $1,000 left until Centrelink** and the **Red Rooster card story** are in your notes but I held them back. The card story is a good kindness anecdote if you want it as its own post.
- **"Stop the blood"** replaces "cauterise". Change it if you know the right term.
- **The signs line** keeps your own distinction, that you only saw them on the way into the dental area.
Want this as a Blogger-ready HTML file?