One more thing done and checked off the list. Back in November Alex had her routine dental check up and for the first time ever they were able to get x-rays of her teeth. Technology has come such a LONG way and they had this little portable machine that they were able to get the pictures with. Don't get me wrong, the poor dental assistant was sweating by the time she was done, but they were actually able to get films - impressive! Unfortunately, the films revealed three cavities! I don't know why I was surprised, she is 12 - don't most kids have quite a few cavities before 12? (I know her brother does!) - BUT she BARELY has anything sweet - and even if she does A) it's quite miniscule in proportion and B) she normally gets her teeth brushed FOUR times a day! This is not our first rodeo with the dentist so we know how important dental hygiene is given the fact that she pools so much drool in her mouth and the fact that she constantly has her mouth open, inviting tons of germs and pollutants in so we are really conscious of that and brush, brush, brush. Because she was having her knee surgery in December, we pushed off her dental procedures since she had to be in the hospital under general anesthesia for the procedures. In hindsight, I don't think my planning was very good. With the surgical follow-up in Charlottesville yesterday, and then going to the hospital this morning, I can't help but think that maybe she was associating the surgeon visit with the hospital visit. I tried to talk to her and tell her what was going to happen just in case she was actually worried about it - it is times like that it absolutely KILLS me we cannot have an open dialogue with each other. She was definitely less than thrilled to be in the pre-op room and having her vitals taken.
Aaron and I stayed with her until it was time to go back to the Operating Room so it was one last kiss and off to the waiting room.
There was talk of having to cut her gums and do some extractions and stitches on two of her back teeth in addition to the fillings and deep scaling - THANKFULLY the dentist opted not to do that, it's a bridge we can cross later if we need to. I couldn't have been happier with that news!!! He said everything looked good with the exception of her bottom gums which were very inflamed and we need to be really careful about how hard we brush because the last thing we want to worry about is a gum graft.
Once I got back to the recovery room Alex was very, very agitated and upset. She was crying and she had her IV lines and her pulse ox lines all wrapped around her neck and arms. She kept pulling her legs up to her chest so that again makes me think that she might have been thinking her legs were in casts again. At that point I hadn't seen the doctor yet so I was trying to look in her mouth and see if there was excess blood and I was pretty sure I knew the answer before he came in. The last time she had dental surgery and they pulled 5 teeth her mouth was really bloody so I took comfort in the fact that I didn't see any. Her biggest complaint seemed to be her nose - she was pulling and pulling at her nose and that was bleeding and the nurse said she had a nasal intubation so that's why her nose was so irritated. It took a good while for me to get her fully awake and not so upset. Her eyes and lips were a bit swollen but we were ready to hit the road!
The longer it took for our discharge process the more upset she was. I've never had anesthesia so I have no way of commiserating with her or know how rotten she's feeling.
She really breaks my heart when she cries like that and she can't tell me what's wrong.
She came home and slept for over two hours. We kept her strictly on tube feedings today and I went and got the movie Frozen which she really seemed to enjoy. MAYBE, just MAYBE we can add that into our rotation - she has watched the same three movies every day over and over and over and over and over and over for the last six or seven years now - we need some new material! The girl likes what she likes and she's quite consistent!
No comments:
Post a Comment