Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with family and loved ones! We did have a great Easter, but started off not so fun. Last fall when Alana had her dental checkup she had her first set of x-rays. She did so great at the appointment, but we got some bad news. She had a mouthful of cavities. :( I was just shocked. We have to admit we weren't flossing her teeth yet, but we brushed them and tried taking care of them as good as we could. She has eaten candy and drank juice in her lifetime, but neither in excessive amounts, so it really just surprised me. Because Alana was a great patient at the dentist office her dentist set up an appt to start doing the fillings. (It was going to take 3 appointments to fill all 7 cavities) In December we went to her appointment and she got in the chair so good and put the laughing gas mask on for a minute and then the tears began and she kept pulling the mask off. She was very scared and she hadn't even got a shot yet. We attempted once more, but it was not going to work. The option the dentist recommended was to do the procedure at the hospital and Alana would be under anesthesia. It would be one procedure that would last an hour to an hour and a half and there would be no numbing or anything. She said Alana would not be very sore after it, her jaw may be a little sore from them having it open and stretching it, but other than that she would have no memory of it. Her pediatric dentist really thought if we forced her to do it in the office then she would have a very difficult time with the dentist office going forward. The worst thing about this was the time we would have to wait before we could get into the hospital for the appointment. The first available date was April 2, 2010. (This was back in December!)
Well April 2 finally rolled around and her procedure was not until 10:30 am, but we had to be at Mercy at 9:00 am. I was really hoping for an earlier appointment, but this is what we got. Alana had to fast after midnight and I was really worried she was going to be so hungry or thirsty in the morning. Joan came down early Friday morning to watch Brynn. We had planned on taking her with us, but since the appointment was later we were worried it would go into lunch/nap and then it would be even worse.
Alana woke up and she did say she was thirsty but overall she did so good. She was nervous about us not being able to be with her the whole time so I kept just saying we will find out more when we get there, even though they had already told me we would not be able to go back with her. We got checked in and then went to a holding room. The nurse brought her little scrubs that were actually kind of cute and she freaked out. She put the shirt on fine, but when we tried having her take her pants off she started crying and yelling. She wanted to keep her pink pants on because they matched her flip flops (wow). Steve and I were both trying to pull her pants off and the kid has some abnormal strength. The nurse said don't worry about it and that they can change them when she is sleeping. After that outburst I looked at Steve and said "this is gonna be bad". Alana then colored for awhile and we just sat in the room. The first nurse talked and got all our information and then the dentist came and talked to us. She said they would be x-raying her teeth again and they will fix anything that has changed also. The anesthesiologist came and talked to us also. The final person who came and sat down with us was the nurse that would be taking her back. She was really nice and then said "Alana, are you ready to go?" Alana nodded her cute little head and we both kissed her and she held the nurse's hand and off they went. Alana was looking up at the nurse listening to her as they disappeared down the hall. I was so proud of her and so happy she went so good.
We went out to the waiting room and started staring at the clock. Around 11:45, Dr. Diane came out and sat down and said Alana did great. Unfortunately two of the cavities had worsened and she ended up with two root canals and two caps. She also had an additional cavity. :( She said she was in the first recovery room and when she was moved to the next one we could be with her.
They finally told us we could go into the hall where we would be with her. We got out to the hall and there was the nurse pushing Alana in the wheelchair. She looked so tiny and pale. We went into a room and I held her. Alana has such pale skin anyway, but it was so scary. She was so gray and ashy. The nurse noticed how pale she was getting and gave me a little puke bucket. They asked Alana what she wanted to drink, but she wasn't answering so the nurse said she would bring a variety for her to choose from. Within seconds of the nurse leaving Alana threw up. After that color started coming back to her cheeks. She hated her IV in her arm and was very crabby about it. She drank a little apple juice and two glasses of water over the next 20 minutes or so. They gave her some anti-nausea meds in her IV also. The nurse then took the IV off and that helped a little, except she put a bandaid on her hand which Alana hates so she still had something to not be happy about. Finally we just took it off, because her hand wasn't bleeding.
Around 1:00 the nurse came in and discharged us. We were so happy to take her out of there. She was doing really good, but looked so tired. We headed back to Ankeny to pick up Brynn and then we were heading to Humboldt for Easter. We had told Alana if she felt like relaxing at home we didn't have to go, but immediately she said "I want to go to Humboldt!"
I am so happy this procedure is behind us. I was really happy with the dentist and the hospital staff. I really hope Alana's mouth feels better. Over the last year she has had so many complaints about her mouth or throat and I am really thinking it was her teeth. She often would tell me it hurts when she yawns and over the last couple of weeks she even said her teeth were hurting. I have taken her to her pediatrician different times because Alana said her throat was hurting, but some times her throat wasn't even pink, so I think it was her teeth the whole time. Dr. Diane said one of her molars was almost half gone and it probably would have been causing her quite a bit of pain. I really think she has a high pain tolerance and I am hoping this makes her mouth feel so much better.
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