Sydney is now minus 3 teeth. The middle top front two, and the next one on the right. (pic was obviously a "before" picture)We had her appt on Friday morning. The Anesthesiologist, Dr. Amanda, came out and talked to us first and explained how it would go. She would give Bug a shot, and Bug would get sleepy in my arms in about 3 minutes. Her extraction seemed relatively simple, so they were thinking of just getting it done. She said if it was going to take more than 5 minutes, she would start an IV to keep Bug asleep.
The moved us to a room where Bug got to stand on a scale. That took some coaxing. She wasn't happy to be at the dentist and she was letting everyone know. Dr. Amanda administered the shot in the leg - which set Bug off on her ear-splitting screams. Scream scream scream. More screaming. Some thrashing around. Dr. Amanda kept looking at her watch. Soon the dentist lady came in. Bug was still screaming and thrashing. Dr. A looked at dentist lady and said "I swear I gave her the shot". It had been about 5 minutes. She was supposed to be asleep within 3. I just kept holding her and rocking her. Everyone was standing in the room just waiting for her to knock out. More screaming, although getting a little less loud and enthusiastic. Dr. A made a comment about how Sydney was a fighter who didn't like being "out of control" of herself, and that she would definitely be starting that IV. Finally, around 7-8 minutes in... Bug still wasn't "out", but she was getting groggy, but was still trying to fight. Still crying. The 2 docs scooped her out of my arms and carried her to a room in the back.
They had to do a new set of xrays since she had lost that one tooth (the first on the right), to see if there was part of it still inside (there was). Also, determined that the front middle left side was not stable. It had been pushed up at an angle to a new position, but was coming back down to it's original place. She said like replanting a tree into a new place. All this movement created great instability for this tooth and it's prognosis was "very poor". I had to decide if I wanted them to just extract it now while she was already out. If not, their professional opinion was that it had maybe 6 months before it became a problem and would have to come out anyway. I felt so awful having to make that decision to take a 3rd tooth from my baby, but I couldn't see having to go through this all again down the line. The office manager directed me to the payment window to pay the additional $41. Before I was even done getting my receipt, the dentist came out to me, said they were done, and they were just working on waking her up. They would come get me once she was more coherent. I sort of felt like crying that I hadn't been able to be with her. I had it in my head that I would be sitting next to her throughout this ordeal. Sad.
It took another 15-20 minutes before they took me back to the original patient room (with a couch) and brought her too me. Talk about drunk/groggy. Poor Buggy. Her head was lolling around. She couldn't put any words together, although she was trying. She just layed on me with her head on my shoulder wimpering. More sad. We hung out like that for maybe another 10 minutes. They didn't want to send her home until she could hold up her head better. They came to check on us and Bug pathetically told them "bye bye" and "wanna go home". They laughed.
I somehow managed to get her (loopy head and all), her balloon, her doggy pillow, and her diaper bag out and loaded into the car. Choose a crappy route home, unfortunately. She screamed the whole way home - until we pulled onto our street. When I turned on our street she suddenly got coherent and understandable. She waved at the gardener cutting the grass as I carried her in and told me (as always) "Gardener's nice". She had a lot of trouble walking once we got home for about the first 30-45 minutes. She was truly drunk. Step step step stagger fall down. First thing when we got home she wanted to go outside and set her balloon free. This made her very happy. She loves watching them fly away.
Dr. A had told me she cleaned up the place where she had given her the shot and taken off the band-aid so Bug wouldn't see it. Dr. A said she'd have no rememberance of any of this. Balderdash! Bug knows. She pointed out the "owie" on her leg. The little pinprick spot. She has IV holes in her hand. She tells me "teeth all gone now. Doctor did it" This makes me sad because she has been telling me recently "teeth coming back" she seemed happy that they were coming back, but they just couldn't stay, and it hurts my heart.
I'm going to see if I can meet with a speech pathologist at Kaiser. I need a consult on whether or not to get her the fake teeth appliance in a year or so. I'm getting conflicting opinions on whether she'll need speech therapy down the line - both never getting fake teeth, and getting the fake teeth. The dentist on Friday said, if we leave the holes empty, her permanent teeth are more likely go come in sooner than they would have. Who knows. I want to do whatever is best for Bug in the long run.
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