Ouch!

Lulu was supposed to have her palate surgery this week, but because of an abscessed tooth it has been postponed. Next, she was supposed to have the dental surgery to extract several teeth, get root canals, crowns, a spacer on April 10th. That was supposed to happen locally under general anesthesia. When the anesthesiologist discovered Lulu has a cleft palate he was not comfortable doing the anesthesia in a non-hospital setting. So we have been referred back up to UCSF pediatric dentists who will do all the work at some point (not sure yet whether palate surgery or dental surgery will happen first).

In any event, there was still the abscess to deal with. Yesterday, I called the local dentist again to get an appointment and they have one in the afternoon. I had to leave work early, pick up Lulu from school with no preparation whatsoever, and take her to have her abscessed tooth extracted. Do the joys of motherhood ever cease?

On our initial trip to the dentist a week or two ago, Lulu was remarkably relaxed for a three year old. She laid on top of me as they poked and prodded, took a dozen x-rays, and cleaned her teeth. She loved Dr. Bayless and wanted to stay longer. Yep, that's my amazing kid. So, this time, she wasn't really worried, but the poor little bugger had no idea what was ahead. We got there and walked right into the office and she jumped into my lap and got into position for dental work. She was really relaxed. The dental assistant asked if she would tolerate a mask with some laughing gas to calm her, and I said, go ahead and try. She was fine with it over her nose. They examined the abscess and she was fine watching Thomas the Train on the overhead screen. Then they had to put on a topical anesthetic to numb the gum in preparation for the injection of novacane. Oh, she did not like that. I had her legs gripped between my legs and her arms in my hands and she was fighting. She started wailing and I could feel her little heart pumping. It's not her "whiny, please pick me up I'm tired" cry, but the almost never heard "I'm being tortured Mama, save me!" cry. Then the dentist came in and all kinds of contraptions go into her mouth and her tears are flowing off her cheeks onto mine. Poor baby is begging, "no more, no more, pleeeeease no more... Owie!" So that parts done. Just 10 minutes for numbing to take effect and then the pulling could happen.

So we were pretty much left alone and she's nearly breathless and she's got that look of fear that I haven't seen since China. But she calms down. She touches her cheek and says, "feel funny." She relaxes pretty quickly and is ready to go. I tell her that they just have to come in for one more minute to finish. The thinks and says okay. The dentist returns and she laid right back down willing and ready to go again. Of course the real fun part is about to begin. I can so feel the wrenching back and forth to get it out and again she's begging to go to the car. But then, before we knew it, we were done. She hated the folded gauze that she had to bite on, but kept it in her mouth the whole drive home.

After about a half hour, I made a soft-boiled egg to try to see if she wanted to eat. We took out the gauze, and I told her to chew on the other side, which she did, and after a few chews, she giggles, jumps up and down and screams I all better! I all better! Kids are so dang resilient it's amazing.