judifilksign (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
judifilksign) wrote2010-08-12 04:39 pm
judifilksign) wrote2010-08-12 04:39 pm
A Sparkly Smile
Today was Sparkle's dental surgery at Children's Hospital, under anesthesia.
She was okay until we got her into the operating room, and the sound of the air hissing through the pad that keeps her warm while she'd be out upset her.
We'd been warned that the gas they first use smells like nail polish, so they'd need help keeping her hands away from her face. They said that she might be upset, or even cry, but that would be fine, because she'd breathe in deeply and be out quickly. They said she wouldn't remember anything. Sparkle, smelling that nasty smell, held her breath defiantly, and it was hard to keep her arms and legs still. The technicians, having worked with children a long time, knew exactly how to handle it. One of them tickled her along her ribs. A *GASP* and a "HEEEeeeey," and she was out.
The anethesiologist asked me if I'd like to kiss her cheek for goodbye, and so I did. I can recognize someone trying to make me feel better about feeling so guilty at scaring my daughter about this.
They had to take out one baby molar that was broken, which will have an adult molar coming in soon. They capped several other baby molars, and filled some cavities. They also did a flouride treatment, and a coating on her teeth to prevent future cavities. It took about two hours. It felt like a very long wait.
I read another few pages of Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths, by Robin Waterfield. This is one dense book, full of academic language and, well, Greek. The first thirty pages of this book took me as long to read as it usually does for me to finish an entire novel. I have a policy of reading something educational for every batch of fun fiction I read, so I can think about more things than candy. I keep having to make notes to look up various people I'm finding interesting, like Anaxagoras, who claimed the sun and the moon were not gods, but lumps of rock (or even burning rock) like the Earth. Since Atheism or any form of impiety angered the gods and turned them against the city, Athens exiled Anaxagoras to a city in Asia Minor that they planned to attack later. I guess they were giving time for the gods to get angry at the Persians, and thus better support the Athens!
They brought us in before Sparkle woke up, and warned us that crying and fussing were normal. Sparkle woke up upset indeed, and swinging. I think she remembered quite well her last moments awake. She tried to get up and OUT of there, before her body quite wanted to work. She did let me cuddle her, and in fact demanded snuggles. I could track that she was coming out of it by how her language improved from baby talk to words. Her face was pretty puffy. They explained that the puffiness was actually from the anesthesia, and not from the dental work. She had what I thought was a bruise on her chin, but it washed off at home. We peeled off the band-aid from where the IV had been, because she appears to be like me, and reacts to the glue or the latex. Red rash there.
The nurse was used to distracting kids with pretty stickers. Sparkle wanted NOTHING to do with the bribes. I accepted some Disney princess stickers and put them in our bag to go home. Turns out that responding to the sticker bribe is one of the ways they determine if the patient is coherent enough to go home.
Sparkle started to ramp up her naughty behaviors, crying and fussing during the checkout process. I think they might have kept us there longer, except that I got her to refuse the stickers coherently ("Honey? Do you want the stickers? 'Yes, please,' or 'No, thank you.'" "NO! THANK! YOU!" The nurse rather liked the way I prompted that.) I think the real go-ahead to go came when Sparkle instantly calmed down when I told her she could ride in the wheelchair to go home now, and lunge/staggered to the chair. I must be one of Seanan's minions, because my immediate thought was that she had the perfect zombie stumble down pat. (My hands were supporting her, so no, she did not fall.) Once ensconced and buckled in, she sat like a rock.
The nurse said it was pretty common for kids to be upset until they left the office. Sparkle was pouty and eyebrows down until we opened the office door out to the elevators, and then she cracked a satisfied smile of relief before sinking into apathy. She said "I'm not feeling very...hum hum hum" a lot on the way home. I guess she was still not totally with it, or hasn't actually learned that entire social phrase yet.
My darling husband carried her in (lug, lug, she's getting HEAVY) and Sparkle asked to change into her red dinosaur pajamas, because she wasn't feeling, she was sick. She took a half an hour's nap, then went to the bathroom. Upon looking in the mirror at her mouth, she shrieked, and ran from the bathroom, crying "Oh, NO!" and saying, "My teeth are gray, and it won't come off!" The shiny metal caps totally freaked her out.
I explained that the metal was only on her baby teeth, and when they fell out, the tooth fairy would take them away and she'd grow her big girl adult teeth. This seemed to soothe her, although I've noticed Sparkle opening and shutting her mouth experimentally, making clicks and putting her finger in to touch the metal.
She ate some ice cream, and kept it down, and tonight, supper will be soft pancakes and Jell-O. The afternoon has been spent watching a Disney movie marathon of Snow White, Cinderella, and Toy Story, each with appropriate action figures. We lay on the giant bean bag chair![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pondside gave us, all snuggled close and warm. It is weird to have my wild child so sedate. (Well, I figure, she HAS been sedated, and getting dental work done takes a lot out of one.)
So, the operation was a success, Sparkle's teeth are whiter, and gleam in the back, and I am relieved that it is over. At least until Monday, when I get a cyst removed from my left thumb before it compromises any more hand movement and feeling.
She was okay until we got her into the operating room, and the sound of the air hissing through the pad that keeps her warm while she'd be out upset her.
We'd been warned that the gas they first use smells like nail polish, so they'd need help keeping her hands away from her face. They said that she might be upset, or even cry, but that would be fine, because she'd breathe in deeply and be out quickly. They said she wouldn't remember anything. Sparkle, smelling that nasty smell, held her breath defiantly, and it was hard to keep her arms and legs still. The technicians, having worked with children a long time, knew exactly how to handle it. One of them tickled her along her ribs. A *GASP* and a "HEEEeeeey," and she was out.
The anethesiologist asked me if I'd like to kiss her cheek for goodbye, and so I did. I can recognize someone trying to make me feel better about feeling so guilty at scaring my daughter about this.
They had to take out one baby molar that was broken, which will have an adult molar coming in soon. They capped several other baby molars, and filled some cavities. They also did a flouride treatment, and a coating on her teeth to prevent future cavities. It took about two hours. It felt like a very long wait.
I read another few pages of Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths, by Robin Waterfield. This is one dense book, full of academic language and, well, Greek. The first thirty pages of this book took me as long to read as it usually does for me to finish an entire novel. I have a policy of reading something educational for every batch of fun fiction I read, so I can think about more things than candy. I keep having to make notes to look up various people I'm finding interesting, like Anaxagoras, who claimed the sun and the moon were not gods, but lumps of rock (or even burning rock) like the Earth. Since Atheism or any form of impiety angered the gods and turned them against the city, Athens exiled Anaxagoras to a city in Asia Minor that they planned to attack later. I guess they were giving time for the gods to get angry at the Persians, and thus better support the Athens!
They brought us in before Sparkle woke up, and warned us that crying and fussing were normal. Sparkle woke up upset indeed, and swinging. I think she remembered quite well her last moments awake. She tried to get up and OUT of there, before her body quite wanted to work. She did let me cuddle her, and in fact demanded snuggles. I could track that she was coming out of it by how her language improved from baby talk to words. Her face was pretty puffy. They explained that the puffiness was actually from the anesthesia, and not from the dental work. She had what I thought was a bruise on her chin, but it washed off at home. We peeled off the band-aid from where the IV had been, because she appears to be like me, and reacts to the glue or the latex. Red rash there.
The nurse was used to distracting kids with pretty stickers. Sparkle wanted NOTHING to do with the bribes. I accepted some Disney princess stickers and put them in our bag to go home. Turns out that responding to the sticker bribe is one of the ways they determine if the patient is coherent enough to go home.
Sparkle started to ramp up her naughty behaviors, crying and fussing during the checkout process. I think they might have kept us there longer, except that I got her to refuse the stickers coherently ("Honey? Do you want the stickers? 'Yes, please,' or 'No, thank you.'" "NO! THANK! YOU!" The nurse rather liked the way I prompted that.) I think the real go-ahead to go came when Sparkle instantly calmed down when I told her she could ride in the wheelchair to go home now, and lunge/staggered to the chair. I must be one of Seanan's minions, because my immediate thought was that she had the perfect zombie stumble down pat. (My hands were supporting her, so no, she did not fall.) Once ensconced and buckled in, she sat like a rock.
The nurse said it was pretty common for kids to be upset until they left the office. Sparkle was pouty and eyebrows down until we opened the office door out to the elevators, and then she cracked a satisfied smile of relief before sinking into apathy. She said "I'm not feeling very...hum hum hum" a lot on the way home. I guess she was still not totally with it, or hasn't actually learned that entire social phrase yet.
My darling husband carried her in (lug, lug, she's getting HEAVY) and Sparkle asked to change into her red dinosaur pajamas, because she wasn't feeling, she was sick. She took a half an hour's nap, then went to the bathroom. Upon looking in the mirror at her mouth, she shrieked, and ran from the bathroom, crying "Oh, NO!" and saying, "My teeth are gray, and it won't come off!" The shiny metal caps totally freaked her out.
I explained that the metal was only on her baby teeth, and when they fell out, the tooth fairy would take them away and she'd grow her big girl adult teeth. This seemed to soothe her, although I've noticed Sparkle opening and shutting her mouth experimentally, making clicks and putting her finger in to touch the metal.
She ate some ice cream, and kept it down, and tonight, supper will be soft pancakes and Jell-O. The afternoon has been spent watching a Disney movie marathon of Snow White, Cinderella, and Toy Story, each with appropriate action figures. We lay on the giant bean bag chair
pondside gave us, all snuggled close and warm. It is weird to have my wild child so sedate. (Well, I figure, she HAS been sedated, and getting dental work done takes a lot out of one.)So, the operation was a success, Sparkle's teeth are whiter, and gleam in the back, and I am relieved that it is over. At least until Monday, when I get a cyst removed from my left thumb before it compromises any more hand movement and feeling.
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So I have enough reference points of things I was specifically told I would forget which I did not forget to have a pretty good idea that I have an atypical response to narcotics and amnesiacs.
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Hugs,France
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At least she didn't run into a wall!
(I have a capped front tooth due to poor coordination - the intent was to flop against a cool wall - the reality was to chip a front tooth down to the pulp. Oops.)
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It's always something.
Sparkle makes things more interesting, but glad she got through it ok. It was turned into a gentle learning experience, a minor operation, which will only help her grow. And those are the best operations for kids.
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I'm happy that the lovesac is so loved. I really really like them and that makes me all warm to know you guys do too.
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County Services granted us a ticky box of goodness for the state of our house, and moved on to suggesting social skills classes with psychiatrists. So, we may be filling out fee waivers and see where that takes us.