Today Jayna had a frenectomy. Yeah...go look that up. Specifically a maxillary labial frenectomy. It isn't as bad as it sounds, but worse than it sounds. I know, weird.
I had briefly explained what was going to happen several times. She seemed slightly nervous, but not overly afraid. She's a pretty brave kid all in all. She's endured many medical things...ear tubes and several subsequent tests on her ears, eye surgery for exotropia and the gamut of tests that come after that, so so so many strep tests, having her ears irrigated, antibiotic shots when she was little and nothing else would work, breathing treatments when she had RSV. She's been through it and for the most part, she's been a trooper.
But even after all of the above, this procedure was different. First, she was awake. For her other surgeries, she was sedated. She also had to get novacaine shots for this one. Shots which the dentist wanted her to be okay with getting. Here's the story:
Our appointment was at 4pm. I was instructed to arrive by 3:30 to complete paperwork. After 2 signatures, the paperwork was done and we were left in the waiting room. There were no kid magazines. So we read one about Deer Hunting. Interesting shit.
They took her back about 10 minutes late. After she was back there for 40 minutes, I started to wonder how things were going. Just then, an assistant came out to tell me I could come back.
I THOUGHT THEY WERE DONE.
As we're walking to the room, the assistant says, "She saw the needle for the anesthesia and she got a little scared. She requested that you come back for the remainder of the procedure."
Umm...guys. The remainder? I think you mean THE WHOLE THING SINCE YOU ALL HAVEN'T STARTED.
So the dentist says, "We don't white knuckle kids here. We want them to feel empowered and help make the decisions. We don't want her to leave here being afraid of the dentist."
I get it. I really do. But why did they wait a whole FORTY MINUTES to come get me?
The dentist also told me that it didn't really matter if we had the procedure done today or next month. That just so long as she has it done before her baby teeth fall out, she'll be fine.
She heard this and started to get the idea that she could skip out on it today.
We then had a long talk about being brave and about the fact that even if we DO leave, she will still have to come back and get it done. We'd already been there for about 90 minutes at this point, so it would have been a giant waste of time to just leave and come back.
She eventually was bribed with ice cream, 2 teeth toys (from their toy chest) and a ring. It was over in 15 minutes and we were on our way.
I always say that being a kid is hard. And I still believe that. But being a dentist for kids must be one of the hardest jobs out there. Thank you, Dr. Willman, for your patience and your understanding.
P.S. On our way home, Jayna said, "Mommy, I like that dentist. Can I go to him from now on?" Well done, Dr. Willman. Well done. She isn't afraid.
As Jayna was going to bed tonight, she asked, "Mommy, can I sleep in your bed tonight?"
I, of course, told her absolutely not followed up with asking her if she was crazy.
She said, "But mommy!! There are imaginary bugs on my ceiling! And I know they're imaginary but I can't get them out of my imaginary even though I don't want them in my imaginary!!"
Is that not the cutest thing you've ever heard? :)
Well, imaginary bugs are destroyed with imaginary bug spray. Duh. So I mixed up a batch of imaginary bug spray. We put it by her bed just in case.
She slept all the way through the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment