Robyn Coburn

Jayn had the work done on her teeth, including several fillings and the one
extraction, yesterday. It went very smoothly after a couple of tiny hiccups,
and she is recovering extremely quickly and enjoying the sensation of having
a gap in her mouth.

We talked over the procedure beforehand and Jayn was not keen on having a
pinch. But we arrived a little early and were prepared to wait for her
willingness.

When we got to the dental surgery, the only person out front was the
anesthesiologist, a stranger to Jayn. She introduced herself and was very
nice, gave us the paperwork, but the dentist was not around. I had a kind of
intuition that she wasn't intending to come out, and I also noticed that
Jayn was beginning to get anxious, not seeing her. So Jayn and I went back
in search of her, at which time Jayn got a big relieved smile and told her
the story about the sky falling as usual.

She was waiting in her office, and later she explained that she usually
doesn't come out, but leaves this first part to the anesthetist. That would
probably be fine in the case of children who had been coming there for
years, but I could tell that Jayn was not happy with that arrangement. After
all the whole point was to find a DENTIST Jayn liked, not an office
environment she liked.

Jayn went up into the tree house and repeated that she didn't want a pinch.
I said that the pinch was to help her sleep so that it wouldn't hurt, and
said "I know you don't want it" sympathetically a few times, and asked her
to tell me what she was scared of...I also told her that we would wait until
she is ready. After a remarkably few minutes she agreed to have the pinch
and chose which leg, and then came down from the tree to sit in my arms.

The injection was over in a moment, with the an'ist telling Jayn everything
she was doing, and then she chose her prize (a colored slinky) from the
magic tree, and after a few moments started fading and staggering. I put her
on my lap wrapped in her own blanket. I was asked to sing her a little song,
or tell a story, so that she would stop fighting it, and then she was quite
literally gone. I carried her back to the chair, and stayed with her until
the IV was in, and they put some paper tape to keep her eyes closed. Then
James and I waited in the waiting room reading magazines and listening to
the drilling - feeling grateful that Jayn was not "hearing" that stuff. He
tiptoed back once to check it out, and was given an update, and I did too.

What was most reassuring to me, was the lengthy conversation that James and
the an'ist had about her new high tech portable monitors and the detailed
explanation of the different drugs that were being used in a cocktail for
Jayn's comfort. It was entirely worth the extra money to have the
specialist, just for my peace of mind. It was all over in two hours, and we
just had to wait for Jayn to become sufficiently alert to leave. I was
beside her as she started to come to, and I carried her to the waiting room
to wait on my lap again - almost as if we had never moved.

Once she was muttering and responding to our questions somewhat we put her
in the car and left. I just about melted with love when the first full clear
sentence she said was, "Thank you for sitting in the back with me Mommy".

Jayn woke up somewhat, vomited once (just water) and then went to sleep for
what might have been an early night, except that she woke up after about 5
hours, hungry and energetic, and stayed awake until 6.30am - so no
interruption to her own schedule!

She got up today, Tuesday, full of beans at 2pm, ready to go to the
Aquarium. There has been none of the drowsiness or wooziness that we were
warned of. No swelling or bleeding. Her sense of taste seems to have
returned, and she has had no pain at all. She is chafing at one restriction
- no popcorn - but uncaring of the other - no straws. Her one resentment is
that she didn't get to see her tooth coming out, as she has reproached me
for. She also remembers getting the pinch and choosing her slinky, which is
unusual. Apparently most kids don't recall the injection.

Now she just will get a spacer inserted in two weeks.

In response to the arnica suggestion, Jayn would not take a pellet once a
day, let alone every hour. Any palliative or healing herbal medicines would
have to be dissolved in liquid and either tasteless or tasty. She has one
more week of antibiotics, just to be sure, and she is taking a bit of
acidophilus powder dissolved. I open the capsules and sprinkle. She finds
the liquid supplements too sour, but is eating yoghurt.

Robyn L. Coburn







--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.9.5/58 - Release Date: 7/25/2005

kayb85

Robyn,

Thanks for sharing your story. My boys have told me that they don't
like our dentist and would like me to look for another, so reading your
story was very helpful to me.

I missed the arnica suggestion, but I did want to let you know that
arnica pellets are sugar pellets. The arnica is sprayed onto the sugar
pellets but you can't taste it. So it's like eating sugar. :)

Sheila

> In response to the arnica suggestion, Jayn would not take a pellet
once a
> day, let alone every hour. Any palliative or healing herbal medicines
would
> have to be dissolved in liquid and either tasteless or tasty. She has
one
> more week of antibiotics, just to be sure, and she is taking a bit of
> acidophilus powder dissolved. I open the capsules and sprinkle. She
finds
> the liquid supplements too sour, but is eating yoghurt.
>
> Robyn L. Coburn