Dental Work

On July 31, we took Soren, Gabe, and Brooke to the dentist for the first time.  Brooke wasn't very cooperative, but I guess the dentist saw all he needed to see of her in about 10 seconds.  He could tell she used a bottle or sippy cup a lot, so hopefully that's not too much of a problem.  Gabe and Soren both had their teeth cleaned and did really well sitting in the chair and cooperating.  They all enjoyed getting a toy from the box after their checkups.  Brooke chose a plastic camera with pictures inside, Soren chose a big plastic horseshoe magnet, and Gabe got some trick gum.  He thought he was so tricky with it! It's the kind that you take a piece out and a spring makes it flip over and pinch your finger.  This one even had a fake looking bug on it as it snapped out at you.  He kept doing it with me and Sean, and then came home and got Mormor with it.  Then a neighbor came to the door and he got her, and he even got the mailman!  He wanted us to invite Dallas and Lincoln over so he could get them.  By the time they came over, he couldn't find it.  I found it a few days later... in the dryer.  Gabe never puts stuff in his pockets, until now.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

But back to the check up.  Gabe and Brooke were fine, but poor Soren had four cavities.  Two of them were so deep that he needed crowns.  The dentist, Dr. Romney, said it's easier to do that much work if they can put the kid under general anesthesia, so that is what we did.  They checked with the insurance to make sure we were covered, and we were happy to find out we could do it at Primary Children's Hospital where we know two great anesthesiologists, Curt and Dave Peterson.  The procedure was set for August 7th.  Curt was going to be out of town, so we scheduled to have his son, Dave, do the anesthesia.  I used to babysit that kid, and now he's a doc! 

Soren seemed fine until he had to put on the hospital pajamas.  He didn't like them and thought they looked like girl pajamas.  They were kind of small, too.  Then the nurse came to talk to him and he got really shy.  Another worker came in to talk to him to try to loosen him up, but he stayed pretty quiet until he was able to play the Wii in the waiting room.  Then Dave Peterson came in and told him about the process and let him choose the flavor to put in the mask that would help him sleep.  Soren chose grape and then walked off with Dave.  About an hour and a half later, they were done and I was able to go see him in recovery.  He was soooooooooo tired!  He really had a hard time waking up, but he went to bed really late the night before, so a little extra sleep was probably what he needed.  He was able to have a slushy drink when he woke up.  After he seemed ok and the nurse took his IV out to send him home, he threw up.  We waited a little longer and then decided to go home anyway.  I went to get the car while the nurse wheeled him down in a wheelchair and he threw up again.  Poor kid!  When we got home, he threw up one or two more times, slept for about four hours, and then was bouncing off the walls that evening.  He said his teeth kind of bothered him and he couldn't bite the way he used to, but fortunately, those teeth will fall out eventually and he'll be able to start over with his adult teeth.  We're doing better at brushing now, because he doesn't want to go through that again!