They're all fixed!

Disclaimer: This entry is kind of long but for journaling purposes I have decided to tell the whole story. Skip whatever parts you don't want to read -- or skip the whole thing if you want!

For those of you wondering, Kanyon has had his teeth fixed! We took him back to the dentist in May with the same ending. He cooperated quite well until they started "pinching his cheek". The dentist said he gave him all the anesthetic that he could have and he still wasn't absolutely sure that Kanyon was totally numb. He said that the nerve that he was trying to block can be in a different place with kids but that he usually doesn't have this problem. He also, very politely, said that even if he was sure that Kanyon was numb, he wasn't sure that Kanyon would really let him work on his teeth. He said that he was willing to let us try again and bring him back another time. Len and I talked about it and we decided that it would be very difficult to talk Kanyon back into the dentist's office again to "fix his teeth" and that we would like to just take care of every thing at once and try to "forget" about the dentist for the next four months. So we called the insurance company and then we set up an appointment to take Kanyon to day surgery at the hospital for general anesthesia.

On June 12 I woke up at 5:00 am and showered and got things gathered together for the day. Len woke Kanyon up at 5:45 and gave him a blessing. We put him in the car with his blanket and still in his pjs and I took him to the hospital for our 6:00 am appointment. We hadn't told him that it was going to be that day -- we didn't want him to worry about it. It was a little sad when Kanyon asked his dad, "Are we going to Lagoon?" I explained everything to him in the car on the way to the hospital and he was okay with it. He wanted to get his teeth fixed and he liked the idea of going to sleep and then waking up and having it all done. He was a happy and good kid while we did all the checking in. He loved getting weighed and measured for height. He loved the bed with wheels and the fact that they gave him the remote for the television while we were in the pre-op room. He also loved the "hospital clothes" that they gave him to wear. After we were ready we watched television for a little bit and then they took us to the "holding" room. Here they gave us a book to read (Walter the Farting Dog) which Kanyon liked and we looked at the light above us which had a cover over it so it looked like a fish aquarium. We were there about a half an hour and then the anesthesiologist and the nurse were ready to take him. I had explained what they would do and Kanyon was good about going with them. I told him I loved him and that I would see him when he woke up and he said "Bye" and they wheeled him away. I told Len later that it was a good thing that he wasn't having a "real" surgery or I would have been a nervous wreck. I think he thought I was a nervous wreck anyway! It is REALLY hard sending your child away with strangers who are going to put him to sleep!

Kanyon had about 1 1/2 hours worth of dental work so about 2 hours later they called the waiting room and said I could meet him in the day surgery room. I went to the room and about 2 minutes later they brought Kanyon in. The recovery nurse was a guy from our ward so that was nice. Kanyon was awake but visibly upset and "whimpering" until he saw me and then he started crying. The nurse said he had been great and that he must think that it's okay to cry now that he sees me. The first thing he said to me was, "They gave me an owie!", as he lifted up his hand where his IV was. I hadn't told him that they would be doing that because I didn't want to worry him. They didn't start the IV until he had been put to sleep with gas but he was not happy about it! It seemed to bother him more than his mouth. We stayed there for about 30-45 minutes. Kanyon was able to drink some apple juice and suck on some ice and tolerated everything very well so they took out his IV. Every time he looked at the band aid though, he would start to cry again. It was pretty sad! They let him ride out of the hospital in a wagon and they sent us on our way. He did end up with two silver caps on the back two bottom teeth. They worked on a total of six teeth. In the end, this was definitely the better way to go.

He had a rough day the rest of the day. We picked up a couple of movies and made a bed for him on the couch and he hung out there most the day. After the hospital, I took him to the store to pick out some juice and to chose a movie. He did well walking around but as soon as we got into the house he said, "I need to throw up" and he lost all of the fluid that he'd had at the hospital. He sipped on some more juice while he watched a movie and then fell asleep. He breathed with his mouth open though, so when he woke up, his throat was hurting quite a lot. I finally got him to settle down with some motrin and a Popsicle. By the evening though, he was back to his normal playful self. He ate a full dinner and played outside with Kaydra. He is now very proud of his "different" teeth and will show anyone who asks and even some who don't! Hopefully we can take better care of the rest of his teeth though so we won't have to go through anything like that again!