Dental Surgery

Today was the day for Rapunzel's dental surgery.  What a long morning.  She couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight last night because she'd be going under general anesthesia.  The first thing she said when she woke up was, "I'm hungry".  Not a good way to start the day.  We got to the hospital around 8:45am.  We got all signed in and went to the waiting room.  They had a children's area with a tv and some toys.  Rapunzel was pretty anxious, so she just sat in my lap and watched tv for awhile.  By 10:00, she moved on to the iPad.  At 11:00, I finally went to the front desk to see how much longer it might be until they called her back.  Finally at about 11:15, they took us to pre-op.  That's when the nerves set in again for Rapunzel.  We got her changed into the hospital gown and settled into her bed (where I laid beside her).

They went over all of her allergies and made her a nice red allergy alert bracelet to wear with her hospital id bracelet.

Then they brought in some Vercet for her to take to calm her nerves.  It helped a little and she was able to relax some.  The anesthesiologist came in and talked with me.  He told Rapunzel that he had some yummy bubble gum air for her to breathe (which she could not have cared less about).  A few minutes later they wheeled her back to the OR and I was sent to the waiting room.

That was a long half hour or so.  I was confident that the procedure itself would go fine.  I was just a little worried about how she would handle it all emotionally.  The dr. came out and said that everything went fine.  The tooth with the deep cavity that we were getting fixed ended up not being as bad as it looked on the xrays (this was the first time she'd looked in Rapunzel's mouth because she'd always get too anxious at appts).  So instead of a root canal and crown like we thought, she was able to just fill it and put a silver cap on it.  Rapunzel also had a few other small cavities that the dr. went ahead and filled.  She also put sealants on her two adult molars.  I'm glad that she went ahead and took care of all of that while Rapunzel was under anesthesia anyway.

She also mentioned that it took several tries to get her IV in, so her arms were a little banged up.  Plus, her skin started to flare considerably during the procedure, so the anesthesiologist gave her some steroid for that.  I was not happy about that, but what's done is done.

By the time they brought me back to see Rapunzel, she was starting to wake up and was very upset.  She was screaming and crying, but wouldn't open her eyes.  She kept clawing at her face and left a few scratches because of it (I'd brought socks to put over her hands, but couldn't because of the IV).  It took a few minutes, but I was able to calm her down enough for her to realize I was in there.  She just kept yelling that she wanted to go home.  So I think the nurse was trying to speed up the process a little.  I helped her get dressed (which was a challenge because for some reason she kept trying to stand up on the hospital bed), and then they brought her a sugar free popsicle.  I checked the ingredients and they were good to go.  I was so glad they had some!  I had planned to bring one of our own fruit pops for her, since most popsicles contain corn syrup, but forgot!  I remembered when we were halfway to the hospital, and didn't want to turn around for fear of being late (not that it would have mattered since we waited for 2 hours to even go to pre-op!).  Poor Rapunzel was still so loopy that she couldn't quite get the popsicle to her mouth on her own and ended up poking herself in the face with it.  But she didn't want me to help her either.  So by the time we left, she had several red sticky polka dots all over her face! lol

When it was finally time for her to be discharged, Rapunzel didn't want me to leave her side.  We'd gotten her into a wheelchair and I was going to go get the car and bring it around, but when I tried to walk away, she kept trying to get up out of the wheelchair.  So instead, they wheeled her down to the entrance, while I held her hand, and then I carried her (all 49 pounds of her) to the parking garage, up the elevator, and around the corner to our car.  I got her all buckled in and we headed for home.  I stopped at Chick-Fil-A first to get her some grilled chicken, applesauce and lemonade (and lunch for myself, it was 1:30pm by now and I was getting hungry!).

When we got home, I realized that CFA had given us regular nuggets instead of grilled nuggets (which Rapunzel can't have right now, because they have a milk wash on them).  Luckily I had some precooked grilled chicken in the freezer that I was able to nuke for her.  I also made her some white rice and she ate some of that as well.

She's spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the couch, watching some tv and playing on her LeapPad.  Just taking it easy.  She seems to feel pretty back to normal now, which is great.  I'm about to go make dinner and then spend some time snuggling with my girl!