Dentist

We had another 6 month follow up today, this is like her 4th cleaning, not including TWO dental work visits. We live at the dentist it seems. She did SO well, I'm so proud of her, everytime we go I sit further and further away from her. Her first visit she was on my lap crying, the second on my lap and okay, the third visit I just held her hand her dad right there too, this visit we sat way across the room. Hope she don't kick us out next time, ha.

The assistant came out, called Tehya's name and she proudly followed the lady back her dad and I following behind, hopped right up into the chair all by herself. There was a kid on the other side of the wall, like 4 years older and this other girl was screaming and crying and not cooperating at all. It was so bad she even made ME nervous. I'm thinking great, Tehya is going to be traumatized just by listening to this other kid but it didn't phase her a bit. She had her mouth open before the lady was even ready, I don't think she closed it barely at all, even when she didn't have to she held it open. Then her cleaning was done and she told Tehya the dentist will be over to look in a minute so Tehya lays back down and taps her fingers on the armrest while she waited, it was cute.

Finally we left, I asked Tehya if she had fun and she enthusiastically says yes. Then randomly after we got home says to me, "the was a REALLY good doctor", lol. My big girl. Here I was expecting the worst and she was very well behaved, brave and independent. :)

Her teeth were pretty much okay, was just told to brush her gums a little better and her teeth that has had work are slightly lose so they will fall out early, in the next year or two probably.

Update from Wednesday's being sick blog.

So I blogged about Tehya being sick since Halloween for over a week, see "Wednesday".

Basically we went to the doc (they are not so bright as always), looked at her ears and mouth said looks great, said she's prob got a minor cold because her tongue was a little white. I wasn't buying it, I didn't think she had a cold, no symptoms.I never trust the doctors (yeah that's me...looking into seeing a Chiro instead!). Nothing he said made any sense considering her symptoms and every time I go there I come home knowing the same as before I went in except I'm more confused. Plus the fact that the doctors are so uneducated on breastfeeding, and other subjects, ugh. Okay, rant done, moving on.

So regardless of the docs conclusion, I knew it wasn't right so I got to googling. I was thinking sore throat or maybe strep. In these days she had a white sore on her tongue, and I called the doc and there ONLY advise was "coat it with an antacid", never gave a guess what it might be and didn't request to look at it. Then later while googling I come across thrush (considering the amount she'd been nursing it was a possibility). I wasn't convinced yet but I kept that in mind.

The following days during teeth brushing time I noticed her gums looked swollen and dark red, and then they gushed blood as I attempted brushing them. I mean, I barely touched her teeth and the blood poured out. So I googled some more, and saw this Herpetic Gingivostomatitis caused by a type of herpes virus called herpes simplex virus type 1 or HSV1. Symptoms including, sore throat, fever, irritability, loss of appetite, not wanting to eat or drink, red swollen bleeding gums. She had ALL these symptoms. I saw that and said, that IS what it is! I called her dentist and described the symptoms, went in the next morning, and he said she has herpes simplex virus INSIDE her mouth. Confirmed. Mystery solved!

Thank you pediatrician for knowing NOTHING, thanks for looking in her mouth and saying "looks great", thanks for telling me she had a cold when she didn't. Thanks.

So Tehya has HSV1. She probably got it from me. :( It is past through cold sores and I coincidentally had one the week before. Now she'll suffer from it forever, just like cold sores, it keeps coming back. Maybe once every 6 months or once every 6 years, but it will always come back. It's basically like a cold sore but she got the mouth sores in her mouth, although it can spread to the outside. It is VERY painful. The dentist (I love her dentist, thank God, even if we travel an hour for this particular one), he said it's like chicken pox, the INITIAL sickness (fever, etc) will not return, she'll only get sick once, although the sores can come back. It is a virus so it cannot be treated with antibiotics, just keep her happy and comfortable as possible. She is pretty lucky so far, he said some kids get DOZENS of sores at a time and they can cause their teeth to break as well.

Yeah I know, this is getting annoyingly long so that's it, Tehya almost completely recovered from it this time around. Phew.

Tehya's Dental Procedure

Before

After

Well we are back. Thank God, been a long day. Her appointment was at 7:30, but we had to be there to check in no later than 6:30, so we left home at 5 in the morning.

That medical building was something else. So the waiting area was huge. Had it's cafeteria and lunchroom. They had computers hooked up to the Internet, a couple hooked up to game consoles. The had a quiet room with a weird wall of running water for people who wanted to sit in quiet and/or read. They gave us a beeper type thing when we walked in, it made a noise and vibrated whenever they were ready for us and again when we could go back to see Tehya. The had TV's, large fish tanks in the walls, a nice play area. Very roomy. Oh and a really cool thing they had was these TV's placed throughout the room the kept track of the patients progress, so we could look at this screen and actually know where Tehya was and what her progress was.

We get called in, Tehya is in hysterics already. I expected this from her cause it happens every well check-up. She wanted to nurse REAL bad but I couldn't let her, she was fasting.
They had cable in the rooms, lol, so I turned on one to a cartoon and she fine for awhile watching that. Then seems she was scared, clingy and nervous they decided to give her a drug that made her relaxed and "loopy" so that when they they did the gas to put her to sleep it wouldn't be as bad.

The drug they gave her to calm her made her silly. She giggled and cheered up real quick. To me that was different because I'm used to tears and screams at the doctors from her.

Only one of could go back with her when they put her to sleep, so I decided I was the one to go. I just couldn't not go, I knew that would be worse for me. At this point she was like a newborn. She was like dead weight in my arms, I had to support her head and all. She was awake but slowly fading off to la la land. She was still smiley though. I walked down like 4 long halls, Tehya was probably wondering who I was because I had a gown and cap on.

We get to the OR and I reluctantly lay her on the bed. I figured she'd cry and never thought in a million years she would stay there without crying but she happily layed there, smiling still. She had her buddy bear with her and she kept putting the mask on buddy bears face and smiling about it. It was cute. Then it was time to put the mask on her so she could go to sleep. She saw it coming or something because she started screaming...even though she willingly put it on herself earlier. She didn't scream long though, she settled down immediately, and I talked to her and kissed her on the cheek the lasts seconds she was awake. They said she actually did really well because most put up a fight longer.

Phew I THOUGHT the hard part was over. I drove myself crazy in the waiting area, finally about 2 hours later (they said it'd only be 1 hour) the dentists comes out (I couldn't help but smile seeing him, I was so relieved) and talks to us and tells a few more minutes and we can go see her. So again we had to wait. Not long this time. 5-10 minutes. Keep in mind, this is longest I've been away from my child since she was born!!

Walking the halls I hear a screaming and inconsolable cry coming from my baby's room. My first thought was 'Oh God, how long has she been crying before they came and got me?', I'm sure longer than I want to know. They actually wait until they settle down a bit before they get the parents (so I've been told). I'm still sad about that. I saw the nurse holding her like a newborn. That was an odd site. stranger cradling my child. I'm not sure I liked that feeling. She had an IV in her foot, blood pressure band on her arm, and a heart rate monitor on her toe. Oh, she ended having 3 fixed and one pulled. The 3 fixed ones are not the best shape, we'll hope they hold up!

I took her and sat with her. She was better but still very upset. The nurse wanted to give her a bottle and I said no she is still nursed, she's never had a bottle before. So I nursed her, it settled her for a minute but she extremely upset again. She'd fall asleep, wake up crying, fall asleep, wake up crying. She did this most of the day.

Eventually we made it out of there. She wasn't happy getting into her car seat. She just wanted to nurse nurse nurse. I would have let her but we HAD to get home. That's a long ride, so I only let her nurse for 15-20 minutes or so in the car.

We stopped at the mall on the way home to get food for us, ice cream for Tehya, drinks and a present for her for doing a good job. She refused water, she refused the ice cream (that NEVER happens), she wanted nothing. She still cried, slept, cried, slept. She was white as a ghost and her lips were blue and then white. We bought her a cute pirate tent and left for home.

She did the cry sleep thing all the way home. Still was pale. Then she vomited 3x in a row on herself. First time in her life that she vomited. Sadly, I did my best to clean it up, but we were still 30 minutes from home so she had to stay like that. (I was riding in back with her, as always) I wasn't about to take her out, we all just wanted to get home and if I took her out, she would not have got back in. Plus she wasn't crying so I didn't want to change the situation.

Finally. We are HOME. Home sweet home. She was still "not right" for a bit, but now she is better. She ate a yogurt pop, a juice box (which I never give her), and a bowl of rice. She showered and just fell asleep at 7pm. I hope she's to bed not napping. I don't need her falling off schedule...again.