Let's call it "outpatient dental"

Unlike most of us who are content with laughing gas and happy dental sedation, Kara always does things in a big way :-) Anybody out there remember the ER-Splinter Visit of 2004? Well, you might recall Kara had a bit of a breathing issue after being sedated for splinter-removal. Thom and I were convinced we lost years off our lives that evening worrying about her. She came through, but the end-result came this year with cavities needing to be filled under the supervision of an anesthesiologist, multiple nurses and a trip to Outpatient Surgery at a local hospital.

This brings you to today! Or what appeared to be today... it was so dark when we had to wake up, I generally refer to that hour as "the middle of the night." At any rate, my parents were wonderful enough to actually show up at our house at this ridiculously early hour and stay with Caleb for the day so that Thom and I could both be with Kara from start to finish through her procedure. We planned ahead and put Kara to sleep clean and fresh in softy-pants and a T-shirt with the plan to pretty much lift her from her bed and put her in the car. To our delighted surprise she was SO SWEET this morning. She woke up sweetly asking about the possibility of using a candy vending machine she had seen last week at her pre-op appointment. With all of her questions answered we thanked Mom & Dad and headed to the hospital.

Once there we quickly passed through registration and followed Kara, toting her Granny Karen blanket like Linus from Peanuts, into a room. According to hospital procedure they had us there, in all likeliness, before the dentist who did her procedure was even out of his bed! So, lots of waiting. To pass the time we alternated between individual trips to the bathroom and pretend naps. At one point Kara was happily draping her blanket over Thom and me as we both caught moments of rest. She was so sweet!

Around 8am they wheeled Kara, in her bed, to the pre-op sedation room. While there Thom enjoyed wheeling around on a doctor's stool and Kara colored a couple of really pretty pictures for the nurses. Everyone there was quite taken by our little girl. And she was quite the sweetheart. We met with an anesthesiologist who was great in addressing our concerns and decided on a plan for Kara. She was given loopy juice! Technically it was oral Versed in a small dose, but in all practicality it transformed her from a cognizant 1st Grader who was charming the ward to the silly urchin we see between dinner and bedtime. Within a few minutes her silliness turned mental and she became fascinated with her own hand and convinced we all had two heads. The drugs were doing their job. At the appropriate level of sleepiness they wheeled her away and ushered us back to the waiting room.


Her procedure started around 9:40 and lasted a little over an hour. When she awoke the dentist reported back to us that all was well with her teeth and gave us some instructions for her recovery. Shortly thereafter we were able to go back and sit with her as she came out of the sedation. This part went a lot differently than I had expected.

The last time Kara was sedated like this she was three and came to very slowly and without many words and without much difficulty. Today it was clear that Kara was experiencing a lot of pain from the tube that had provided her air during the procedure. In fact, she was convinced that the tube was still down her throat. She looked tired and pitiful. Her eyes were dark and her lips looked dry and the corners of her mouth looked red from being stretched by the work the dentist had done. Poor thing! She also still had an IV in her arm and she really didn't like that and I can't say that I blame her. At one point Thom and I were just overcome with the need to be closer to her and we both figured out how to lower the rails on the bed and stand nearer to her. Thom stroked her hair and I sat on a chair and stroked her arm. We both just wanted to give her kisses and make her feel better. The nurse brought her a popsicle, but Kara had a hard time swallowing it and was gagging a lot. She also kept coughing in a way that reminded us of a pterodactyl or some other kind of bird. Poor thing. Eventually we found a children's program on TV and she rested as she woke up. Again she was seeing double, convinced she had two popsicles, there were two TVs and Daddy had two heads. Eventually her vision cleared up and her gagging stopped. Around 12:45 we were able to leave the hospital and head home. We were tired, but pleased. The procedure had finished and Kara was well.

Later when we were actually able to see inside Kara's mouth, we were amazed at the new technology of fillings! They're white, who knew?!

Now if we can just survive braces in a few years...