Nothing ever goes according to plan.

We had Gillian's extractions this morning, and as the title shows, nothing every goes to plan. Before we went, we had the option of sedating her or not, and we had decided to do the sedation to at least try to relax her and give her some amnesia. Well, that was the part that didn't go to plan. She has been suffering from a runny nose all week, and I was worried that that would cause a problem. As it turns out, it did. The Dentist did a careful assessment of her, and while she didn't have fluid in her lungs, he didn't feel comfortable giving her the medication as it would increase the risk of respiratory problems. So the choice was again our, do we go forward without the meds, or reschedule and try it again. Since we were already there, we weren't 100% comfortable with sedation in the first place (she is only 16 months), we decided to go ahead with just a dose of Advil and freezing.

It was a little nerve racking because it meant that she would be totally awake and aware of the whole procedure, which is what I was more nervous about than anything. We had Eric, his mom and I in the room, and they strapped her onto this spinal board with wrist restraints, then restrained her even further with large wide velcro straps going across her chest and legs. When we lay her down and started doing up the velcro, she didn't cry at all, but rather just stared up with big frantic eyes wondering what in the hell we were doing to her.

She didn't start crying until the freezing started. First they sprayed her gum's with a numbing fluid, like oragel, then got the needle and started injecting. At this point she decided this really wasn't for her and that the fun was over - "Get me out of here!!!". The freezing took longer than I thought, since they had to freeze in three different places. Then we had to wait a few minutes while it "sunk in" - at which point she tried to make the great escape, wiggling her legs out and trying to sit up to no avail! Then the knife came out, he make little incisions around the tooth, then basically just pulled them out. He had a little bit of trouble getting a grip on it because it was still pretty small, but once he did they came out easily. He them packed them up with a packing gel, cleaned her up, then unstrapped her and gave her to me. She settled down quite quickly in my arms - and within 5 min was pointing at a picture of a dog saying "DA! Da!". The whole thing took about 20 min, with some crying, but overall she was a strong little girl (especially since she almost escaped the straight jacket!!). She was in good spirits quickly. Mind you when the nurse approached her to wipe her mouth up a little, she screamed bloody murder! Same with Grandma, she didn't really want to trust anyone but Eric and I after that - not surprisingly!

I must say it was quite traumatizing, especially for Eric and I - we both cried. But I'm glad we had it done, and also glad we didn't have to give her the sedation, as it can't be good for her, and she survived without it. Now I can't say she will be a happy camper the next time we go to the dentist... she may just take one look at him and freak!

She is napping now, and when she wakes, I'll pump her up with Advil and give her a nice lunch. Probably take her for a walk around the neighbourhood and cuddle! Now we just wait and see if those front teeth can push themselves down and straighten out. She should have lots of space in there now!