A Dental Adventure

The big day arrived; Timothy's trip to Casper Surgical Center for a dental procedure to put 6 fillings in his back teeth. As I posted here, we were disappointed to find out that Tim had so many cavities, but thankful that all could be taken care of at one time under general anaesthesia.

It started off fairly routine but quickly turned into a very long day, some moments of tears and worry, and ended with an overnight stay in the hospital.

But back to the beginning:

Timothy was so compliant as the nurse checked him in and put on his name tag.



"Happy Juice" for the purpose of relaxing him prior to going back to the surgery room.



So far, so good.........

As the medicine kicked in, Timothy got more and more hilarious. Listen to Phil quiz him on the Chicago Bears players:

And then, the camera battery died BUT the story had only begun. Timothy was taken back into surgery. Phil and I went into the waiting room for the 60 minute procedure. About 20 minutes later, the assisting nurse came and told us that one of his teeth had abscessed and Dr. Prugh recommended extracting it. We agreed and waiting for the remaining time.

Before seeing Timothy in recovery, Dr. Prugh told us that things were a bit more complicated than originally thought, and they had given Tim some narcotic pain medicine while under anaesthesia because of the pain getting the tooth out. As we sat with Timothy in recovery, he just wasn't waking up like he should and when the nurse checked his oxygen level, it had dropped to the 50's!! NOT GOOD. The oxygen came out and he was given a medicine to reverse the effects of the narcotic. It seemed to work almost immediately, and he even woke up enough to eat a Popsicle.

Unfortunately, after about an hour, the oxygen levels started dropping again and he became very lethargic, feel asleep, and he was very hard to wake up. By this time we had been waiting for about 4 hours post surgery and our pediatrician was called to consult in the matter. After administering the narcotic reversal agent again and oxygen levels still too low on room air, it was decided that Timothy needed to be admitted to the hospital for observation.

They wheeled him through the underground tunnel and checked him into the pediatric wing at the hospital. He was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and snuggled in a bed, which was a welcome relief from the chair he and I had been sitting in for about 5 1/2 hours!!

(camera battery re-charged - so back to the story in pictures :D)

Feeling a little better with another Popsicle.

Phil brought him his Chicago Bears pillow and we put in a video for him. He thought it was cool that he could eat a Popsicle and watch a movie in a electric bed!!

However looking at this picture reveals a pretty hurting little guy.

And all the tubes and monitors were driving him crazy.

But......when Uncle Jim showed up and climbed in bed with him, his spirits seemed to pick up quickly!

Jim took it upon himself to modify the room instruction chart.

Hooray - Oxygen levels staying at 92 without extra oxygen!

Timothy finally feel asleep around 11:30 p.m. and slept until 5ish. He woke up several times to use the bathroom and have his pulse-ox monitor adjusted, but his levels stayed in the 90's all night. Praise God!

The next morning's breakfast: Pancake, vanilla pudding and red jello. After being checked out by Dr. Ellbogen and determining that it just took his system extra long to metabolize the effects of the anaesthesia and the narcotics, he was discharged and free to come home.

He was excited to see a great bouquet of balloons sent from Ohio from Grammy and Grandpa.

Although this ordeal was a bit more than we originally planned on, there are SO many things to be thankful to God for. Some of my thoughts (in no particular order):

• Very friendly, understanding and helpful doctors and nurses at both medical facilities.
• An unexpected but refreshing time for me to sit and hold my son for a very extended period of time.
• AWESOME friends that dropped everything to take care of and transport the other girls.
• Other TERRIFIC friends that visited Tim in the hospital, prayed with him and brought him gifts.
• Other AMAZING friends that helped out with my Thanksgiving dinner knowing that I had lost a lot of prep time at home while hanging out at the hospital.
• Other EXTRAORDINARY friends that texted me like crazy to check in on us and most importantly to PRAY to our AWESOME GOD on behalf of this precious little guy.
• My healthy 5 children and wonderful husband that God has blessed me with!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done!!!