Cocktails for One

Yesterday afternoon was Alyssa's oral surgery. I can think of things she probably would have enjoyed more. That goes for me, too. It wasn't a whole lot of fun to be sitting in the waiting room with a book while three strangers did things to my child in a closed back room.

Lyssa was worried much more about having an IV than she was about the actual procedure. She obsessed over that damn needle for a month. The last time she had any sort of needle activity other than poking herself while sewing was at about the age of nine when they stuck her finger to get a blood sample for a mono test. She had been sick for days, was at her lowest, and it hurt her quite a bit. Not that having needles stuck in you is fun, but I think that event colored her imagination and added to her fear about yesterday. I sat with her yesterday while they did the needle thing, and once that was hooked up, gave her a kiss and hug and went out to the waiting room. I know they were giving her a lovely mixed bag of drugs. Drip. Drip. Drip. I thought briefly about asking for some for me.

She has a tooth embedded deeply in her lower front jaw. It never erupted, although its counterpart on the other side came out more than five years ago. The orthodontic work she's been having has left a space for the new tooth to come in, but even pulling the baby tooth that was still parked there had done no good.

The surgeon opened up her gum and attached an orthodontic bracket to the top of the tooth. (see the interesting picture I found?)

A small chain is attached to the bracket and pulled up one link at a time over a period of several months. This is supposed to get the tooth moving. Just leaving it embedded can cause problems in a few years. according to what I've read, although I would imagine a tooth that gets no sugar or other stuff on it probably won't get cavities. (That's called looking for the positive.)

She was a strange little person after the surgery. They had me pull around to the back of the building and park in a handicapped spot so they could help her out to the car. She was very wobbly. Tearful. We got her into the car, and she insisted to me that we stop at the store and buy her some chicken strips. On the way to the store, her mood varied widely. Cheerful. Tearful again. She cried and was angry. She lapsed into silence, then cried again. It was surreal.

I was afraid that she'd fall and I'd have to drag her out of the grocery store, but it didn't happen. We got the chicken, and I got her home. She had trouble getting up the front step to the house. She leaned helplessly against the wall until I got the door open and could help her in. Once in, she was not hungry. She wanted to lie down. She said she'd love to sleep in her own bed, but didn't think she could climb up to it. (she has a low loft bed). After lying on the couch for 3 seconds, she was out. O-U-T. She slept for two hours without moving. I got up every four seconds to check on her. When her dad came home a little before six, she finally woke up.

I had choir practice last night at 6. I didn't want to leave. Eric reminded me that Alyssa has two parents, both fairly competent. ("She's fine. Now go.")

Last month, after scheduling the surgery, I asked the dentist if we should still come in for our regularly scheduled orthodontic appointment, which is today. He said it 'shouldn't be a problem'. Um, yeah. Right. The swollen lower lip, the pain and the drug hangover probably aren't a problem at all... for him. I think those are all problems for Lyssa, though. Just one of them would be no fun, but all three combined made me decide that she's not going this morning. Matt's going to drive himself up to his appointment, and I'm going to call them and make sure they know why we're not coming up, too.

I'm letting Lyssa sleep in this morning. The bottle of Vicodin is out and ready for her. I hope she doesn't need it.

One last thing. The surgery was just a little short of one thousand dollars. We do have fairly decent dental insurance (of course it doesn't cover orthodontics) I won't get into how crappy the medical part of our coverage actually is, or how expensive our premiums are or the fact that nobody in this house better get really sick because it won't cover much of a really serious illness. (Besides, I have seen all of you in my boat. Look at us. All in the same boat and not one of us thought to bring a paddle. Gee, I wonder which creek this is??)
Our share yesterday was $160.00. Due at time of service. The surgery took about 40 minutes from start to finish. There was a schedule posted on the wall in the surgical room, and our guy had a very full day. Since the procedure we had done is relatively minor, and there's no way of knowing what everyone else had done, I can't guess exactly how much money there is in being an oral surgeon, but multiply the 12 appointments by $1,000. In one day. Of course, it's not a field of work I'd want to do, but DAMN.