2:57 p.m. - October 31, 2002
No Candy for Matthew
I can�t believe October is over. Before you know it, everyone will be sitting around the family table eating Thanksgiving dinner and strategizing about the next day and what stores to hit first or who�s having the best sales. I think I�ll be doing most of my shopping on-line this year. Anyway, Happy Halloween, fellow diarylanders.
I think I picked the wrong day to take Matthew to the dentist. I believe that it was the single most distressing experience of my life, to date. I take him there explaining that we are going to A) get x-rays B) maybe a cleaning and C) reschedule a time to come back and get his cavities filled. We get there at 9:30 and they take him right back. They do a �visual� exam then take X-rays. After the dr. looks at the films he decides that the cavity on the bottom right should probably have a temporary filling put in. Fine, I�m good with that. They move him to another chair, get him prepped for a Novocain shot and gave him the shot which I thought was going to make him pass out. Between the time that they gave him the shot and the time we walked out the door was an hour and 45 minutes. They got him set up for the filling by putting this metal ring around his tooth, then had to put what they call a �raincoat� over his mouth, which totally freaked him out. The dr. discovered that he couldn�t read the films and needed new ones. Undo everything, take more pictures, redo everything, and wait for the dr. to get done with another patient. By this time I�m sure the Novocain was wearing off. The dr. comes over and starts to drill and M freaks again, doubly bad this time. I�m on my knees holding his little arms down, the other nurse was holding his legs down, he�s screaming, �Get. This. Thing. Out. Of. My. Mouth.� �I can�t swallow�, �I can�t breathe�. By this time I�m starting to cry and I�m praying and the nurse leans down to Matthew and says in a hushed tone �Matthew, can you try to scream a little lower�. �He�s being traumatized, he can�t cry any lower�. Give me a flippin� break you moron. I was livid. The other nurse whispers in my ear that I shouldn�t cry because he�s going to get upset seeing me this was. Nooooo shit, lady. My child is hurting and I know he needs to get this fixed but I can�t help but get upset. These people are trained in children�s dentistry; they shouldn�t even be saying things like that. The whole filling took about 10 minutes and he and I composed ourselves. The dr. suggested that I either A) have the other 3 done in the hospital under general anesthesia or B) have a sedative prescribed beforehand. I�m not hot on either of those choices but what am I supposed to do. He has to have them filled because they�ve gone down to the pulp. He has to have caps put on them next. I was so frazzled when we left that office. To add to the stress, we don�t have dental insurance. Nice, huh? When we were out in the parking lot he�s skipping along to the car and say�s �That wasn�t so bad�! I started to cry. I knelt down next to him and hugged him and told him how sorry I was that he was hurting and that I didn�t think they were going to do all that today. He hugged me back and said, �I love you Mommy�. He had little alligator tears and told me that the worst part was when they put that raincoat on his tooth. He said he couldn�t swallow and he felt like he couldn�t breathe. How scary for a child. What a perfect day for him to be restricted from chewy, gooey candy.
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