As we have been reminded time and time again, nothing is "easy" with HLHS kiddos, dental work included !
Two weeks ago we had a pre Kindergarten dentist appointment and we learned that between his last appointment a year ago (my bad), John has acquired 7 cavities ! SEVEN !
I don't know whose fault it is at this point, could be that he loves lollypops and bites them and we have only slightly limited their existence in John's diet, could be that his teeth have been exposed to sugary syrups from all the meds he has had in the past and his teeth enamel is weak, could be that he inherited my terrible teeth genes, or could be that we allowed him more often than not to brush his own teeth lately, mostly since his last appointment. Anyways, it is what it is and we have to fix it.
For a normal kid, say Emily, whose one cavity we already fixed last week, you get some numbing gel, get a local anesthetic shot and the dentist fixes it right in the dentists office, no big deal. But for a cardiac kid, one who is on aspirin, first the kid takes a dose of antibiotic for the cleaning and dental exam, just in case prior to the appointment. If a cavity exists and has to be fixed, we would have to stop the aspirin for 7 days prior to getting the tooth filling. Since John has 7, this means they would have to fix it two at a time, so that would be off of aspirin for a minimum of
weeks at a time, for someone who depends on the aspirin medically, that is beyond the comfort of our cardiologist, so we have to do it all at once - IN THE OPERATING ROOM , UNDER GENERAL ANASTHESIA ...
Did I say in the Operating Room with a breathing tube down the throat administered by the pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, same ones that did his open heart surgeries? Yes the same ones.
When I heard this I almost threw up right there in the dentist office. I was/ am not ready to send him to the OR again, not even for dental work.
I was assured that it's very routine, we should go home the same day and all will be well, but this is still a big deal to us .
We go in for this today . Please send a prayer for John and for a successful procedure with no complications from either the anesthesia, from the dental work and for his spirit. He not phased by this at all since he doesn't remember the last time he was in the OR. He knows hes going to the hospital and will have his teeth fixed but probably doesn't realize what that all entails. That is a good and bad thing, I want him to not beg for the candy and soda, but I don't want him to be terrified of the hospital - it's a fine line.
I will keep the blog updated.
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