I had decided that I was not going to broach the surgery subject until this morning, because I felt like Evie would be more anxious the sooner I brought it up. But I also knew that because she is so stuck on verbally going over her routine (and confirming that routine with me), she very well might say, "I'm going to school tomorrow?"
Well, she did. Early in the day yesterday. I had thought about possibly telling her yes and taking her to school for a couple of hours before the surgery, but because she couldn't have anything to eat or drink, I thought that was probably not the best idea. I walked to the other room to make it seem like I didn't hear the question. But she didn't let it go, and asked again when I walked back in the room, and ended up telling her that she was not going to school, but rather the dentist was going to fix her teeth. "And then I'm going to school after that?" I said, "No, then we're going to stay home and we can play." Her response: "Yay! Give me a hug!"
Nothing else was said until before bed last night when Evie said, "I'm going to the dentist so they can check my teeth, and I went before and it didn't even hurt." There was too much wrong in that sentence that I felt like I at least needed to correct it a little, so I told her that actually the dentist was going to fix her cavities. She asked, "How are they going to fix them?" And I said, "We'll talk about it tomorrow." And that was the end of that. Whew.
Also, yesterday I was fixing lasagna for the crock pot while she was napping, aiming to have dinner ready around 6. Then I realized that I did not have any ricotta cheese. As she napped longer... and longer... I got anxious because it was pushing dinner-time back to well after 7. Then it hit me that it was probably a good thing that dinner was going to be way later than normal, because she wasn't going to be able to eat anything after midnight and the surgery wasn't scheduled until 10. So I said a silent "thank you" to the heavens, and at dinnertime I let her eat two helpings of lasagna... and ice cream... and popcorn. And finally got her up to bed.
This morning I expected a lot of resistance when I told her she couldn't have her cereal and banana (I tell you, this child is such a routine-oriented creature of habit), but she accepted it without difficulty.
Then right before we were going to leave the house, I explained that they were going to give her some medicine to make her go to sleep (in a mask like the one she uses with her inhaler) so that she wouldn't feel anything, and then when she woke up her teeth would be all fixed.
She was so calm when we got there. The nurse came in to start the process, and then the nurse anesthetist, and the dentist, and the OR nurse, and eventually the anesthetist. After people started coming in the room, there were never less than 2 extra people in there at one time... and Evie charmed them all. She was showing off her dance moves, and getting everyone to see how high they could jump, and singing her ABC's. And then they asked her if she wanted to walk or ride; she chose walk, and off she walked.
Everything went fine. They brought her back to the holding room where I was, she drank her apple juice, and promptly went to sleep for the time that she had to be observed. She rode out in a wagon, we went to get a milkshake, and she stayed groggy until about 30 minutes after we got home (except when she suddenly said in the car, "I think something feels very terrible!" - it was her throat, I'm guessing from the intubation). She was up and down all afternoon, playing for a while, then saying she didn't feel good and lying on the couch for a while.
Some funny stories:
At one point shortly after we got back, as she was watching a TV show, she got up off the couch and started bending and straightening her knees, moving forward and backward and her waist, and bending and straightening her elbows and shoulders. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "This makes me not sick anymore."
She went to the bathroom and came out and asked, "What is this thing in my mouth?" (referring to the silver crown on her back molar)
I was in the bathroom and when I came out, she said, "I have two questions." (She has NEVER prefaced her questions with that phrasing before). She had obviously been pondering this. "The first question - How am I going to eat with this thing in my mouth?" And the second one - "Are we going to paint my fingernails?"
In the end, my anxiety over her anxiety was much much more than her actual anxiety was. Which I consider a success for today.
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