Dr. O

Olivia had to miss school today for a dentist appointment. The appointment was at 9:40, she was given her dose of valium at 8:30 to relax her for the appointment and then she and I were on the road at 8:40 to get there by 9:30.

Once there, she got two fillings and a crown, all on/in molars on the left side of her mouth.

The dentist came out when it was all done and told me how well she'd done. He said she sat quietly the entire time, making his job much easier. He'd praised her quite often during the procedure, he said.

When she came out to meet me at the reception desk, she was very out of it. She couldn't walk a straight line and needed me to help her to the car. Poor kid was also very numb on the left side of her face.

One of the sucky parts of 5p- syndrome is the fact that O's body doesn't use its water well. She pees just fine but water that is supposed to be sent to the colon doesn't do its job and water that is supposed to make saliva also doesn't do what it's supposed to do. Because of this, she get plaque build up on her teeth and needs more dental work than your typical eight year old who brushes her teeth faithfully.

We left the dentist's office and headed toward home, planning to make a stop at Walmart to pick up some milk and a few other things. As we drove away, Olivia mentioned the numbness in her mouth. This numbness distressed her greatly. By the time we'd driven the twenty minutes to get to Walmart, she was in tears due to the numbness. I assured her the numbness would subside but that didn't comfort her. We ended up making a quick purchase of tissues before going to the toy section of Walmart to try and ease her distress.

We needed to pick out a present for a classmate who invited O to her eighth birthday party this coming Saturday. Once the gift was chosen, Olivia chose a prize for herself. She had, after all, been a star patient at the dentist.

Even after picking out a plush Elsa doll, Livie cried through the rest of our time at Walmart. She really couldn't stand the numbness. I stopped often to hug her and try to comfort her but it didn't help her much.

We got a few looks as she sobbed her way through the store. As we were checking out, she'd managed to get her wails under control for the moment and the cashier noticed O's red face. She asked if Liv had a bad cold.

I mentioned that we'd just come from the dentist and she was stressed by the numbness in her mouth. The cashier started to make a judgmental statement, something about not eating so much candy. I interrupted her and gave her a quick summary of rare chromosomal disorders, plaque build-up and never, EVER being able to brush enough to keep the cavities at bay, even without ever touching a piece of candy. She was quite nice after that but come on! Why does one need to even explain?

Whatever. It didn't even bother me at the time. I just wanted to get my sad, miserable baby out of the store and home where she could rest and recover.

Once we were home, she ate some cream of chicken soup and played with her new doll. The numbness is finally gone and there have bee no more tears. Her next cleaning isn't until February. Until then we'll keep brushing as well as we can, keep drinking lots of water and try to stay away from judgmental Walmart cashiers.