Allie's Metal Mouth

On Monday Alan and I took Allison into Sawtooth Surgery Center for a complete overhaul on her teeth. It was something that I was anxious to get over with and worried about how she would do being put under. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. and was escorted into room 2. As we were waiting for our turn, there was another little kid crying across the hall. We tried to distract Allie with the T.V. so that she wouldn't be anymore scared that she already was. As I sat there listening to this kid cry I told Alan that I thought it sounded a lot like True. (We knew Laura was taking Acoya and True in that morning also to get there tonsils out.) A short time later a nurse came and said that she understood we were related to the Leavitt's across the hall and wondered if we would come sit with True while Laura attended to Acoya since she was by herself. (Very brave in my opinion).
A male nurse came to take Allison back for her procedure and he had to pry her from my arms. I felt so bad for her and wondered why I just couldn't go back with her until they put the gas over her nose. I was a little bit weepy after she left because I knew that she was so scared.
While Allie was in surgery we went and visited with True and Acoya across the hall. It was a nice distraction for us while Allie was in surgery. Acoya was so gracious and smiley even in pain! True kept taking sips of apple juice and spooning a crushed up Popsicle in his mouth. We even got to see True's tonsils. Pretty yucky! We knew an anesthesiologist there (Bob Kinghorn) that went and checked on Allie for us during her surgery and came back to report that she was doing great.
An hour and a half later they carried Allie back to us crying and put her in my arms. She was a little bit groggy and kept yelling "take it out, take it out." She was referring to the IV in her foot. I had to wrap my arms around her hands to keep her from ripping it out on her own until the nurse could come and remove it safely.
The nurse and the doctor came back in to talk to us at different times and Allie would say "get her out of here, make him leave, go away....." It really was quite tender. She didn't want anything to do with them and couldn't wait to get out of there.
The doctor told us that he had to pull two teeth and put spacers in their place (one is up in her gums in the very back) and do a couple of mini root canals, clean out and fill some cavities and put silver caps on all but two teeth in the back. Wow! I asked him why her teeth were so different from her siblings and he said that it could be related to being nursed longer than normal (19 months) and she did had some bad acid reflux for the first year of her life. He really didn't know and could only guess why they were so rotten. The good thing is that all of these teeth will fall out eventually!
She was pretty sore for a few days but she seems to be back to normal now. She can't eat sticky candy (tootsie rolls, laffy taffy, etc), caramel corn etc. She is really good at rinsing out her mouth after she eats and we brush twice everyday. I am waiting to floss until her gums heal some more. The Dentist also recommended that she rinse with a anti-cavity rinse after brushing since we have no fluoride in our water. Who knew her teeth were so bad? Obviously not us!
Other news....Alan left Tuesday for a farm show in Tulure, CA and should arrive home late tonight. We miss him when he is gone. I stayed up until 12:30 last night reading taking advantage of not having him next to me tossing and turning because my lamp is on. It was quite a treat but I knew I would end up regretting it the next day.
We have been busy here getting Melissa ready for the "Sweetheart's Dance" on Sat. This is her first girl/boy date and dance! We spent 4 hours in the mall yesterday trying on every dress in the mall (O.k. not every dress but it felt like it). I had Rachel, Abby and Allie with me and they were quite the troopers as we went from store to store. Rachel reported that we took over 5,000 steps according to her IPod. We ended up seeing a lot of cute dresses but very few of them were long enough! We ended up finding a purple dress in our last store and decided it was the one! Yea! It was fun but exhausting. Zach is also going but he doesn't need my help. The thought of going to the mall with me is not his idea of a good time so he is on his own to find his black shirt, pants and shoes! Good times.