she amazed us all.....

and we have dr. sally and nurse debbie to thank for it. seriously, i'd be very confident in daring anyone to find a dentist and hygienist more compassionate than these two women.

my sweet ashlyn had the first of many dental/ortho visits yesterday. we chose, a year ago, to transfer her dental work over to the hands of the amazing staff at Children's Hospital rather than continue with her regular pediatric dentist. it had nothing to do with her dentist, but everything to do with how well the hospital staff interacts and deals with children having special needs.

this time daddy got to accompany us, which is a rare treat considering he's usually tied up with something called a full-time job. pffffft. she's a daddy's girl, for sure, can't ya tell?

you'll have to excuse the cruddy photos---they were all taken on my phone.

anywho......Baby and Max joined her for the adventure and kept her feeling safe and secure. Baby has been to every doctor/hospital visit this kid has had. i should definitely do a layout with all those pictures. (in my free time.........ha.)

ironically enough, she ended up in the puppy room. which means nothing more than a procedural room with posters and framed pictures of puppies covering the walls and bulletin boards....and even a handful pasted on the ceiling tiles. :)

because of her sensory issues, we mutually decided that all her dental work for the near future will be with sedation. not anesthesia, just sedation.

she did well with everything they talked about prior to starting, but started to fall apart when they left the room to get her happy juice.

she was scared she'd be put to sleep and the girl hates.......i mean, HATES, to go to sleep.

so she had a little anxiety that was calmed by distraction from the technology and a little pep talk from the attending physician. they promised her she would not go to sleep.

she needed and a little cuddle with Max and a reassuring word from daddy first.

she was asked who she wanted to race while drinking her happy juice....me or doug. she picked me. so when the doctor left the room to get her happy juice, she started stretching her legs and arms.

when asked what she was doing, she said "stretching so i can race mommy!" she thought we were going to literally race a lap around the facility or something. LOL. when we explained she had to drink her happy juice faster than me, she changed her mind....."ohhhhhhh man! i'm not gonna race mom. she's an awesome pill-taker, she'll definitely beat me."

so what would have been a huge meltdown at home (drinking grape, gritty happy juice--both negative sensory triggers for her), turned into racing daddy albeit with a disgusted look on her face, but doing it anyway, because dr. sally and nurse debbie were rooting her on.

after the procedure we were told that Dr. Sally worked her magic and "painted" a snowmen, hearts and a puppy on her three of her teeth while ashlyn kept asking why there were bookshelves floating near the ceiling, LOL.

then we took her home where we tried for an hour or more to decipher her mumbling and then calm her crying episodes while the medication wore off. she finally gave up and fell asleep. sleeping off the meds helped tremendously. she was a handful for a while.

she woke up asking "is it time for surgery now?" she didn't remember having everything done already.

the doctor called later last evening to ask how she was doing and before i got off the phone ashlyn asked to speak with her. when i handed her the phone all she had to say was "thank you dr. sally for being so nice and gentle with me today. i'll see you next time."

this morning she asked, "when's my next appointment to have my tooth pulled?"

we don't know yet, but next time will also be with sedation to have a tooth pulled and a space maintainer appliance put in. we thought that was what was being done yesterday. they decided to do the gentle work first as not to traumatize her.

after our next visit we'll be on our way to her orthodontist consult to talk about what to do with her open bite and cross bite (which you can see in the first photo). i happen to think it's adorable, but she probably won't think so when she's 15. LOL.

all that to say.......she's making strides. and growing up. we're super proud of her for being so brave!

thank God for doctors who work their magic and make her feel like a superstar!