Logan's Teeth
We got a call on Friday that the dentist who was seeing Logan and was scheduled to perform his cap, pulpotomoty and possible other 2 caps, was no longer with the practice we were seeing. Greeeeat. The receptionist said that one of the co-owners (a husband and wife team) would be seeing Logan for his procedure Tuesday. So we show up Tuesday on an empty stomach and the get Logan all demoroled up. The hygienist starts the nitrous and she looks at his teeth and immediately is like "uh, I'm going to have Dr. Hernandez take a look at this tooth down here." Huh. So Logan tries to get into LaLa land. Very difficult for him, and the dentist comes in. She wants to get more xrays. We get more xrays and it is abundantly clear to my non-dentist eyes that we have more problems. There is decay all around. :-( She recommended general anesthesia because it will take at least 3 conscious sedation sessions to complete the necessary work. Financially the cost was about the same, but I agreed with the dentist's recommendation. I didn't want Logan to dread going to the dentist and she said with conscious sedation that he would be in more pain than with general.
So we got an appointment with her husband, the practice's co-owner, for Thursday. We had to be in Marble Falls at 6:45am. Woohoo! Logan actually did fantastic on the drive over and was super excited to be going to the dentist. We've been telling him over and over again that the dentist will make his teeth feel better.
We arrived right on time and had (what I'm assuming was) Demerol. The anesthesiologist talked to us for a long time (after talking to him via phone the previous day) and was very understanding and considerate of my super vigilant Mom questions. After chatting for a bit and getting last minute question out of the way we headed back to the surgery room. Logan kept saying he wanted a juice box and Dr. Wilson said 'as soon as we take 10 deep breaths you can have a juice box." Yeah, 5 breaths in and I saw Logan's eyes roll back and he was out. I gave him a big kiss and left. The anesthesiologist administered the general anesthesia via an IV and Logan was totally out.
The dentist came in and we had a great chat. We talked about Logan's baby teeth and why it was necessary to do everything we could to preserve, rather than extract, his molars. I told the dentist to not hesitate to do whatever he felt necessary to help/improve Logan's dental health. I was basically begging him to help little Logan's teeth. I felt like every time someone looked in his mouth we had worse and worst news. Dr. Hernandez was totally understanding and explained what he would be doing and what he hoped he would be doing. He said he would try at all costs to save Logan's molars because of their importance in his developing mouth. He said he would try to fill the cavities in his front teeth, but that they might need to be capped.
After about 90 minutes Dr. Hernandez came out to talk to me. Apparently Logan had much more decay than they thought. He ended up getting 8 caps and 6 pulpotemies (I'm sure that's not the correct spelling) on his molars. He also had 4 caps on his upper front teeth. Since the caps were SO so bright and small he filed down Logan's canines for aesthetic reasons. He also told me that he was charging us the original bill and will charge the insurance for the extra work but will write off the rest of the bill. I wanted to kiss him. I am so thankful for the amazing care Logan received.
After Dr. Hernandez talked to me I heard Logan crying. He was coming out of anesthesia and was not happy. At all. I'm pretty sure they tried to calm him down for my sake, but I just kept hearing him and finally got my stuff and marched back to see Logan. He wouldn't open his eyes and had the shakes. Once he heard my voice he started to become violent. He was thrashing, grabbing, biting and kicking. It was not fun and was terrifying and heart breaking at the same time. I finally managed to get him in his car seat with the help of the nurse. The hour long ride back to Austin was brutal. Logan screamed and thrashed the entire time. I thought it would get better when he was out of the car seat, but it got worse.
Logan screamed and was combative for about 3 hours. It was as bad as you could imagine. We were both in tears. Finally around 11am Logan fell asleep on my chest. He NEVER does that. I was relieved, exhausted and ecstatic at the same time. I wanted to freeze time. He has never ever fallen asleep on me. Such a precious memory. I just wish that I hadn't forgotten to take out my contacts the night before (I never do that) and was up at 3am. After a little 20 minute snooze he was in a little bit better mood, but still very swollen and sad.
We alternated acetaminophen and ibuprofen for 5 days around the clock. Logan was up every 4 hours like clockwork for more meds. He finally slept through the night Monday night, but then was up again last night. I was worried about not being able to brush his teeth well. I know they stressed how important it was to brush his teeth, but after 3 days of fighting him, headlocking him and prying his very sore mouth open I had had enough. He usually has no problems brushing his teeth, so I knew for him to act like that he was in a lot of pain.
The dentist saw us Monday morning and she gave us some gauze soaked in antibacterial solution to wipe his teeth and gums with 3x's a day. She said he's healing up pretty well, but that it will take time, especially with his front caps as they require much more force to be placed. Brushing has been going better, so hopefully things are looking up.
So that's the long, long story of Logan's teeth. It has been extremely challenging, nerve-racking and exhausting so far. If you're not asleep, congratulations.
Mother's Day
We dog sat Fargo for a week while my parents were star-gazing in West Texas. The ranch they were parked at didn't allow animals, so Fargo had to put up with us all week. He was a good sport. I'm pretty sure he had to kiss Isabel and Logan about 299494 times. Only minimal puking the first day. :) I was very proud of Fargo. He fit right in. Now Tank seems depressed.
Sunday morning I woke up to a delicious breakfast that Brian spent a long time making. Overnight blueberry french toast. Soooo good, and I'm not really a french toast person. It was beautiful! I got to open some great cards. Isabel's card had a pin attached to it that said "Today is all about me. Me me me!" and then on the inside it said "I'll be needing this back tomorrow." Ha! Logan's card was the same from the past 2 years. It's so cute that Brian has no idea he keeps getting the same card. I also had some beautiful artwork from Isabel. She is quite the little artist when you don't pressure her to 'DRAW something for XY or Z'
Since my parents were staying in Fredricksburg we decided to stop over and hand off Fargo. Fredricksburg is an old German settled town with tons of cute shops, wineries and German-esq restaurants. We ended up going to the same restaurant and had the rueben plate with red and white sauerkraut. Yum!!! Logan actually ate. He took a long time to eat mostly his bread, but he ate something!
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| RV in Fredricksburg. |
We distracted Isabel while Logan got some ice cream. She never knew. Win! There is no open container law in Fredricksburg so you can walk around with beer or wine on the sidewalks. Unfortunately I really can't stand any of the local wines, so it was a moot point.
Sunday night Brian had a nice dinner planned out to make. We got back to Austin a little late, but he still made it and it was great. A nice Mother's Day for sure!
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| Yo. I'm still 2. |
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| Playing 'where's mommy?' |
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| Logan telling us he's Two for the last time tonight! Don't look at my jacked up hair and no makeup. |
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| Dumping out 2 in his dump truck. That's right buddy. No more 2s for you! |
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| A rare nap on Mommy. |
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| Totally random and awesome. He did this by himself on my ipad. |
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| Splash pad fun. |
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| Poor sweet Logan. |
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| Isabel declared this the PERFECT Mother's Day outfit. |
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| One of the best dogs ever. |
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| My little artist. |
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| This is how they spend the good part of 2 days. |
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| Ice cream? For breakfast, lunch and dinner? Yes, please! |
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| I love Austin. |
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