Dental Surgery

Today was the most stressful/emotional day as a parent I've ever had. We found out a few months back that Logan has a lot cavities. This is a culmination of Logan having weak teeth that are highly susceptible to cavities and his mother and her family giving him too many sweets. So instead of putting Logan through the stress of multiple dental appointments to fix the cavities under local anesthetic (Novocain), we opted to have them all fixed at once under general anesthesia at the hospital. I've never had surgery myself or seen the direct effects of someone who has. So I had no idea what it would be like. I just assumed that it would be an easy process of putting Logan to sleep, and when it was all over he'd wake up just as normal as before the procedure (maybe a little sore or confused).

However it was completely different. We went into the hospital at 7am, checked in, and were admitted to a pre-surgery room. We talked with a few nurses, the anesthesiologist, and our dentist before hand. With each conversation we were getting more concerned. There was talk about having to insert a breathing tube into his throat via his nostril, he would throw up some blood, and that he would be dazed and confused for the remainder of the day. Then came time to give Logan some calm nerving medicine. I knew it was going to be hard to get him to drink it because it's nearly impossible to get him to take any medicine that tastes bad, especially without any water (he had to have an empty stomach). He drank half of it, but we ended up having to force feed the last bit. He was extremely mad at us, but that soon faded as the medicine induces a drunk like state. This is to calm his nerves before surgery so he's okay with leaving us. I must admit it was pretty comical to see him in this state. He acted like a real drunk, slurring his words, making jokes and funny voices, etc. He had all of us in tears of laughter. Pretty soon we laid him down on the bed by himself as he was getting pretty sleepy. Soon they took him off to surgery, we were all pretty emotional seeing him wheeled away.

We were told the procedure would take some time, approx 30 mins for the anesthesiologist before and 30 mins after, with the dental work taking approx 2-3 hrs. We waiting impatiently in the surgery waiting room which seemed like forever. I must have checked my cell phone clock a million times. Four hours later we got to see him in a recovery room. It was very emotional to see Logan lying there all wired up (heart monitor clip on one hard, IV in the other, and an oxygen mask on). He was sleeping off the drugs, snoring loudly. We looked him over making sure he was okay. We noticing his lips were swollen from all the dental work and local anesthetic, and nose a little bloody from the breath tube. It was hard to see him like this, especially when he woke up crying due to being very confused and feeling sick. He threw up a couple times (a little bit of blood that he swallowed during the procedure). He'd wake up for a couple mins and then pass out again. The nurse explained it was normal as he was wearing out the drugs. Eventually he became more alert and was able to drink some water. We waiting a while till he was more conscious and then got him dressed and went home. He slept on the ride home and about another hour when we got there. Eventually he woke up and we were able to feed him some soft foods like pudding, yogurt, and ice cream. And soon he was back to his old self.

Needless to say I don't ever want to go through this again. It was very hard to do, for everyone involved. So we'll have to make sure to keep on top of his sweet intake and dental care.