Dentists, drugs,and HALLUCINATIONS

So we had quite the day. We went to the dentist and all I can say is thank the Lord for my mother. She went in, gave Emma the second dose of sedative (I forced her to choke down the first), talked her through the procedures, and basically made it possible for them to do the work today. Emma has a ton of cavities; they only got x-rays and did the bottom half. The top ones have to be done another day because it wasn't safe to sedate a 33-lb. child long enough to do them all. I'm going to talk to her pediatrician about prescribing flouride.

Then we got home, I put Bridey down in the crib, she played a while then went to sleep (thank you Lord) and then the REAL fun started. Emma had a paradoxical reaction to the benzodiazepan she was given. I know what fun this is because it happened to me when I was 12. (I can't have anything in that class and now neither can she-- Valium, Versed, or the one she was given which I have written down somewhere and which starts with an "m", my mom e-mailed it to me so I can update her records but I can't remember it, or anything related.) She got real sleepy, like she was going to conk out; that was fine since she was cranky and still dizzy from the nitrous. Then all of a sudden she was wide awake, asking what the turtles were doing. Um, what turtles? The ones building something by her. That was fine-- until they climbed onto her and she was screaming "get them off, get them off, oh, no, they went in my pants!" What followed was 2 hours of frantic phone calls to my mom (who, btw, is a pediatric nurse) and me doing everything in my power to distract her, reassure her that they were just pretend, not real, and they could not hurt her (although then she said they were attacking her and they WERE hurting her, poor baby had-- and has-- a rash, my mom thinks from where they restrained her, and was interpreting it as the turtles attacking her), and we even had to take off her pants because she was absolutely hysterical that they were building something in her pants and she WANTED THEM OFF. I was brushing off imaginary turtles, for a long time, and it was not fun. Then they turned into ants. At least the ants weren't on her, just on parts of the bed. So she colored, being careful to stay away from the ants, and I used "magic ant spray" to "clean off the ants" if they "got too close to her." (Hard to do since she was the only one who could see them. She had to direct me and tell me if I missed any.) Along with this reaction comes extreme low blood pressure, which causes dizziness, so when she would stand up and climb to get away from them, she fell. She fell off the bed twice. This only made things worse. I was trying to get her to drink water, to clear it from her system a bit faster, but she wouldn't drink much because her mouth hurt and of course wouldn't take any Tylenol for the pain.

Finally it wore off. Thank goodness. And she ate some yogurt and fell asleep for four hours or so (actually I slept for almost three, until the baby got up.) I am so grateful that her reaction didn't last as long as mine did. And that her sister slept through it so I could give her my full attention and be there for her.

She woke up and wouldn't eat or drink still because her mouth hurts so much. I did get her to eat an ice pop. And her grandma is bringing her a milkshake for dinner (and a hamburger for her sister and a chicken salad for me.) So that's at least something. She's asking for bread so I think I'll let her try a bit of soft white bread with the crusts removed, and some hummus.

It's really hard dealing with this! And Jeff won't be home until almost 11 again. AND this means the rest of her work can't be done in the office-- that's the only pediatric sedative they're licensed to use. She will have to go to the hospital and have the work done under general anesthesia. I'm just hoping my mom can take the whole day off that day because I cannot care for a child recovering from general anesthesia AND my second child AND myself all alone. I just can't.