Dentist, Drugs and Patriotism

I don't think I've told you yet. Last week we found out that Mashuga had an abscessed tooth. Not as much fun as you might think. He was in massive pain last Tuesday evening, so we gave him ibuprofen and put a warm rice pack on his cheek. Oh and the other side of his head hurt too because he's been recovering from an outer ear infection. Again, not so very fun.

So, one emergency trip to the dentist, a serious course of antibiotics and a week later, it was time to have the offending tooth removed. Eeek!

Yesterday morning I got Kaitybean off to school. Then I took Scud and Coco over to my neighbor and friend, Emma's house. And Mashuga and I were off to the dentist.

Now, Mashuga has spent A LOT of stinking time at the dentist. For some reason, neither his teeth nor Coco's teeth developed properly while in the womb. They both had teeth come in with cavities already in place and enamel that was less than desirable. I'm really not sure that Mashuga has a tooth that has not had or does not currently have a cavity. He's always been exceedingly good for the dentist, but last time was AWFUL! Did I blog about how he screamed the WHOLE TIME and my mama heart just broke?

So, this time we opted for a Versed sedation. And it worked WONDERS. Just minutes after taking the medicine, he was curled up on my lap smiling a goofy, out-of-it smile and reaching for things that weren't there. In a moment of clarity he turned to face me and said "Mom, I think something's messing with my mind." We waited in the waiting room for another 15 minutes or so. All the while, he lay happily on the couch next to me, mumbling incoherently and teetering between sleep and awake.

We took him back to have his teeth worked on and he was a dream. Actually, I think he may have been dreaming. I heard him snore a couple of times. The dentist was able to fix EVERYTHING on the right side of his mouth (two root canals, two crowns, one simple cavity, an extraction and the placing of a space maintainer) without a single hitch. I took him out to the waiting room and laid him carefully on the couch to watch Ice Age. He only fell off twice while I was paying the nice receptionist an obscene sum (one that sounds a lot like whine hundert dollhairs) and negotiating times for his next appointment and the time for Coco to go in for general anesthesia and an overhaul of his cute little mouth.

On the way home I bought him a strawberry milkshake because he hadn't eaten anything all day and could only have soft foods. After this we proceeded to pick the other boys up from the babysitter, deposit a paycheck at the bank and pick up the other two kindergarteners in Mashuga's carpool.

About this time, Mashuga started "waking up". He was not a happy camper and the amnesiac properties of the Versed were very apparent. He kept asking things like "Why did they give me a sword balloon when I wanted a motorcycle?" ("Because you weren't coherent enough to tell us what you wanted.") and "How did we get here?" and "Why are we picking kids up from the school when we're supposed to be at the dentist?" and "Why does my mouth hurt?" and "What's all this stuff in my mouth?"

After a few hours he was back to his normal self and satisfied with my answers to all his questions about the morning's goings-on.

Then, last evening we went to the Hope of America Student Showcase to support Kaitybean, who was in the chorus. A few years ago, Kaitybean and Scud had the chance to be in the floor show with others from their charter school. We knew it would be a fiasco and a late night. So JDub stayed home with Coco (who clearly wouldn't have enjoyed sitting still that long) and Scud (who just didn't want to go). Mashuga and I went together to watch the show.

As it was last time, it was a bit of a fiasco. Less so with only two of us searching frantically for seats and such, but still quite interesting.

Some highlights:

• Mashuga lost a shoe on our way across a VERY busy street. TWICE. And I had to brave the cars again to retrieve it. I'm so glad neither of us is dead.
• Mashuga took his shoes off while we were waiting for the show to start and managed to kick the guy in front of us in the head. He turned his highly pierced and tattooed and very angry face to glare at Mashuga. Then he left and never came back.
• At the end, we went to get Kaitybean from the designated spot and she wasn't there. Luckily, she and a friend just got a bit turned around and made it to the right place after a while.
• While there, Mashuga informed me that his mouth was hurting. So, I pulled the ibuprofen out of my purse and ignored the sideways glances from our neighbors as I poured some for him.
  
• I got to see my amazing friend Monica and her cute family while waiting for Kaitybean. I enjoyed talking to her for a minute. She always makes me feel very empowered, just because of who she is. Just her being Monica makes me happy and willing to keep trying to be a first-rate version of Heather.
• Kaitybean was hyper and happy after it was over. She enjoyed the experience very much. And I liked it, too. Though it wasn't much different from the last one we attended. Still, it was very touching and patriotic.
• Fighting traffic to get out was, as I expected, a fight. We took a side road and ended up in front of the Provo Temple. So, the three of us decided to stop there and enjoy the temple grounds and the fountains. It was wonderful to be there together and to talk to the children about the temple and to feel their excitement to go there and their love for that peaceful, beautiful place.

I returned home to find a very exhausted JDub, who clearly got the short end of the stick. It took him 2 1/2 hours to get Coco to sleep.

So we drugged and dentisted our 6 year old amd managed to survive another Hope of America with our 10 year old.

Next on our list of parenting to-dos: find solutions for Coco's sleep issues.