A few weeks ago I had three of the younger kids in for a dentist appointment and a routine cleaning. It was Marissa's first time to the dentist...(she is a newly turned 5 years old.) Well, much to my horror, the dentist told me that she had not one, not two, not even three...but *FIVE* cavities! Oh my gosh, I felt like I had just been given the "Bad Mother of the Year" award. Out of all of our kids...she is the first to have a cavity...and then she winds up with a mouth full of them. I'm not sure how it happened, since she brushes just as often as all of the other kids do, and she certainly hasn't had an abundance of sugary treats...but yet, it happened.
Two of her cavities will not need to be filled since they are in baby teeth that should be falling out soon...but the other three are in her back molars. So...today was the day of her first appointment. Marissa was so brave. I had prepared her by telling her everything that would be happening. All was okay until they actually gave her the novacane shot...and I could hear her whimpering and then crying. It was hard for me not to rush into her...but the dentist is really wonderful...we've gone to him for years, and I know that if I would have went back there she would have not cooperated. So, I sat in the waiting room, with a small wall seperating us, trying to concentrate on my reading material. Marissa did very, very well...it turned out that they were able to fill two of her teeth, instead of just one, like they had originally planned. Afterwards, we walked next door to the coffee-shop where big sister, Ana (19) works. Marissa wanted to tell Ana all about her experience. Her poor little mouth was all crooked and swollen looking...and she looked rather dazed...so after Ana gave her a little treat for being so brave, we headed for home. And of course, everyone paid a lot of attention to her...daddy called from work to chat with her for a minute and both Jessica and Shasta called to see how she handled everything, too.
Poor Marissa---she has endured her fair share of poking and prodding this past year. Last winter, after a severe case of influenza, she became dehydrated and was hospitalized for nearly two days with IV's in her arm. The poor girl...it was quite a tramatic experience for her...as well as for both Wayne and myself, too. Last winter she also suffered at least two episodes of seizures while ill with a high fever. That resulted in a few trips down to the Children's Hospital for further testing. For one test she was hooked to an odd assortment of wires all over her scalp and then they flashed weird lights all around her, measuring her brain waves. She also had an MRI---in which they had to completely sedate her in order to get an accurate reading. She has also had several tubes of blood drawn for various further testing. With all that testing you would have thought that we would have gotten some kind of answer---but *everything* has come back as normal. I'm thankful for that...but a little bewildered, too...it's always in the back of my mind that she could have a seizure again, especially if she were to run a fever. And, I tell ya, that's probably one of the scariest things we've had to deal with.
One thing is for sure...Marissa is a little trooper...and we're pretty proud of her!
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