All done...

Phew! Today is here and yesterday is finally finished. What a day! While it was still pretty stressful for me, Jake did really well and was such a brave soldier. I am so proud of him!

We were at the dentist 15 minutes early, Jake had a pre-med to take and has never needed to swallow a tablet before. I thought it would be a nightmare, but with the threat of loosing the use of his Nintendo wii for the week, he swallowed it without much fuss. By the time the anesthetist arrived a little later, he was relaxed and starting to feel a little drowsy. The IV needle hurt a lot, but he looked the other way and held my hand super tight. He literally fell asleep with his eyes open - took me a bit by surprise.

The dentist covered his eyes for him and did his mouth injections straight away. Every now and then, he got a little restless and the anesthetist just topped up the sedative. While Jake had very little control over his body, he was alert enough to open his mouth when asked and could show the anesthetist how old he was on his fingers as soon as they'd finished. There's no drugs to wake them up, the sedative just had to work out of his system, which took about an hour. Jake was totally floppy when I took him home, he couldn't sit up or even hold his head up on his own. He fell over trying to get off the couch at home and couldn't walk straight. He also chewed a hole in his lip, because it was numb. It was a good opportunity to teach him never, ever to touch alcohol (not like his mother) - he was falling around like a total drunk. But the best of all is that he cannot remember a thing from the moment the anesthetist gave him the sedative, until about an hour after we got home!

And most importantly, I now know that I did make the best decision for my child. I'd recommend sedation over sitting awake through a filling any day, especially for kids - it's definitely way to go.

Thanks for all your support and special thoughts!!

Sue XXX