After talking it over with the dentist we decided to try the pulpotomy at which time he informed me it had about a 70% success rate. Cole did sooooo well during the procedure and I was so proud of him. After the dentist was done, he said that once he got in there that the tooth looked a little worse than he had first thought, but we would wait and see. So he gave us some antibiotics and sent us on our way. The next day Cole's face started to swell, which I thought was just a reaction to the procedure and he no longer complained of any pain, so I thought we were in the clear. Wrong! When the dentist called the next day to check on Cole and asked how he was doing, I told him he was swollen and he wanted to see him right away. So I rushed him over there at 4:50 (they close at 5:00) and he told me the infection had gotten worse and that the tooth needed to come out immediately. Naturally, I started to cry! I felt so sorry for the little guy and what he was having to go through. He also thought that it would be best if we took him downtown to an oral surgeon (even more scary!) and of course, as my luck would have it, Jim was out of town for the night.
We woke up bright and early the next morning and I packed the kids in the car and headed down to his office. Cole couldn't get an appointment time because we had called so late the night before, so the doctor was going to try and "squeeze" us in between his surgery's and on top of that Cole was not allowed to drink or eat anything because they had to give him a general anesthesia. Poor guy! He was honestly so so so brave though. The girls were all commenting what a great little patient he was. To top it all off, they had a super hard time getting the IV in and he had bruises all over his arms and on both hands and I guess once they finally got him sedated and were ready to start, he got a really bad bloody nose and sprayed blood all over himself and the doctor. Lovely!! I should have taken a picture of him in the recovery room - he had such a hard time coming out of the anesthesia and was seriously acting so drunk. If had been a different situation, I probably would have been laughing hysterically, but I was there by myself and kind of freaking out.
Once Cole was conscious enough for us to leave, the ladies helped me carry both kids out to the car and on our way we went. Cole cried for about 20 minutes - he was so upset about loosing his tooth and was very concerned about what was going to happen to it. He finally passed out about 10 minutes before we got home and slept for almost 3 hours after that! Amazingly enough, he woke up around 3 and was a little out of it, but as soon as I gave him some food, he was good to go. By the next morning the swelling had gone down and he was back to eating normal again.
We had an unexpected visit from the tooth fairy on Thursday night and she left Cole $10. Probably not what he will be getting for his other teeth, but he had to go through quite a bit of work for this one, so she left him a little something extra.
Tomorrow we go in for his fitting for his retainer. The fun just never ends around here. Whew....I'm exhausted just thinking about that week. Glad it's behind us and hope we never have to deal with that again!
Cole passed out on the way home. Can you see how swollen his left side is?
Olivia was there too, sucking her thumb as usual. She was very concerned for Cole. When we were waiting in the recovery room, the nurse pointed out to me that she was holding his hand and rubbing it. So cute!
Still sleeping
The tooth!!!
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