For this adventure, I believe that I was more nervous than Tommy…

When Kahlyn was 4, she and her dad were playing, we had just installed tile flooring, and she was running or spinning around holding a pillow in her hands and face planted. Her front tooth shot clear across the floor; root and all:( Needless to say, I do not do very good with teeth. I was not that mom that could just pull a loose tooth!

It is horrible to say but I am better in extremely near tragic accidents. LOL

For this adventure, I did prepare a book for Tommy several months in advance. Mainly since we would be making a consultation visit as well as the actual day of cleaning visit. You will note that he was thrilled with his book, so much that I found he had hidden it in a drawer!

We were given the name of this dentist in Conroe that works with special needs children/adults. I had been looking for years for someone that would do this cleaning by sedation. Tommy recently received a new case worker, and she has provided us some great connections, and this was one of them.

Tommy had been through this type of cleaning when he was a young child but had aged out of any of the children’s dentistry's locally. The biggest concern at his age now was how in the world were they going to be able to sedate him? He was so intuitive of everything going on around him the first time he was sedated, watching every move of the anesthesiologist. Their plan was then to sit him in a wheelchair and give him a shot in the leg and once he got sleepy, they could just roll him into where the procedure would take place. After a lot of convincing we finally got him willingly to sit in this wheelchair, but they had to be creative to get to that leg in order to give him the shot!! He started feeling the medicine working and he fought against it for over 30 minutes.

But this time?

During our consultation we found out that they do this sedation in a hospital setting. They were going to intubate him for the procedure. The doctor stated that it was much safer, especially for his age. Hearing the word intubate, just threw me. I was not expecting this, and my only knowledge of intubation was from covid and how horrible that was. All of the feelings and fears of remembering those I saw in the hospital when we were seeing my father for the last time rose up in me. Heath really had to do some “tall talking” on the way home to try and help me understand that this was best.

Our day of challenge…

When I received the call to schedule the surgery, I was told that the doctor prescribed Adivan for Tommy to take the morning of the surgery. I began to explain and ask for suggestions on how I was going to be able to get him to take a pill. We have tried on numerous occasions throughout his years, trying to get him to conquer swallowing a pill, but we have had no success. Now, here is a situation where we really don’t have a choice. It is imperative that he be relaxed when we arrive at the hospital. After the nurse and doctor discussed he determined that we could crush this pill in a teaspoon of applesauce and that should be fine. Well, here we are again, Tommy ate applesauce when he was younger but not in many years. But you know what? he was going to take at least one bite! LOL

As we made our way the day before to Conroe, I received a text message from our pastor that the church would be praying for Tommy and to please let him know how everything went. He also proceeded to send me a photo and told me that it could be used for some encouragement for Tommy. I told him “Don’t think I won’t use it!” LOL

For this back story, Tommy’s followers know that he is sweet on the pastors daughter! So this photo was used the morning of the surgery. I simply asked him to “take this applesauce for her” and pointed at her picture. He took the spoon without hesitation! What a relief for this momma!

Tommy was so funny as the medicine started taking effect. He was making sure of his footing and how he was sitting, I told Heath we should probably head on over to the hospital. We would never be able to carry that boy in as dead weight! LOL

There was a man in the parking lot with a golf cart, so we were able to catch a ride to the front of the building and Tommy just went with the flow! “Good drugs!” LOL

After some paperwork, things seems to progress pretty quickly. The waiting room had a fish tank that he enjoyed. When we were taken to the pre-surgery room, he was so tired he willingly got in bed and awaited some warm blankets that his nurse provided!

As they wheeled him out and into surgery, we could hear him rounding the back hall saying “wee”, LOL

I wish that I would have gotten a video of him!

Recovery -

Thankfully the wait was not too long. We grabbed a quick bite and watched his progress on an electronic board letting you know the status of each patient. When they called us back, he was already sitting up waiting for us. Hollering “hello” to the nurses and anyone else that walked by! LOL

The ride home was a bit rough and the following days as well just with bleeding issues, but after the third day other than being tender, he was proud or his clean teeth once again!

Although I felt like I was on an out-of-control roller coaster for this entire ordeal, The Lord never stopped providing a help and a way to bring us through with a thankful heart!

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. - Psalms 28:7

- God Bless