Her Teeth...

Bought this baby teeth keepsake box couple of years back but haven't got a chance to use it til now.  Actually, what we need is just the box but there wasn't any spree on that then, so no choice...

The Surgery

For a while now, Renee has quite forgotten about this surgery.  I've scheduled it today without knowing her violin master/studio classes and exam dates and luckily, they were all just before its date, phew...

It is obvious that Renee has been feeling nervous about it since last night but she put on a brave front all the way, from home til she was being led to the OT room.  Even the surgeon, whom was most skeptical about her to be operated only on local anaethesia, came out with all praise on her bravery, :).

Few months back, during our consulation/discussion on this mater, the surgeon had initially wanted her to go on GA but being so young, I really wish they would not use that on her('cos no one is sure if that would cause side-effect like 'poor memory' thereafter) and luckily for us, her dental docter highly recommended that local anesthetic should suffice as she felt that Renee's a 'good girl' whom would co-operate.  She also informed us that she'd take this opportunity(where that area is being numbed) to extract her 2 front lower primary teeth(to make room for the fully grown adult ones).

Within just a short period of an hour(the surgery itself took less than that of cos), we were already on our way home and now, it's just recovery time...

Dental Follow Up

As everything had seemed fine during Renee's dental follow-up appointment today, the doctor proceeded to do some 'cleaning' for her and the next visit is scheduled a year later, for a normal routine check/cleaning.

The past few visits, it had appeared that her teeth are in good clean condition but this time round, tar tar has formed! Why? 'cos we've started letting her brush her teeth totally on her own, a few months ago!(I used to brush both times for her, then slowly progressed to letting her brush only in the morning and then...).

All these while/visits, she had always been calm and relaxed but this afternoon, as the doctor was cleaning a couple of plague that had become abit harder to remove, she cried at the end of the session - it hurt(when she rinsed, there was abit of blood trace)... Prior to the tearing, she was making 'some sound'(her Aunt Elsie will know this sound very well, hahaha) due to the pain and the doctor teased her "aiyoh, don't make this kinda sound, it scared me, like a monster", hahaha. Then when the cleaning had not stopped as she'd wished, she began to 'shake-kick' her legs and the doctor teasingly told her to stop "aiyoh, don't do that, you want to break doctor's chair isit?" hahaha. Sooo funny! Luckily, although I hadn't got my camera with me, I've had the wholesession video-ed with my mobile! :D

Dental Follow-up Check

The initial plan was to bring Renee to the NDC for her follow-up check straight from school today but Papa, being him(close links will know wat I mean... :>) changed his mind as usual and said that I should bring her home first. Fine, that resulted in us not being able to go for our lunch as I've 'predicted' and he, on many accounts, had not and I ended up feeling super hungry whilst waiting for our number to appear on the que number screen @ NDC.

Good thing we were the 1st on the senior doctor's afternoon appointment list and we didn't have to wait long. However, in less than 10mins consultation, though alittle more detailed with her, we left after paying a bill of S$94.00. Nothing's done, nothing's prescribed, just merely checking... We were told to return in another 3 months' time and when I went back to the room to ask if it's really that necessary since everything's seemed rather fine now, the doctor though not unfriendly, was stern with her reply. Yeah, this is what you get from a senior doctor in a govt medical centre and u're paying a high private rate for their 'attitude'... Honestly, if not for the 'record', I wouldn't bother to return there... However, she did give me a little advice about the growth of Renee's teeth which I find useful(although I believe any experienced pte practitioner would do the same too). Well, we would perhaps see how things go before deciding if we'd be returning to her in 3 months' time, haiz, we might just do so...

*oh ya, so far, all the dentists whom had seen her had asked if she's off-bottle and when I replied that she is, since a long time ago, they all remarked that it's very good. So I'm glad I've not taken too much heed to the old sayings of 'let them drink from the bottle as long as possible'...

Thereafter, due to hunger, we 'hurried' over to Vivo for a quick lunch and time seemed to be rather 'long' today 'cos it was only 4pm by the time we're done with our 'shopping' around the mall(even walked over to the neighbouring mall out of boredom). We had thought to drag our stay at Vivo so we could drive over to my mom's for dinner since she'd phoned last night, saying that she missed Renee but... she's already kinda prepared her dinner so the idea had to be abandoned and we decided to head home for a rest - well, papa rested whilst mommy went about the chores and showering Renee as usual... Then at night, we went over to Compass Point and Renee was overjoyed to have her 'heaty outside food' again at the Jack's and again, she was so full that she couldn't even finish her ice-cream(but hmmm, she seldom does that anyway, :>).

Dental Check-Up

Despite having gone to bed late at around 9:30pm last night, Renee still woke up at +/-8am, came to my bedside and waved a milk powder pack she's removed from her sample packs she's given at school yesterday. She had told me that she liked it very much and would like me to change her milk to this brand, lolz but when I told her that the nutrientional contents in her current milk seemed to be better, she then said that she'd have this at night and the usual one in the morning(we've already cut her off night time milk actually) which I agreed of 'cos and told her that she'd need to drink alot more water if that's the case.

Remembering the dental check-up we've to bring her to, I immediately switched my mobile on but at 10am, there was still no phone calls from the centre. A note on the map attached to the referral letter indicated that we should call the centre, after 1 day, if we do not hear from them or KKH but I didn't wish to wait as Renee is still unwilling to chew*(due to pain), not even her favourite bread.
*she has however, decided to chew abit when I bought some paos after our lunch and I guess, after so many hours w/out her fav bread, she simply couldn't resist, heee.

Whilst on the phone with the National Dental Centre, I noted that the attending doctor at KKH had not indicated an urgent attendance by the dental doctor(I guess that's why they've not acted faster?) on the referral letter but in replying to their query, I informed them of Renee's inability to chew as yet, which to them, was probably also a good cause for concern. Luckily for us, there were 2 cancellations in the afternooon(2 and 2:30pm) and we grabbed the 2pm one.

At the NDC, although we were next on line, we still waited for quite a while before the dentist actually attended to us. It turned out that she's an intern if I'm not wrong, 'cos after a pretty long consultation with her, we still had to wait for her senior to have a look which warranted another x-ray 'cos apparently the former had not detected the obvious fracture line on 2 of Renee's upper teeth! Then, though I've expected to speak to the senior after the 2nd x-ray, we weren't given a chance to(she wasn't even back to review further) and the very friendly intern(in actual fact, dentists are trained pyschologically to be extra nice due to obvious patients' fears), being reprimanded by the senior right infront of us(for not detecting the fracture lines and the defective equipment in the room), had became not so friendly thereafter and we were quite abruptly 'dismissed'.

By the time we've gone for the 2nd x-ray, hubby had returned to join us(I had still thought that we'd need to go back ourselves when I told him to go tend to his work, so you can imagine how long we were there).

There were a total of 2 'cuts' on her bottom gum resulting in the 3 front bottom teeth to wobble - The nerves seemed to have been affected and I'm to monitor, should she complain of more pain in the near future, chances that the nerves might 'die-off' and that's when the teeth will drop. The only consolation to this piece of information is that, in normal circumstances, the baby teeth will start to drop from 6 years old onwards and since she's 5 now, she need not wait for too long before her adult teeth to surface.
Even if the teeth do not drop, she might still experience more sensitivity now til the 'change', haiz...

This incident, together with our experience at KKH yesterday reminded me on why I've always not liked going to the public hospitals/medical centres(although the doctors and nurses had been singing 'praises' of her) if one can afford it. My biggest regret now is that I hadn't been calm enough to think properly 'cos if I had, I would have asked the GP to refer us to a specialist and probably, we wouldn't have to subject our precious one to being a 'guinea pig'/experimental, training objects.

Whatever it is, there's nothing we can do now but I will most probably bring her to the PD to remove the stitches 'cos I'd prefer better advice/treatment on how to minimise her scar and 2ndly, I will find out if I could ask for a senior consultant on her dental follow-up check(which will be in a month's time) before deciding if we should go for another check with a private practitioner(if you have any good recomendations[scar treatment &/or dental], pls let me know).

Meantime, I would need her to lay off her violin practices/lessons for a while and I hope it won't be too long 'cos we've already skipped her lessons for a month already...

The stitches

5 Stitches

Today hadn't been a good day. First, we've gone to SengKang's Daiso right after school and I didn't have a pleasant lunch at the foodcourt there - rude hawkers.

Then back home, as I was busy talking to PX whilst sorting and packing things up, we heard a rather loud tug coming from the 'study/activity room', followed by Renee's cries. I quickly got up and PX also stopped her ironing and tried to rush over. Renee, coming out of the room, was bleeding non-stop! There was quite abit of bleeding from her mouth(blood stains on the floor) but we couldn't tell for sure where she was bleeding exactly 'cos there also seemed to be a cut under her chin.

PX asked for some sugar and after rubbing some onto her gums for a couple of times(first she checked if thr's any loose tooth), the bleeding slowly began to stop, *phew* and we managed to see that there's a cut under her chin and another on her lower gum. . We had thought to leave the laceration under her chin as we were afraid that stitching it up will leave an ugly scar but upon my closer inspection, it seemed like the skin had torn rather 'wide' and I'm afraid that the open wound would get infected.

It was raining and at a time close to the taxi drivers' shift changing hour, I was afraid of a long wait but I failed to contact hubby. I phoned the PD's clinic(funny their phone always seemed to be off hook at times and this is actually bad) and they told me to bring her to KKH or a GP where surgery's allowed if I think a stitch's required. I tried to phone hubby again and when I still couldn't get him, I decided to try and see if any of my sisters could help. Knowing that Sis isn't sure of the route to our home, I dialled Eileen's but my BIL wasn't home and thus, I called Sis. Whilst waiting for my sisters(Li guiding Sis over), hubby phoned back(must have read my urgent msgs) and told me to wait for his return in 20mins' time but as my sisters were already on the way, he then suggested meeting us at the clinic. PX later told me that I had turned 'white' when I saw Renee bleeding, well, that's probably a very natural maternal reaction...

The GP assessed her injuries and advised that it's better for her to have the laceration stitched to prevent a bigger and uglier scar and so, with her referral letter, we rushed over to KKH children's emergency department, in case Renee needed to be sedated. Luckily for us, there weren't alot of patients there this afternoon. I was supposed to go back with Renee myself as hubby needed to attend to some work he's dropped to come over, but he later managed to get his bro to tend to them on his behalf and stayed on.

We were given an option between an application of local anaesthesia or, in case she struggles, a sedation by either inhalent device or injection. Without saying, we went for the formal(but were made to sign on the form for allowing the latter in the case where sedation's really required) and to prevent the sedation, I explained to Renee a couple of times on what would happen should she resist.

Never had I known how a shock could do to one's body and now I knew for sure, it's - sheer Exhaustion. To begin with, I was already feeling tired, still recuperating from the extreme lack of rest/sleep the whole of last week and thus, this was like adding fuel to a fire. Whilst waiting for the anaesthesia to work its magic, hubby went to look for a drink and as much as I tried to control myself, I still succumbed to a doze, though sitting very closely to Renee(arm over back of her seat). What had seemed to me a doze of merely a few seconds had actually been one of about 5-10mins and I awoke to the calls of my child's name(so, it's good thing that they've pronounced her name correctly) to the surgery room.

I was told to place Renee on the 'table' and to prevent her from sudden movement or struggling from fear, she was tightly 'secured' by wraps and her chin was raised up by the nurses placing a small bolster like pillow under her neck. First step - cleaning(to prepare for the stitching) and Renee was so frightened but immediately calmed down(shld have seen the 'eyyy?' look on her, :P) when she felt that there was actually 'no pain' and we knew then, that the 'magic' has taken its effect, :). But the cleaning had made the view of the wound alot more visible and seeing the flesh, I made a face to hubby and I guess 1 of the nurses must have seen the look and quickly asked 'is mommy ok or should daddy hold her?" Oooh, though I'm still ok to hold her, I responded quickly to that suggestion, heee.

3 stitches were initially expected but after the 4th, the doc said a 5th's needed, oh man! In fact, Renee had already started to complain "why so long?" at the start of the 4th and after the 5th, she broke down and teared, awww...

Although hubby had requested the doc to 'make it nice' but to be realistic, he's just a doc at KKH children emergency dept. afterall and we really cannot expect too much(maybe my gynae will do a good job but we can't go to him right?). Anyway, all we can hope for now is that the scar won't be a bad one, *crossing fingers*.

For precaution's sake, the doc had also given us a referral letter for a dentist to check on he teeth/gum and as the centre's already closed by the time we're done, we now have to wait for them to get back to us on the appointment date/time tomorrow. Hubby asked if we could do without it if we find that there aren't any damage but I thought, since her 1st proper dental check is long overdue, we could use this as an opportunity to act on it, :). Let's hope all would be fine.

heart-aching right? It was heart wrenching for me... :(

After the stitches