Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Snip!

No, the other one.

Geri's tongue tie is GONE!! Wooot!

Today was our lovely Geri's dental cleaning and exam under anesthesia. I've been looking forward to this, because homegirl had some serious deposits on her teeth, and we didn't know if she might have some serious cavities hiding under them. I was thinking perhaps her not wanting to chew was related to having pain in her teeth. I was eager to see all of this taken care of, really.

Well, in the run-up to this appointment her feeding therapist, Jeannine, asked me if she would be having her tongue tie snipped while she was under. I said "No, because we don't have the ENT on tap for it. We don't even have a referral yet!" We were both disappointed because it would have been nice to get it all taken care of at once, but Jeannine promised to get me the name of an ENT in town who doesn't throw a total hissy-fit about snipping a tongue tie. Seriously, a lot of them act like they are being asked to disarm a nuke while blindfolded and hanging by their toes.

Today we headed over to the surgery center WAY TOO DAMNED EARLY (bad Lauren, no 7:30 am surgeries!!!) and checked in while the sun rose (what the HELL was I thinking when I scheduled that time???) and we were soon hanging out in the pre-op room, waiting for the anesthesiologist and dentist to come talk to us.

The nurses were nice, but that anesthesiologist was an anesthesioloJERK. He was rude, informed me that he would give my daughter a nosebleed running the tube for the gas down her nose ("I always give them nosebleeds," he said, as if this were funny/acceptable), didn't want to hear anything I had to tell him about the propofol verses gas situation, and when I told him about her extreme anxiety on awakening he said "Well, I wake her and you can't be in the OR so she'll just have to be ok until you get there." And when I brought her into the OR for the gas he wouldn't let me hold her while he gave it. All four other surgeries I've held her and the doc gave her gas over my shoulder. He wouldn't have it, he made me lay her on the operating table still awake and try to hug her as best I could while he gassed her. She did okay, but he was such a jerk about it. When I asked why, he gave me this list of ways it was easier for him to do it this way. News flash, bucko... I don't care about making this easy for you. You're getting paid a lot of money to do this, so suck it up and deal. Want an easy job? Trade with the surgery receptionist. Seriously, there was no one even talking to her! She was just sitting around watching TV the whole time I was in the waiting room.

Not for nothing, I'll tolerate a jerk doctor if he's competent. I will choose a doc with the worst bedside manner who is great at what he does over a nice guy who's incompetent. I tell Nick, I don't care if he punches me in the face if he takes good care of my kid. Well, this guy was incompetent to boot. While Geri did not have the promised bloody nose, she was groggy beyond belief after this procedure. This is her fifth time being put under and I've NEVER taken her home so disoriented and tired. She slept for four hours when we got home! And she was scary pale and seemed woozy for the rest of the evening. Seriously, she's never had such a rough time after she came home. So he was a total @$$ AND bad at what he does. I sincerely hope the hospital calls me for feedback so I can SLAM him for being so rude and so selfish and so bad at his job.

Sigh. Sorry, I'm back.

So the wonderful dentist, who is a total sweetie, was walking me through the release forms and there was a laundry list of possible procedures I was authorizing. It was a lot, since we didn't know the condition of her teeth. While we were talking I jokingly asked "Wow, can you snip her tongue tie while you're in there, too?" She looks at me and says "Yeah, if you really want me to. I do it all the time." She wrote it on the "to-do" list and I signed it and that was it. That was the process of getting my daughter's tongue tie cut... by a dentist.

I think the moral of the story is "what the ENT won't do, run past the dentist." That and "punch the anesthesioloJERK in the teeth if you see him again."

Sigh. Sorry, I went there again, didn't I? My bad.

Really, on the whole it was a good experience. I can already see her experimenting with her new tongue mobility. The front of her tongue looks different, too. She seems to be in zero pain from it, too. I think it will make a difference for her and I'm so grateful to Dr. D'Addario for jumping in and making this so easy. And to top it all off, Geri didn't have a single cavity! No fillings at all! Just a cleaning and flouride treatment. Plus, someone from the office called to check on Geri and set up her follow-up and while we were on the phone I had a question I hadn't thought of after surgery. So the doc herself called me back a couple hours later with the answer! That's really caring for your patients, in my book. I'm taking all my kids to Rocky Mountain Pediatric Dentistry from now on. I'm not getting a kickback for saying this, but I think you should too! Seriously, they are just that awesome. Worth the drive, even though I live in OCC and they're in the Powers area.

Oh, and the food in the cafeteria at Saint Francis Medical Center is very good. Yummy biscuit and gravy for me, oh yeah! I <3 food that sticks to the inside of your arteries. I did notice, however, that Children's in Denver is a little more thoughtfully set up and laid out. Their patient tracking system lets you know, at a glance, where your kiddo is in the surgery process. They have the ability to call from the operating room to the front desk and update you, real time, on what's going on. They have a locker room for stashing your stuff while you go eat or hang out. They have a couple of nice little privacy rooms with comfy couches that have pillows and blankets for a nap. They just have some great amenities for families that SFMC doesn't because it's not the target audience.

Is it sad that I'm comparing and reviewing surgical clinics? I have waaaay too much experience at this. Even the nurses were saying things like "it's so nice to have a parent who knows the drill" and "wow, you're so calm about this" and "she's had HOW MANY surgeries?" After she got the gas the nurse walking me out said "Are you okay, mom?" and I laughed and said "Oh, I'm fine. I've seen this before. Honestly, this is the easiest one by far... I know she does fine with anesthesia and she's just getting a cleaning!" He seemed surprised.

This turned out to be a surprisingly good day. I was thinking it would be sort of a pain, and parts of it were (I swear... right in the teeth, if I see that guy again!) and I accidentally took the wrong car this morning so there was a last-minute kerfluffle about getting Mera taken care of and TJ to school and Nick to work, but it turned out great and I'm so excited to see what new progress miss thang makes with her newly released tongue!


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