Today the oral surgeon, tomorrow the hospital

Today I was lucky enough to escort another one of my children to the oral surgeon. Unfortunately, Kelly only had her 8 remaining baby teeth pulled so we will have to go back at some future time to get her wisdom teeth removed. I think I will be on vacation somewhere when that happy day arrives. Kelly went to bed last night pretty wigged about the whole thing. She did not want general anesthesia because they would then hook her up to a heart monitor. She was totally freaked out by Craig's heart monitor in the ICU and somehow equated the two experiences. We had to wait 45 minutes before they called her back to the room which did not help her anxiety. She firmly announced she did not want to be put to sleep, asked lots of questions about the noises she would hear if she were awake and if she would feel the shots. The dental assistant kindly suggested she would be much happier going out and the dentist, seeing her high respiration rate on the monitor, pretty much decided it for her without her really realizing she'd lost the ability to choose. Fifteen minutes later it was all over, but I do not want to have to come back with her. Maybe she won't grow any wisdom teeth!

Tomorrow I get the extra-joyful experience of escorting Craig to the hospital for an IVP--intravenous pyelogram. They insert an IV in his arm, fill it with contrasting dye and take a series of x-rays to trace the path of the dye through his kidneys. He has a funky left kidney, which we discovered during an ultrasound before his surgery. He had a UTI, which is highly unusual for a 14-year-old boy. The doctor ordered a renal ultrasound and it was discovered that his left kidney has two ureters. Apparently 15% of the population has this, but people usually don't know it unless it is discovered because of some other problem. There are three possible configurations for the ureters. Two of them cause no problems, but one does, so the IVP will determine how he is wired and whether or not he will need further treatment. Another needle for Craig and two panicked kids two days in a row. Fun for me!