This morning, I took my 10 year old autistic son to the dentist. The spacing of his teeth has gone all wonky, so he needed to have four of them removed. I suppose that taking any child to the dentist can be a trying experience for the parent, but imagine if your child couldn't talk, and had no idea what was going on, AND doesn't like people mucking around in his mouth. He needs to be fully sedated for even simple procedures like cleaning.
So we get there this morning, and the anesthesiologist distracts him with a big box of toys, and zaps him in the back of the arm with a tranq shot. The shot is supposed to knock him out in 30 seconds or so - clean out. Three minutes later, my son was still mucking around in the toy box. The anesthesiologist looked a little perplexed. I have an extraordinarily high tolerance for many drugs (which can actually suck), and I suggested that perhaps my son had inherited that from me; I dunno. So, my son is a bit groggy, and we lead him back to the chair, where he gets a sleepy gas mask placed on him. This is supposed to knock him out in a minute or two. Five minutes later, he was chattering at us about scenes from the Dark Crystal - through his mask. Ten minutes later, he was finally asleep. Apparently.
So the procedure commences, and about half way through it, my son wakes up. He didn't look to be in any pain, but he looked a little confused and perturbed. And he looks up at the dentist - and pops him hard right in the mouth.
I confess, that when this happened, I actually snickered; I couldn't help it. The dental surgeon glared at me a little, and at the anesthesiologist a lot. And my son was back under a few moments later, and everything else went smoothly. And my son has been fine (and surprisingly chipper) all day. I laughed a bit more on the way home. I think it was the stunned look of surprise on the part of the dental surgeon that got me. I don't know why I find it so funny, but I do. My son is a feisty, tough little guy (a chip off the old block, I like to think).
Good fortune,
- Icarus spawns dentist slappers
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Please forgive me if, in the heat of battle, I sometimes forget which side I'm on.
Last edited by Icarus_Falling on 20 Oct 2007, 1:20 am, edited 1 time in total.