Our Family, Our Joy: A Hard Week for Lily

Lily's week started with sleep issues. She had been sleeping through the night or occasionally waking once, but all that changed over the weekend. Saturday night she woke 4 times. I was able to calm her easily, and we thought maybe she was experiencing some new grieving. Sunday night was awful. She was up multiple times during the night, including a period of 1-1/2 hours when she was up every ten minutes. I lost track after 10 times. Monday she was tired (as was I !), so we thought she would sleep, however, if anything, Monday night was even worse! I did try sleeping with her through part of the night both Sunday and Monday, hoping that would calm her, but it didn't have any effect. She would still wake up thrashing and kicking. I did notice something new Monday night. She was sticking her finger in her mouth and touching one of her right, top teeth. As most of you know, Lily's teeth are very decayed and damaged. Ever since she came into our lives in China, she has fingered that tooth. It was usually after meals, and we assumed that she was getting food stuck there. I had noticed that she had been touching it more the past week or so, but I still didn't make the connection to her sleep issues. Not until Tuesday morning. Lily was laying in our bed watching Curious George (her favorite), when I noticed her fingering that tooth. She then started to whimper, crawled into my arms and gave me that look every parent has seen............that look that says, "Mommy, please make it stop hurting!" I knew then that we were dealing with a very bad tooth ache. If you've seen her teeth, you would know that her tolerance for pain must be really high, so I can only imagine what she must have been feeling. I immediately put her on Motrin, which did seem to help. I contacted the Dentist we had hoped to see in the next couple of weeks, and they were able to get us in on a cancellation Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Lily spiked a 104 fever while on the motrin Tuesday afternoon, so it was off to Children's Healthcare that evening. They didn't find anything, but did give her an initial dose of an antibiotic.

Wednesday morning, we were up bright and early to go to the dentist. The doctor spent some time talking to us first, and explained that most procedures are done there in the office with sedation. Only the truly urgent cases are done in the hospital under general anesthesia. Well, as soon as he opened Lily's mouth for the examination, all talk centered around the hospital. The tooth in question was quite infected and needed to come out immediately. I've been to a lot of nice doctors, but I've never experienced anything quite like the care we received from this practice. Without even saying anything to us, the doctor had one of the staff volunteer to give up her lunch, and they asked us to come back at 12:30 for the extraction. They didn't even want Lily to wait one day for an open appointment. The doctor's partner, who is actually the one that does the major surgeries, came over and consulted with us even though we didn't have an appointment with her. Her OR time is scheduled for the 2nd Tuesday of every month, which would put Lily's surgery on Oct. 12th. Well, Thurs. morning, I got a call. The doctors were so concerned, that they arranged for OR time next week. Lily's surgery will be next Tuesday, 9/28. They are really doing everything possible do help our little girl. Besides the obviously infected tooth, there was an abscess forming on another tooth. They said that it was just a matter of time before another tooth was causing her a lot of pain.

It was hard seeing Lily go through the extraction with sedation. She was still aware enough to look so scared. It's all so confusing to her. She doesn't understand enough for me to explain that they are trying to help her. She actually started whimpering as soon as we went back to the office for the extraction. She didn't feel any pain though, and the doctors said that the relief would be immediate. She cried part of the way home, but once we were home, she fell asleep on the couch, slept most of the afternoon, and woke happy and hungry. She has fingered the area a few times, but mainly just to check out the hole. It's obvious that she feels so much better. She slept great Wednesday night which made us all happy!

The surgery on Tuesday will be pretty intensive. Every one of the 19 teeth in her mouth will need some work. Four to six of her front teeth on top will be coming out. The other teeth will either need a crown, filling, pulpectomy, or a combination. At some point after she heals, she will be fitted with an appliance with new front teeth. Not only will this be good aesthetically, but she needs the teeth for speech, and to act as spacers for her adult teeth.

We now wait until Tuesday. If she catches the cold 2 of her brothers have, the surgery will have to be postponed. They have to put a tube in her nose, and won't do it if she's congested.
Please pray that Lily stays healthy and all goes well on Tuesday. Please also pray for a quick recovery.

Here's a few pictures of the last 2 weeks.

Lily loves the Cozy Coupe and fights Michael for it when we're outside!

Showing a little spunk!

The boys like to play in Daddy's car

It's very obvious that Lily has never been on a playset. She didn't know what to think of the slide and held on to it for dear life. When I first coaxed her up the ladder to the fort, she wouldn't even stand. She looked really nervous as she crouched and looked around.