my 17 month old's experience with general anesthesia

[kristenpie]

I have been a lurker here for the past few months as we have been struggling with dental issues in my 17 month old. I spent a lot of time reading people's experiences with general anesthesia and they helped me make my decision to go that route, so I wanted to update and share our experience in the hope that it might help another lurker...

My son's top molars came in with little enamel on them and began wearing down and breaking as soon as they cut through. The first dentist we saw wanted to papoose him to fix them, but it seemed inhumane so I looked for someone who would consider something more gentle. We saw a dentist who wanted to give him 2 root canals with crowns on the top molars, and he saw 2 small cavities on the bottom molars that would need fillings. He recommended general anesthesia in the hospital, so that's what we went with.

We waited 2 long months for his appointment. He was in so much pain, cranky, waking every hour at night. Finally his surgery date came and we were to be at the hospital Friday at 6:30 am. The night before his surgery he could not nurse past midnight, which was really tortuous. He was in so much pain and was used to nursing back to sleep for comfort, but he couldn't that last night. I woke him at midnight to feed him but he was up again at 2 and could not be consoled. We ended up getting up for the day then, and watched Barney on the couch until 5:30 when we decided to just get in the car and drive around for an hour before the appointment so he would sleep. That night was very hard.

When we got to the hospital he woke up and was really crabby and out of it. I wore him in my Mei Tai and he felt pretty secure in there. At around 7:30, we were told to dress him in his gown and I put on my scrubs so I could carry him to the OR. He was freaked out when we got there, seeing all the people with masks and hats and OR clothes. He saw the bed and the lights and cried and burried his face in my arms. I turned him around and held him while they put the mask on him. He cried and cried and it was awful, but they told me just a few more seconds and then he grew quiet and went limp. I layed him down on the bed and he looked so bad, I almost fainted. I was sleep deprived and anxious and it was scary seeing him passed out like that. I left and it was the hardest hour and 15 minutes of my life.

The dentist came down to check in and said all went well, he was able to save his molars even though one was infected. So everything went as planned. We went up to the recovery room and a nurse was holding him in her arms giving him oxygen. He looked at me and then started crying. She gave him to me and I held him for awhile while he fell back to sleep. He quietly said "milkies" and I said, "do you want milkies?" and he nodded yes, so he nursed and slept for a bit and slowly came out of it. I was so happy it was over with and he was in my arms. He didn't wake up crabby or anything like I expected. He was just very sleepy and kept nursing back to sleep for awhile. The TV was on and all of a sudden when the Barney theme song came on (which is his absolute favorite) he sat right up in my lap and watched. :D It was really funny. She took all the wires off him except his IV, and we were wheeled back to the room where we checked in to. We were there for about an hour while the nurse tried to get him to drink but he wanted nothing but nursing. So we nursed and watch cartoons. Then we were good to go. When we got home he was really groggy and out of it. I couldn't let him walk because he was totally drunk and wobbly.  He looked totally hung over, puffy eyed and pale. He took a pretty long nap and woke up terribly crabby. I gave him a Tylenol suppository and he was fine in an hour. He ate some baby food soft pasta and some banana and was walking around fine by then. He was really tired at bedtime though and only woke up once all night! (he is not a great sleeper in general) He woke up today totally himself though, everything wore off and he is back to normal.

I am glad we did the GA instead of the papoose board, but it was really stressful and exhausting. There were no complications though, it was just really scary seeing my little 17 month old go out and then waking up so drugged up. That stuff is so potent and it took a good day to get it out of his system. Thank God it's behind us though and we can concentrate on maintaining his healthy set of teeth! Hope this helps if anyone is going down this route and as stressed about it as I was!

[Caittune]

Thank you so much for posting this.  It brought tears to my eyes, but it is good to hear other people's experiences.  

I hope he's all healed up and feeling better!

[kristenpie]

Well he came down with the start of pneumonia and his first ear infection a few days after the surgery so I wonder if maybe he aspirated during the procedure. A few days of antibiotics and breathing treatments and he is on the mend.