Happy New Year

Yes the new year started a week ago, but for our family we are starting it today. Today everyone is healthy - and what better way to start a new year off!

2015 was not a good year for us health wise.

Hilary was diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer in June. She underwent both chemo and radiation treatments from September to November. It was a long and rough road but a road that has led to recovery.  Her oncologist declared that there was no longer any visible cancer so she is now being seen on a regular basis to make sure that it doesn't come back.

Liam managed to drop a canoe on his toe in July that caused a cut near the toenail.   It became infected and overgrew the nail. He underwent surgery this week to clean it all up, remove part of the nail and to sew a flap of skin over it. While he is still bandaged and won't have the stitches out till next Friday,  he is well on the road to recovery. At least he is no longer leaving bloody/pusy toe prints all over the house.

And me?  For the past couple of years I have been having gallbladder attacks. I saw a surgeon in September who finally realized that the frequency and intensity of the attacks warranted surgery sooner rather then late.

So what does a family who has multiple medical issues do?  Schedule 2 surgeries on the same day.

Hilary did an amazing job of keeping everything together.  She and Liam got me registered at the adult hospital before they headed down the street to the kids hospital. His surgery was over first, so he got settled at home before Hilary headed back to pick me up. 

The original plan had been for Hilary's Mum to fly in and help out for the week. But the best laid plans are always the ones that don't work out. Hours before leaving for the airport,  Rosemary came down with the flu. She couldn't leave the bathroom, let alone fly across the country. Hilary and I have some amazing friends who came to our rescue, offering drives, sitting with Liam and taxiing Hilary to the pharmacy late at night.
So now we are all on the mend and ready to start 2016. Hopefully this year is free of all things medical for our family!

What did you say?

For years now my family has joked about my hearing loss. It’s not a profound loss by any means, but it does lead to a lot of frustration on everyone’s part. Too many times someone will ask me to get them a drink and I’ll respond with “Why would we build a rink?”

I’ve had my hearing tested a few times in the past, so I had a baseline when I went in a few weeks ago for another test. I was missing out on a lot more conversations lately, having to get people to repeat themselves more and just generally noticing the loss more.

Hearing loss is measured in decibels from 0-130. Normal hearing is considered anywhere in the 0-20 range and complete deafness starts around 90. It’s also measured across several different frequencies. You can have more of a loss with high pitch frequencies or low, deep frequencies.

My hearing test looks something like this:

I have a mild hearing loss in the higher frequencies. Compared to my last test from 2 years ago, I’ve lost about 10 decibels over all. My hearing also tested worse if there is any sort of back ground noise.

It was time to discuss solutions. I’m already using as many “tricks” as possible. I keep people on my right when we are walking and talking; I make sure that I can see a person’s face when we are in conversation; the phone is turned up as loud as it will go and we’ve used the close captioning on our TV for years. I’ve even used the closed captioning devices at the movie theater. After some discussion with the audiologist, I decided to try hearing aids. Since my hearing loss is fairly even in both ears, I would need 2 to keep things balance. Luckily they offer a 30 day, no money down, trial period.

They are so small!

I didn’t expect to find a lot of difference with the hearing aids in. After all, my hearing loss is minimal. But what a difference they have made! The first thing that Hilary noticed was that I wasn’t talking as loud as I usually do. When you can’t hear yourself, you naturally increase your volume. Conversations have been easier and clearer. I’m not missing key information from dialogue on TV. At work I was able to participate in a group conversation, where I would normally have just sat back, smiled, nodded occasionally and laughed when everyone else did because I couldn’t follow what was being said by everyone.

It’s been less than a week but I can already say that the trial is a success. I will see the audiologist again next week to check in on how it is going. And then I will have to make the big decision on whether or not I keep them. They are a significant financial investment, and while they are wonderful and do make a difference to how I hear, I’m not sure I’m ready to fork over that much cash right now.

Swimmer's ear

Let's talk about parenting guilt.

Over a week ago Liam complained of ear pain, even woke up crying from it in the middle of the night.  Of course, this was in the middle of our vacation.  We considered taking him to the local small town ER where we were staying, but by the time he woke up in the morning he seemed fine.  I didn't think taking a very healthy looking, active, not currently in pain kid to the ER was a good way to use our fine Canadian medical system. So we ignored it.

Then the ear got better.  Then the pain switched ears.  Then it hurt again.  Sometimes the outer ear hurt to the touch, sometimes it was the inner ear.  Then it got better.  Then the pain switched ears.  Rinse and repeat for a week.  The guilt inducing part was the fact that with all the switcheroos going on, I didn't really 100% believe him.

Last night the pain was at it's worse, so we decided to head to the walk in clinic today, no matter how it felt by morning.  It's a beautiful day out and the clinic is only a 20 minute walk from home.  Or a 60 minute walk if you get most of the way there and realize that Liam's health card is in Hilary's purse at home.

Turns out the he has an infection, commonly referred to as Swimmer's Ear.  His ear is so full of goop (technical turn used by the doctor) that he couldn't even see his ear drum to tell if it's perforated or burst from the plane rides or driving up and down the mountains.  Having never had swimmer's ear myself, I didn't realize that the pain comes and goes and can be felt more on the outer physical ear then the inner ear. Way to go Mama.

He has ear drops to use for the next 7 days and needs to keep his ears dry for the week too.  He's very excited to have a legitimate reason to avoid hair washing!  Of course he starts going to a day camp tomorrow that has swimming as part of their schedule.  Luckily he's fine with sitting it out for the week.  He started a Dr Who novel while we were on vacation so he can take that to camp to read during swim time.

Note to self:  If the kid is complaining about something, believe him!

Raynaud's Update

I was first diagnosed with Raynaud's Syndrome more than 10 years ago and I still suffer from it on a daily basis in the winter.

My doctor prescribes 2.5 mg of amlodipine beylate for my Raynaud's. When I first started on the medication I had a noticeable improvement in my symptoms. Now I'm not convinced that it actually does anything, since I don't notice a decrease in episodes on the days I remember to take it vs. the days I don't.

I get Raynaud's symptoms in my hands, feet and nipples.  My hands are by far the worse, though the nipples hurt like a son of a gun!

For me the best solution is to simply not allow myself to get cold. From November on I dress in layers - bra, long sleeve silk long john shirt, tank top or t-shirt and a sweater. That's for being inside at the office! For outside I add another long sleeve t-shirt.

High quality wool socks are a must and I always wear flannel lined Crocs around the house (with the socks). I take my Crocs with me as slippers whenever we go to someone else's house too. I have elbow length finger-less "gloves" that I wear. They don't have the individual finger holes like some finger-less gloves, but look more like a mitten without the top part. I ensure that I never, ever touch anything cold or metallic with my bare skin. If I don't have gloves on, I pull down my sleeve to cover my hand to open a door. I wear oven mitts to hold a bowl of ice cream while I eat it. I avoid kitchen activities that involve touching cold things, but I'm the first to volunteer to wash the dishes as it warms me up.

At the office I keep a hot water bottle handy that I hold in my lap and I have a hand warmer that plugs into the USB port of my laptop to heat it up. We also have a half dozen reusable hand warmers around the house and buy the charcoal activated ones from the dollar store.

I guess it's become more of a way of life for me then something that has a medical solution.

Getting healthy with stuffies

Thanks to Aunt Becky from Mommy Wants Vodka, I am now the proud owner of 5 new organs that are all designed to motivate you to better health.

Let me introduce you to:

Hardy Heart

Hardy Heart is going to help me choose low-fat

The Kidney Brothers

These 2 styling brothers are going to help me drink more water.

Peri Stolic

Peri Stolic is going to help me stay regular by choosing high-fiber.

Madame Muscle

Madame Muscle is going to motivate me to exercise more.

The "game" concept is a cute one.  Introduce one of the 4 topics to your kids for the week, do the activities in the booklet and if they are successful, reward them with the appropriate stuffie at the end.  I don't think this is something we are going to try with Liam, since we already struggle with food issues.  And at the cool age of 10, I don't think he would be too motivated by these guys as rewards.  But he did like them and they will live happily ever after with his sperm.

From pneumonia to nothing?

Liam has had a cough for about 3 weeks now.  At first it seemed more like a throat clearing habit, but in the past few days it had gotten worse, to the point that he was coughing during his sleep.  Since he and Hilary are leaving for B.C. tomorrow, we decided to head to the walk-in clinic this morning.

The Doctor was great - friendly, listened well, attentive to Liam.  After listening to his lungs for a seemingly long time, he declared a concern at some "tightness" he was hearing in the bottom lobes, and felt it was pneumonia.

Parenting fail.

My poor kid has pneumonia and I didn't even think he was all that sick?  Just a bit of annoying cough?  Did I ever feel great.

The doctor ordered a chest x-ray, as it's the only reliable way to diagnose pneumonia.  So with a prescription for antibiotics, a puffer and an x-ray in hand, we headed off to the children's hospital.

Of course it's Saturday.

The x-ray department is closed to doctor referrals on Saturdays.  They are only available for ER patients.

Since I already felt like the worst parent ever, I couldn't very well let him fly off to another province with un-diagnosed pneumonia.  So we headed to the ER.

Luckily it was mid morning, and a beautiful Saturday, so it wasn't very busy and we got seen quickly.

2 medical students and the head ER doctor gave him the once, twice, three times over.  None of them could hear a thing in Liam's lungs.  No wheeze, no crackles, no tightness.  His oxygen saturation was 100%. They all concurred that it was NOT pneumonia and that he didn't need an x-ray.

Parenting win.

They gave 2 opinions for the cause of the cough.

1) 3 weeks ago his throat got a little bit irritated and he coughed to clear it.  The coughing irritated his throat.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  So the cough is the cause of the cough.

2) it's an asthma like episode.

The fix for #1 is to stop coughing.  Helpful advice, isn't it?  Use lozenges, tea with honey, lots to drink.  The fix for #2 is a ventolin inhaler.  Since there isn't a test to tell which one we were dealing with, we are going with both fixes.

They gave him a dose of the ventolin before we left to see if it helped.  Once I was able to wrestle Liam still and the nurse was able to administer it, it did indeed help.  So it looks like we will be giving him puffers till this clears up.  The problem?  He HATED it and fought it tooth and nail.  The next dose is in about an hour... should be interesting.

Eye Surgery Update

We finally had Liam's 6 week post-op appointment today.  Yes, his surgery was 15 weeks ago... but what can you do.

They have declared the surgery 100% successful!  His eyes do not turn at all with his glasses on, and his right eye only turns slightly without the glasses, which was expected.  He doesn't even need an update to his prescription for his farsightedness right now.

All of this means that we are done with the ophthalmology team at the children's hospital and he can go back to having regular yearly check ups with our family eye doctor.  

What a relief! 

Pardon?

Excuse me?  I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Hun?  What did you say? Can you speak up please?

Lately I've been finding myself using these phrases more and more often.  I long ago accepted that I can't watch television unless the closed captioning is on.  The words I hear in songs are nowhere near what the actual lyrics are.  I've even used the "Rear Window Captioning" at the movie theatre.

My greatest frustration right now is that I have a really hard time hearing Liam.  His voice must be at just the right pitch or tone that it gets lost in the background before it makes it's way to me.  Add in a dose of ADHD, a tired Mama and the general noise level of our house and I miss more then half of what he says.

So I'm going for a hearing test today.  I've had at least one hearing test that I can recall, about 10 years ago.  At that time they indicated that I had a slight lose (around 5%) in each ear, but it was not significant enough to do anything for it.   Since I've almost ordered those bionic ears from infomercials, I'm really hoping that an actual audiologist will be able to offer a solution.

Otherwise I might have to invest in a really big horn.

One year

It’s been just over a year since Liam was officially diagnosed with ADHD and one year exactly since we started him on medication. While the first trial of medication from our family doctor didn’t turn out to be the right one for Liam, we have had great success with Adderall that the pediatrician prescribed. Seeing Liam in control and enjoying life has been wonderful. He has been so focused this year that he has gone from reading at a kindergarten level last September to reading just below a grade three level. I honestly don’t think he would have made this type of progress if we had chosen to not medicate for the ADHD.

Lately however, we have all been finding evenings to be much harder, as the Adderall is out of his system by about 5:00. While that only leaves 3 hours till bedtime, it can be very difficult to get through things like diner, homework, play dates, bath time etc when all it seems that we do is nag, yell, cry and nag some more all while Liam is bouncing of the walls, flitting from thing to thing and is completely out of control. It’s no fun for Hilary and I, and we can’t imagine that Liam enjoys it much either.

So we discussed it with the Pediatrician and she was on board with trying a second short acting dose, given late in the afternoon. The main concern is that it will affect his sleep, but we are hoping that it will be mostly out of his system by bedtime and that the melatonin that he takes anyway will continue to work its magic. Today’s the first day, so we’ll see how tonight goes!

Of course one of the other side effects of most ADHD medications is lack of appetite. We still struggle to get Liam to eat and are working to make every calorie count. We’ve gone back to giving him homo-milk and will do whatever we can to get him to eat more. Something is hopefully working as he did gain a pound since his last check up 3 months ago. This is the first weight gain he has had since being on the medication, so we are very excited. He’s also maturing and more willing to try new foods. He generally still doesn’t like them, but he’s at least willing to try them. And as fresh fruit season hits us, he will resume his regular intake of multiple peaches/apricots/pears etc per day.

Overall it’s been a pretty good year for Liam. The changes in him are phenomenal and he is growing into an even more awesome kid every day.

I did it!

After bitting my nails for {cough, cough} 35+ years, I have finally stopped!  And stopped to the point that they are long and I can make them pretty!

I got all sorts of lovely colours in my Easter basket last weekend.  I'm working my way through them!

Migraine

Liam woke up with a headache on Friday and got progressively worse as the day went on.  By Saturday morning he was SICK.  We thought it was the flu - fever, aches and pains, headache.  We ended up at the ER and after a very long day we left with a much better boy and a diagnosis of migraine.   Hopefully this is a one time episode, possibly brought on by having a cold.  We are going to start a headache diary just in case, so we can see if there are any triggers.  

(Yes, I'm one of those parents who takes pictures of their kid when he's sick!)

Today at least, he is feeling much better. He did have another rough night, waking up at 4:00 crying with a headache.  We dosed him with Ibuprofin and he fell back asleep till 9:00.

This will be a birthday celebration day that will be remembered and talked about for quite some time.  I'm not sure that Hilary is to enamoured with 40 just yet!

The best laid plans

Liam and I planned a great weekend for Hilary's birthday.  Diners out, fancy deserts, hotels and pools and secret outings.

Instead, this is what our weekend looks like so far.

Liam woke up on Friday with a headache, but seemed better after some breakfast and went off to school.  By 3:00 he was headach-y, fevered, coughing and stuffed up.  We stayed in and ordered in a lovely Indian Feast for Hilary and I to celebrate her birthday instead of going out.  He had a rough night, whimpering off and on and finally woke up at 5:00 this morning in complete tears.  The aches and pains, headache and sensitivity to noise and light is just too much for him.

The hotel reservation has been cancelled and I'm replanning our day.  Circus school is out this morning, but I'm hoping to get someone to come sit with Liam for the afternoon while I take Hilary to the rest of her birthday surprise.

Such is the birthday celebration of a parent!

Post nit-picking hair cut

After all the work yesterday Liam still had nits in his hair today.  The colour and quantity of his hair makes in nearly impossible to find them all.  So we went with phase 2!

A milestone I could do without

We've managed to avoid this one for the last 4.5 years of school.  And we thought we had made it through this time too.  Not to be however.

Yup, Liam has lice.

His school has been suffering through an infestation this year that they just can't get rid of.  Last week kids were walking in the front door and after a quick check being turned around and walked back out again.  Each day brought 4-5 new cases.  Even the teachers were getting it and being sent home.  Carpets and padded chairs have all been removed from the classes and daily notices have come home.

When Liam was observed to be scratching his head today he was sent to the front desk for a check.  And nits were found.  I got called to come pick him up.  I had them check me too while I was there and I am nit free!! 

Now were are home with the washing machine humming away.  Hilary has gone to get the required shampoo, comb and sustenance to get us through the day.  And then the nit-picking can begin!

My Dentist

I love my dentist!  Now before you think I'm crazy or that my dentist likes to turn up the gas a little too high, I will also say that I HATE going to the dentist.

I have always had horrible teeth.  Growing up I averaged 10 cavities a year.  And we had horrible dentists.  The mean kind, that yell at little kids and who seem to go out of their way to make it hurt even more.  As a young adult I finally just stopped going.  I saw no need to put myself through that horror any more.

Till I had a really bad tooth ache.

Even then, I let it go so far that it was abscessed and Oh. So. Painful.  We had just recently moved to Halifax, so I got a recommendation from a co-worker.  And that is when I fell in love with my dentist.  He was kind, gentle and took my fear seriously.  He fixed that tooth and even managed to convince me to go back.   So I did.  And over time I learned to trust him.  He even got me to the point that I could go for appointments without having to be medicated first.

I love him so much that I recommend him to everyone.  Anyone who has ever feared the dentist and goes to see him, falls in love with him too.  I've sent him so many referrals over the years, that he once sent me a huge bouquet of flowers as a thank you.  He is just that great.

So when my tooth started to hurt last week, I thought nothing of picking up the phone and making an appointment.  And not only is he nice and kind and gentle, he always makes time for people.  I've even had him stay past his last appointment to fit me in when I was having a lot of pain.

While I trust him, I'm still pretty scared and tense when I'm in the chair.  So when he finished examining  my tooth today, he and his assistant (who is equally as awesome!) pulled their chairs up on either side of me, knowing that my first thought was going to be to bolt.   And it was.  And unplanned, unprepared for tooth extraction!  You've got to be kidding me.  But I knew that if I left, I wouldn't want to go back, so I put on my big girl panties, started to cry and said okay, let's get 'er done.  I was in and out of the whole appointment in 12 minutes - that included talking me down and waiting for the freezing to take! It didn't even hurt; scared me to death and left me shaking, but didn't hurt.

So if you are in the Halifax area and need an wondrous dentist, be sure to look up Dr. Kirk Blanchard.  He rocks!

Dad

My Mom called last Tuesday, in tears and near hysteria.  She had been at the hospital with my Dad all night, after he collapsed and had to be rushed in by ambulance.  They didn't know what was wrong, but it wasn't looking good.

By Wednesday morning he was being rushed into emergency surgery and I was booking a plane ticket. Of course it's January in Nova Scotia and a big storm was just starting.  I don't know how much snow we ended up getting, but flights out were cancelled from noon Wednesday till noon Thursday.  Luckily my flight at 4:00 Thursday afternoon was only delayed by 10 minutes. 

I rented a car and drove myself from Toronto to my parents house, about a 1 hour drive (we won't talk about how I went East instead of West when I came out of the airport and how much time that added to the drive). Since I had been travelling all afternoon, I had no idea what to expect.  The last update I had gotten was that they were keeping him in a medically induced coma after the surgery, which found a twisted colon that was necrotic and had to be removed.  They were able to stitch it back together and avoid the need for a colostomy bag. 

As I approached the house I had all sorts of thoughts going through my head - if there were cars in the drive way that would mean that he had died.  If the lights were off that would mean that Mom hadn't made it home from the hospital yet. If, if and more ifs.

The lights were on and Mom was there.  They had reversed the coma and things were looking better.

Mom and I spent the next few days up at the hospital where each day brought more progress.  Baby steps, but progress none the less.  I was able to stay until Monday before I had to fly home.  Leaving Mom was the hardest part.  They have been married for 45 years and love each other so much.  She is lost, all alone in a big house on a big farm.  We don't know yet how long he will need to stay in the hospital, but it will be at least another week.  I did leave knowing that Mom has so many wonderful friends there, looking out for her and helping out when she needs it.  But it really is hard being so far away.

Genetics and the adopted girl*

The rites of passage from girl to woman are often celebrated amongst the women of a family. Sharing stories about their first period or how all the woman of the family start developing breasts at an early age; comparing pregnancy symptoms and cravings; knowing who has been diagnosed with breast cancer; anticipating the family’s average age of menopause. These shared connections help the young women of the family know what to expect and help them to feel that they belong to their group of women. The older women take comfort in passing on knowledge that will help the young ones grow and hopefully avoid disease.

Adoption takes away those connections. Sure, the rites of passage can still be celebrated, but the shared genetic relationship is lost. My mother could not have anticipated that I would start to develop at a young age, since that was not the case for the women in her family. I have no idea if I have an increased risk for breast cancer, since I don’t know if the women of my family have it or not.

A few nights ago I ended up at the emergency room, doubled over with abdominal pain. Many hours and many tests later I left with a diagnosis of uterine fibroids. Now fibroids do not appear to be hereditary, but it really made me think about all the things that I don’t know about potential health problems (this is what happens when you are in pain, have had no sleep and are sitting around a waiting room for hours on end). I’m not going to run out and get a full genetic work up just to see what possible diseases could be lurking in my DNA. I’m not the type to have a preventative mastectomy. From what I’ve learned from House, a full body scan on anyone is going to show up some sort of anomaly, so don’t go looking for things till they are a problem. But at the same time, having some inkling that you might be more prone to certain things can be helpful information when it comes time to try and make a diagnosis.


*I realize that genetics and the lack of medical info affects boys/men too. But it does seem that women have many more genetically shared medical “things” simply due to the reproductive nature of their bodies.

Bifocals or surgery

We had Liam in to see the pediatric ophthalmologist today.  When Liam was 5 he had a bout of Scarlet Fever and his left eye turned in.  Ever since then it has turned in if he's tired, not wearing his glasses or he can just do it on his own.  It wigs me out!

Our family eye doctor has been treating it with prescription glasses, but after 3 years, and 4 prescriptions we haven't seen any improvement, so it was time to head down to the children's hospital.  And I have to say, they are wonderful!  The spent an hour and 45 minutes testing and measuring how much his eye turns in.

It turns out that without his glasses he has a 60 prism dioptre and with his glasses it corrects itself to 30.  I really have no idea what that means, but it's not good.  The Dr. did explain that anything larger then 10 is noticeable  to someone who would be standing and looking at Liam's eyes while they talked.

So our next steps are to go back in 4 weeks to have a comprehensive testing done on his farsightedness to make sure that his current prescription is bang on.  If it's not, then they will give him a new prescription for 6 weeks and measure all the prism dioptre stuff again.  At that point we will have 2 choices.

Try bifocals to see if that will improve things or surgery to reposition the muscle holding his eye in place so that it pulls the eye back to where it should be.

****shudder****

The cool part is if we decide to try the bifocals they can do them as stickers that would just go on his current glasses, so that we don't have the huge cost of another pair of glasses just to try.  But, based on his numbers, it is looking like surgery will likely be where we end up.  The surgery would not correct his vision 100% and because of his farsightedness he will always need a prescription both to see and to help keep his eye in line.

So, I need to find some big girl panties, and soon!  Of course if surgery is the best thing for him, that is what we will do.  I will manage, somehow.....even if just typing all of this has made my eyes water!

The bed-clothes are out to get me

So a few months ago I had this weird rash-y thing on my neck which we eventually figured out was partially caused by sheet-burn from me rolling over during the night and strangling myself with the sheet.  I learned to wake up just enough to untangle myself and I thought my days of bed-clothing injuries were over.

Alas, it was not to be so.

You see I have this favorite pillow case.  I've had it for 20 plus years so it's nice and soft.  I have no idea where it came from.  It has a flower pattern and was never part of a sheet set that I owned.  It's also a factory 2nd as it has a line of stitching that runs down the middle on the outside.  I just make sure that that side goes on the bottom, otherwise it would run right through my face and would no doubt leave some interesting marks.

Yet it was that very stitching that tried to do me in.

I sleep on my stomach with my arms up over my head and under my pillow. I also am a very active sleeper.  So when I went to roll over for the 40th or 50th time last night I didn't expect searing pain and to wake up holding back a scream less I awaken the whole house hold.  It felt like my finger had been ripped off and I fully expected to find a pool of blood under my pillow with my severed finger.  Except that my hand was attached to my pillow and I couldn't get to it.  I was dazed, confused and in pain.  What the heck was going on?

I finally stayed still long enough to realize that if I stopped moving it didn't hurt and figured out the cause of the whole mess.  My ring was caught in the outside stitching.  And it had twisted around in such a way that the crown part of my  ring was digging into my finger.   I wear a Claddagh ring that Hilary gave me years ago, but it's a bit loose, so the crown doesn't stay right up against my finger.  And it frequently gets caught on things.  I just never imagined that it would get caught on my pillow case.

I was finally able to get the ring off and untangle it.  There was no actual damage to my finger, but it was sore the next day.   So the question now is - Do I get a new pillow case or take my ring off at night?  It's a good thing I sleep au natural, cause I can't imagine what kind of damage pajamas could do!

It took 2 years and 1 month

for Liam's tooth to finally grow in! 

On January 14th 2008 he had 2 teeth pulled, 2 root canals and 8 silver caps all done while he was under a general anesthetic. Here' the brave little bunny waking up from the ordeal.

 

and back home again with his lovely toothy grin (and blood stained lips).

The new tooth isn't actually grown in yet... but it did break through the skin today!  We were starting to worry that it was never going to grow in and that the dentist would have to take drastic measures.  So YEAH!   It's here!!!  One down and one to go!