Poor little Phoebe.

T showing off her new artwork--look closely at the top right.

We were a bit late leaving Cooperstown as poor little Phoebe was in need of a trip to the dentist. She started complaining of a toothache on Wednesday night, so we had it checked out. Our dentist referred us to a pediatric dentist for a "pulpectomy," among other things.  I'm not totally sure what a pulpectomy is,  but I knew it was not going to be fun. We called several pediatric dentists and they were happy to fit us in next month.  The last thing I want to deal with is pediatric dental decay out of state, so our dentist was kind enough to squeeze us in for the pulpectomy and fill in the cavity. 

I started the night before going over what I thought was going happen with Phebs and she sounded pretty OK with the whole thing. I figured the entire day would come down to the "shot."  My experience has been that if you can get past the "needle" without losing a kid, you are usually out of the woods so to speak. I must admit I was quite nervous about going--what if she could not or would not let them finish--would she need general anesthesia? If they did not finish, would she get an abscess? Would he drill a hole and then have to stop, leaving her in severe pain? You get the point--there were a bunch of scenarios that would not be so good.

The time came and let me say T was a real trooper--she got the topical and took the "shot" with literally not even a flinch--I could not believe it!  We thought it would all be smooth sailing after that.  All was well until Doc started with what looked like a burr grinder--I'm not so sure it really hurt her as much as it probably scared her.  Let's just say she was not a big fan of the drill. After a few starts and stops, she sucked it up and let the dentist finish his work.  So I guess the point of this post is to say how proud we are of her that she was able to gut it out--Phoebe, you are a real champ!!!