Paige is happy Cole’s ok.  The surgery was super easy, a little gas, a check of the eyeballs, done.  Only talked to Tobie briefly, but the normal range of pressure is 10-20.  Cole is at 20.  They are going to do the same procedure in 8 weeks.  More later.

So today I rushed Cole to his feeding therapy appt.  I had to wait for him to wake up from his nap, I had to wait for my girl J to arrive to watch baby Drew and Paige before I could leave.  I had to fight traffic and the crazy AZ drivers in the rain.  I didn’t let Cole walk to his appt, instead I carried him from the parking garage because we were so late.  Then I went to the wrong floor.  Then we had to wait for the therapist to get us from the waiting area.  By the time we got Cole in the highchair to eat it was 35 minutes into his 1 hr appt.  Then the therapist spends a good 5-10 minutes going over the attendance policy with me.  We missed the last three feeding appts.  One time was the time Cole went to the ER for breathing issues, one time he had a huge lunch and a big nap and I knew he wouldn’t eat for therapy, the third time I was just too tired (last Monday) to safely drive the 45 minutes to therapy and 45 minutes back home after dealing with Paige’s sleeping issues.  Well, after reviewing the attendance policy we can not miss any other appointments for the next 9 weeks otherwise we will be discharged from therapy.  At today’s appt, Cole ate like a champ.  He chewed and swallowed a big square of brownies, and about ten pieces of chicken.  The therapist again watched Cole eat and said what a great job he did.  This is our third appointment with this therapist, and I do like her as a person, but I’m not sure what benefit we’re getting for spending 3 hrs driving around and being watched eating.  We were late to Kindermusik because we once again hit traffic on the way home and both Cole and Paige LOVE Kindermusik. 

I do want Cole to eat and grow big and strong.  But I want to quit taking him to therapy.  I feel terrible because I don’t want to look back in a couple of years when he’s small and still not eating great and say “well, if only you had taken him to therapy”….but it just doesn’t seem worth it.  We’ve had four or five feeding therapists now and each one says Cole eats great and they just seem to watch him eat.  I’m thinking I can just feed him at home, pretend I’m a therapist and say “great job Cole” with the same end result.  Is that wrong??  And what are the odds that we’d make it to the next 9 weeks of appointments?  With all the other appts and crap going on right now?

Thanks Gharaiblets, now Cole plays with dolls!

Paige showing off her new glasses.  You can also see the tooth that’s been chipped away.

We had Paige’s dentist appointment today.  Her tooth that is worn down to a little nubbin is exposing dentin which is supposedly pretty painful.  Because she has no enamel on that tooth and a huge crack in the middle of it, the dentist is recommending that we cap the tooth.  Sounds pretty simple….I say “sure” why not?  Normally they put the kids out for the procedure when they are this age because they get so freaked out and it requires sedation.  Okay….sounds a little more complicated, but okay.  Then she asks if Paige has ever had any vocal cord issues because she suspected she may have vocal cord problems.  Why yes, but she was cleared by the ENT over a year ago and he reported full compensation with no future problems.  Well, she wants to talk to him and have us possibly see him before we have any work done because she is afraid to put Paige under in her office and would like instead for us to have Paige’s dental work at Phoenix Children’s Hospital under anesthesia in case her vocal cord freezes.  Then she shows me the bill to have all this work done.  Yikes.

As I’m driving home I talk to a friend of mine and she asks why they don’t just pull the tooth since it’s a baby tooth.  Lot cheaper and we could possibly avoid the anesthesia.  Why didn’t I think to ask that in the office?  So I called back today and spoke to our dentist and yes, we can just extract the tooth.  She said she would absolutely not want to do it without Paige being under anesthesia because it can be so traumatic for little kids.  Chances are that Paige will have a lot of future dental work too, and there’s no point in making it so miserable for her early on.  So really there is no cost benefit to extraction vs. keeping the tooth because we’d still being paying for the anesthesia and her cost for doing any procedure.  So we may as well cap Paige’s teeth so she will have a pretty smile for the next 7 years until her permanent teeth come in.  The dentist did say she would consult our peed and the ENT to see if Paige can get Versed in her office and we can pull the tooth.  That is the only way we could cut the cost.  Supposedly with the Versed they don’t remember anything that was done to them.  Is Versed the same as Rufies?  I remember both Paige and Cole being on Versed quite a bit in the NICU so I know she’d be fine on that drug.  We’ll see what plays out with this.  I have a feeling the dentist will favor the anesthesia in the hospital…her credit card bills will be due from Christmas right around that time.  I’m kidding….I know she’s a great dentist because she did major work on my sister and she’ll do whatever is best.