|
On
January 11, 2000, Aubrey went into Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to have 6 teeth extracted.
 Many concerns accompanied this surgery for her family as well as her doctors. But thankfully everything went well.
As her mom I was concerned about the dozens of medicines
she takes each day, along with the fact that her seizures are uncontrollable. I wondered if she would awaken during surgery
and if she would feel any pain, I worried about her going through her first major surgery, and her chances of problems occurring
which were much greater than a healthy person entering a hospital for an operation.
However, for 6 months this operation had to be delayed because she had to get her behaviors under better control. She
had 4 impacted wisdom teeth and two front incisors, which just pushed her entire mouth out. Although over the years many
orthodontists had agreed to leave the incisors alone for fear of causing unnecessary trauma, it was evident these teeth were
causing her mouth to be pushed and kept open, drying her mouth out and making her susceptible to many infections as
well. She never has had a cavity and never had to go through anything worse than a cleaning.
She was a real trooper when they first began. Although they could not find any decent veins to use, she endured 4 attempts.
Finally they settled on her foot and unfortunately that made her very upset. She immediately tried to pull it out several times,
while her caretaker and myself held her down the best we could, while yelling for help! The staff came in and the anesthesiologist
gave her something to calm her down in the IV. Not yet pulled out…however this did not work. After about 20 minutes he tried
something else and quietly talked to her and distracted her. He was great! Still this did not work. As her anxiety levels rose and
her aggressiveness grew, he tried another sedative…this was all prior to surgery. Finally one more time he gave her
something that made her relax but her eyes darted wildly, not knowing what to expect and she was also fighting the drugs.
We found it easier to hold her down though!
They quickly moved her into surgery, allowing me to dress in
hospital garb and accompany her to the operating room. I leaned across her chest and had my face right next to hers,
talking to her constantly, trying to keep her calm, trying to get her to relax and breathe deeply. She seemed to calm down and
they quickly and just barely let the mask hover over her face for a few seconds and she was out! She didn't even know what hit her! Finally she was sleeping.
The actual operation took one hour exactly. As far as the
operation went, her Dr.. said she did well the entire time. No problems occurred and none were really expected to. however Aubrey had other plans.
When she awoke from surgery she was highly sedated now
and also incoherent. She would not keep the gauze in her mouth and decided to sleep and let the blood drip into her
throat, eventually to her stomach. Every 15 minutes for 3 hours she vomited blood clots until I finally gave her the gauze pads
and told her to put them in. I told her if she did, she would not vomit blood anymore. This seemed to work, as she stuffed
them in her mouth and lay back down. She continued to vomit blood for several hours despite 2 injections in her IV of some medicine to calm her stomach down.
She wore a diaper into the operating room but did not wet the
entire time and in fact held it until she was able to walk to the bathroom with help.
As soon as she got into the bathroom she managed to rip out her IV despite our efforts…. but at that point it was okay. She
was drinking clear liquids now. We stayed at the hospital until she could sit up and walk a bit, and also waited for the vomiting
to stop. All in all it was a long day but a successful day for Aubrey and her first operation. I cannot say enough about the
staff at Dartmouth Hitchcock medical center. They were so patient and understanding with her. She had the most excellent
oral surgeon and anesthesiologist. I will always be grateful to them for taking her on.
That night she slept like a baby. She awoke the next day pale, but stronger. She seemed to know she could not eat and
settled for soft foods and liquids for a few days then graduated to more foods she enjoyed. She only had Ibuprofen for pain, and that is all it took.
It was amazing to me that everyone else noticed how much
better her face looked with the incisors gone. I just was aware of the swelling (typical mom). Now almost 2 weeks later, she is
eating normally and is very happy. The pain of those teeth must have been awful and I cannot help but wonder if they didn't lead to some of her behaviors.
Aubrey will be having a hysterectomy in a few months. The
reason for this is to rid her body of her hormones and start her on synthetic hormones, which would allow a period to come
through and not make her so premenstrual and aggressive. She goes anywhere from 2-4 months without a period and when that
happens she is more aggressive. This is our next adventure! I will keep you posted!
By the way, the medicine, which finally helped her aggression, was propanolol.. It slowed her heart down and her
behaviors. Although one can go as high as 1000 mg. She is only on 120 mg. and doing well. Her blood pressure and pulse
is checked every morning. She is watched carefully.
Congratulations Aubrey! You did a great job honey! Love mom
|
