And so it begins

Yesterday was the big day.  Michael went to work late so he could stay home with Elliott.  Spencer and I drove aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to East Mesa for his orthodontist appointment. 

 

He specifically picked his small fry shirt for the big day.  This is a faker smile if I've ever seen one.  And who can blame him?  Who wants to smile before a bunch of metal is shoved in your mouth?

That's a $2,700 Quad Helix palate expander right there (and we got a discount for paying the full balance with a check instead of using a credit card or going on a payment plan).

 

Spencer was very brave and agreeable as he settled in the chair.

Then she crammed those brackets on his teeth and he started crying.  And then I had to force all my emotions into a little box deep inside of me and act like I was a serial killer with no empathy to keep from crying right there with him.  My breaking down wouldn't have been useful to anyone. 

Here it is.  When I look at that picture I can actually feel the brackets on my teeth and my tongue flicking the metal on my palate.  I can taste the adhesive too.  Sensory and muscle memory is powerful.

Spencer looks like he is in pain here, but he's not.  He's just shutting his eyes tight so the light that dries the adhesive didn't get in his eyes.

The whole appointment took less than 20 minutes.  We go back in 2 weeks for a check-up to make sure nothing is rubbing or irritating him and that he is adjusting well.  Then 2 weeks after that he'll get the mask and start wearing it.

 

We stopped at Fresh and Easy on the way home and picked up some pudding, some ice cream, some milkshakes and some smoothies.  Spencer is a tiny little thing to begin with and the last thing we need is him losing weight because of this being in his mouth. 

He had to show it to daddy when we got home.  He also forced Elliott to look, but Elliott didn't really care. 

I had already decided that if Spencer said he didn't want to go to school or if he said it hurt too much to go to school I would let him stay home.  He'd be missing 2.5 hours of preschool, learning information that he could probably teach to the rest of the class.  I did not, however, tell him that he had the option to miss school.  I didn't want to plant that idea in his head.  He'll be manipulating me to stay home soon enough. 

 

He had 1 dose of Tylenol (or Motrin maybe, I don't remember) when we got home.  That was it.  He hasn't had any since.  He also really wanted to go to school.  He wanted all the other kids to see his mouth.  I was really pleased, obviously.

 

For dinner last night I made turkey, corn and mashed potato.  Very starchy and incredibly white, I know, but I was trying to serve soft and easy to chew things.  He ate 4 kernels of corn (and that took about 15 minutes) before declaring that he just wouldn't be able to eat until this thing comes out of his mouth.  I don't think it hurts as much as food is just getting stuck and it bothers him.  This is the kid who cries when apple peel wedges between his teeth until we floss it out.  I told him that by the time the expander comes out he will have an exceptionally strong tongue from getting all sorts of stuck food out.

Anyway, this is what Spencer had for dinner last night.  That's about 500 calories of premium Fresh and Easy strawberry and vanilla ice cream with Hershey's chocolate syrup.

 

Shockingly, he had NO trouble eating this.

 

Elliott had blueberries again.

 

He's going for the half-Joker look here.

Spencer did better with eating today, but still not great.  His speech is also very wonky (yes, that's a clinical term).  He's not moving his cheeks, tongue or lips like he should be, so he sounds muffled and lispy.  I'm going to give him like a week to adjust before I break out the articulation workbooks.  Ha Ha.  Not really.  I can't do therapy with my own kid.  The kids I get paid to work with try my patience enough.  Good lord it can be hard to spend the whole day working with kids and then coming home to kids.  It's nice that I work very few hours each week, though, because any more and my head would literally explode.