Whew… what a day. I am so glad that is behind us, particularly Iz.

We arrived at Deaconess Hospital early this morning and they took Izzy in the room to prepare her for the surgery about 9:00 a.m. They were so sweet to her, they put a warmed blanket on her and gave her a pink bunny puppet. She acted very calm and relaxed as they wheeled her to the surgery room. The dentist was very sweet and let us know as soon as he was finished.

The worst part of the day was coming into the recovery area to see her afterwards. She was crying so much it was heartbreaking. Her little mouth was so swollen and her eyes were as well. She was scared and coming out of the anesthesia. I finally maneuvered around the IV and monitors to hold her and after an hour of crying she was finally ready to head home. We put her Dora DVD on for the ride home and she was pretty calm.

I waited about an hour to try to feed her anything and she was hungry. Her little mouth looks so odd to me now, without her front teeth. She looks like a snaggletooth, it will be cuter when the swelling goes down. Of course she is always precious and beautiful to me… with or without swelling .

This is the pic Matt took on the way home with my

phone camera.

Kind of blurry but you get the idea…

Thanks to everyone who prayed for her. One comment the dentist said was how amazingly she did with the whole thing and that he could tell she was incredibly healthy. She is. I praise God daily for her good health. She is on a very nutritional diet too, along with JuicePlus nutritional products. She is the healthiest of all our children.

We will be at the hospital Thursday morning (I’m actually typing this Wednesday night) with Izzy to get her dental work done. We have to arrive at 6:30 a.m. and will probably spend most of the day there. After Izzy’s near drowning accident, she did what they call neurostorming… this was extremely high heart rates, clenched fists, gritted teeth, high muscle tone so much so that her liver stopped working properly like an athlete that over trains. She was fed through a tube in her tummy called a g-tube. This neurostorming was terrible, and it lasted for about eight weeks. After we came home from the hospital, it was our mission to get her to be able to eat by mouth. I started with yogurt and Popsicles. I remember the speech therapist saying that we had to be so careful that she did not aspirate. Her motor skills are the main target of her damage… which includes everything you can think of including swallowing. Izzy passed a swallow study and we were able to have the g-tube removed about six months after her accident. This was pretty miraculous in itself. Her teeth, however, were still pretty tightly clenched. I was feeding her pedisure with a thickening agent to assure adequate calories in the beginning and then would try rinsing and brushing after every meal. The problem was her mouth was so tight I couldn’t get her mouth rinsed well enough and the grinding during the neurostorms along with that caused her teeth to almost melt. The back teeth went first because I could get the front pretty rinsed. Now her mouth is much looser, we do a lot of oral exercises and I can rinse with clear water now and she doesn’t choke. I still brush her teeth about four times daily. It was just too late. So, she is having her two front teeth pulled along with her little bottom tooth (she lost one little bottom tooth last month) and the rest of her teeth will require baby root canals and crowns.

Pork Chop & Potato Dinner
What You
Need:
6 bone-in pork chops
1 T olive oil
1-30 oz. package frozen
hash browns, thawed
1.5 C shredded cheddar cheese
1-10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of celery soup (undiluted)
1/2 C milk
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1-2.8 oz can french-fried onions
What To Do:
Brown chops on both sides in a large skillet. Set aside and keep warm. Combine potatoes, 1 C cheese, soup, milk, sour cream, seasoned salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir in half the onions if using them. Place mixture in a greased 5-quart slow cooker. Place pork chops on top of potato mixture. Cook on high for 2.5 to 3 hours (until meat juices run clear). Sprinkle with remaining cheese and onions, if used. Cover and allow to cook for 10 more minutes or until cheese is melted.