Tastes like pizza

My son is 6 and has a lot of anxiety about strangers, doctors, dentists, etc. The dentist gave us Valium and said that he should take it an hour before his appointment and that he couldn't eat after midnight last night. His appointment was at the unholy hour of 7:30 am, about 30 minutes from our house. It's a hike, but this is the first dentist that doesn't act irritated that he's nervous, and believe me folks, we've been to several pediatric dentists! My 13-year-old daughter had to go with me because they say that a "responsible adult" should come with me to monitor him in the car afterwards and, well, she's the closest thing I have to that on a Tuesday morning with my husband scheduled in meetings at work all day. She brought a book.

So he took his medicine and went back to sleep. We got into the car and he woke up to watch a DVD, but was back to sleep about halfway there. When I got him out of the car at the dentist's office, he kept trying to get down...and believe me, he's heavy. I got him into the office and he insisted on standing on his own, but almost immediately begane to sway back and forth and had to take a step back to balance himself. I put him into a chair and tried to take off his jacket. He swatted at my hands and told me no. I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom...no. When they called us to go back, he would NOT let me help him. He wouldn't let me hold his hand, pick him up or even lightly touch his arm to guide him. I had to just lean down and put my arms around him without touching him so that he didn't knock his head on any corners or bump into the equipment in the room. He got into the chair and he looked cold and shivery, but he wouldn't let me put his blanket on.

They got him settled in the chair and I had a hard time leaving the room, although I could see it in their glances at each other that it was time for me to make my exit.

I went into the waiting room and waited. I read the most recent copy of Mom Writers Literary Magazine while my daughter shared with me what she was reading in Newsweek.

After what seemed like forever, the assistant came out with my child and he seemed much more alert than before he went in. He did have funny indentations in his skin around his nose and on his cheeks where he says that they put the "astronaut nose", which probably had him feeling really good through the whole thing. I tried to walk him out to the van and he began to run. I asked if he was tired and he said no...just slow. I feel slow when I run.

I drove my daughter back to school and my son wanted to get something to eat. OF COURSE since he hadn't eaten since before bedtime last night, I was willing to give him anything. In fact, they told me at the dentist's office that he should eat soon to help the Valium wear off more quickly. I knew his mouth was still a little bit numb, but I didn't think twice when he told me he wanted pizza from Sheetz.

He also got an icee to go with that pizza because that's the degree of mommy guilt I was feeling at that moment. Oh...did I mention the donut? I meant to.

We got home and he started to eat his pizza as I scurried around to write a check for the guy who mows our lawn who, of course, pulled up to the house at the same time as we did.

I finally sat down next to my child and he says "Mom, I keep biting my lip because I think it's pizza", and I look at him and realize that he has a mixture of pizza sauce and blood around his lip. Sigh. He had chewed up his lip. I should have made him wait until I could cut it into small pieces, but again, I was trying to do several things at once and forgot that he probably wasn't capable of biting into pizza and missing his giant-feeling lip.

So he's playing Lego Batman and I am wondering when the "numb" will wear off and he'll realize that his lip really, really hurts. I gave him some anticipatory ibuprofen and now we wait. Oh and there's a bag of ice on the floor because he can't hold the Wii remote and the bag of ice on his lip at the same time.