Oh, Lord, give me strength! Today Kaitlyn had her 3rd appointment with the orthodontist. Last week's visit went well, so I had high expectations for this one. Wrong! I had been discussing with her all week what they were going to do. They needed to remove some blue spacers, put on some silver "thing-a-ma-boppers", and take another mold of her upper teeth. Well, the sreaming and crying began before the girl even touched her! When she starts having a tantrum, I can't really console her...nothing seems to work. (Believe me, I've tried everything in the book!)
Finally, I asked her if she would feel better if she were in a private room. She said she would. So we moved from being out in the open to a private room. To make a long story short, I finally had to hold her down while she was screaming and crying, but we managed to get everything done. Thankfully, she was the last patient in the office, so she didn't alarm any other kids! What's frustrating is that she can't be consoled by anything, and the people who work there don't really understand. They still try to bribe her with all kinds of things. She could care less about getting ice cream or toys from the treasure chest!
Well, I'm hoping that next week's visit will be better. They're installing the appliance she needs, so then maybe they'll leave her alone for awhile. In the meantime, just know she's not emotionally scarred from today's incident. (I am, but she's not! LOL) As I write this, she is cutting paper into squares and writing numbers on them. I can almost guarantee that she will spend the remainder of the evening putting those squares in order, mixing them up, putting them back in order...you get the idea! I even took a picture of her while she's hard at work!
3 comments:
I will pray that the next appointment will go better than this one. It's never easy trying to hold your child down while someone else is doing something to traumatize them. Tell her we love her.
Oh Kari...what to say! I hate that it traumatizes her so much but I'm glad you can see the big picture! Let us know when the next one is so we can pray!!
If it's any consolation I understand the frustration when other people don't understand your child. I had one such moment today with Noah and another adult trying to tell him not to do something. I wanted to scream and say "He doesn't understand what you're saying, so stop!" But I maintained my composure and just left as soon as I could. I'll be praying that she (and you) will get through the next visit without too much grief.
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