My 14-year-old got braces today. Considering her Asperger’s, I really expected the whole procedure at the orthodontist’s office to be a nightmare, but she was a real trooper. She started out saying ‘ow’ every time the doctor looked in her direction, but after being told that she really couldn’t do that because she was going to scare the younger kids, she stopped. She listened to what was being asked of her, followed directions, and the whole appointment was over in about an hour and forty minutes – about 20 minutes earlier than they had estimated.
If anyone is shopping for an orthodontist, I recommend this practice highly. They have a notation on my daughter’s chart of her condition with the letters “TLC” written next to it. The orthodontist himself only did part of the whole procedure and then gave it the final OK at the end, but he made sure to point out that notation to the assistant that was doing the other work. They both told my daughter everything that they were going to do before they did it, which helped her to relax a little – which helped me to relax a lot! There are 4 or 5 orthodontists in the practice, Dr. Greenwald (one day I’m going to blog about the weirdness of the frequency in which the name “Green” turns up in our lives…) being the one in charge of Megan’s case. They’re located on Route 40 in Ellicott City, behind the Double T Diner and across the street from the old Enchanted Forest remains.
The appointment itself went so well, I knew it wouldn’t last….as the day has gone on, my daughter has gotten increasingly whiny about her mouth. I know she can’t help it, so I just keep plying her with tylenol and telling her it will get better (which she doesn’t believe at this point – my daughter is a ‘the glass is completely empty and smashed on the floor’ kind of girl) and hope for all I’m worth that it will be soon! I had to help her floss her teeth tonight, a procedure that probably took 15 minutes longer than it needed to and left us both ready to just rip each other’s hair out….but, after seeing the pictures of kids with holes in their teeth after they didn’t clean them properly while wearing braces, we both know that it’s got to be done. For the next….two….years……
On another note, some of you may know that I am currently working on making the Guiness Book of World Records in the Longest Time Taken to Paint a Bedroom category. I think I started painting about 2 weeks ago. At this point all of the walls have at least 1 coat of primer and 1 coat of paint on them. One wall, done today, has 2 coats of paint, and (I think) is done. This is a good thing, because it’s the wall with the window, and I had to take the shades down to tape and paint…so I’ve been sleeping with no shades and no curtains on my window for the last 2 nights. This means that it gets very bright in my room very early. This morning our appointment wasn’t until 10:00, but the sun woke me up around 7ish.
Wow, I think I am also about to make the Guiness Book for World’s Most Boring Blog Post Ever! How exciting to make the book twice! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have something more interesting for you….