Dentist

Yesterday was not without incident at the dentist.
I did my best to prepare Doodle for what was to come. We discussed "sleeping" at the dentist and talked about his fears. We met with the child life specialists and Doodle so they could show him the mask and discuss his fears. We brought his stuffed animals (Poof-butt and Pricetag) to keep him comfortable. We did our best.
And, when we brought him into the room where they had the machine and performed the fillings he was pretty excited. He hopped up on the chair, grabbed the mask and was ready to go.
Phew.
HA.
The excitement over the mask lasted about 10 seconds. And then he FREAKED.
I don't blame him, but still. It was a major freak-out and we had to hold him down. He was screaming and the child life specialists were telling me it was okay just as much as they were telling him it was okay. And I stood there.
And then we had to hold him down because at that point there was no turning back. And, I knew he fell asleep watching me hold him down and being scared. And that hour or so he was under sucked.
Majorly.
Then came waking up.
That also sucked. When he woke up he was angry and scared and writhed and kicked and screamed. And as soon as he was awake enough to speak he shouted at me and asked me why I didn't help him when he wanted to take the mask off.
I didn't have an answer. There's no logic, anyway, at that point. He just wanted to be angry.
So, he spent most of the morning being angry. We eventually left. The only way I could calm him down enough to go was to have the child life specialist help us by giving us a mask that he ceremoniously slammed into the garbage. (they sterilize them). It helped.
And then he spent the rest of the drive home being angry.
I felt horrible.
The good news is that his teeth are all filled. The bad news ... I'm not sure he really will willingly go back to the dentist again.