it's the little things

So, yesterday at work. I'll be honest. It was tough. I, along with Dr. Young had our fair share of extremely hard patients.

One in particular.
A little girl, age nine. She was having two fillings done and getting two baby teeth taken out. And that poor girl--those four teeth were all in different sides of her mouth. Which meant she got to have four shots in order to get her numb.
Shots are definitely not little kids favorite things in the whole world. She knew she had to get four and she was going to be brave. But as soon as we brought out that syringe.. game over. She started to tear up. We told her she could do it and it wouldn't be that bad! We got through three and the fourth was just a little too much. She cried even harder and said "I don't want to get a shot I don't want to!"

Luckily her mom was there so I didn't have to wrestle her alone. After all four shots were given she had time to relax. We did the two fillings just fine but then it was time to take those two baby teeth out.
We thought they would be easy because of how loose they were but.. that was not the case!
We started with the one. Wiggled it, everything seemed to be going ok. But then "it hurt! It REALLY hurt!" So when it hurts you give more numbing (aka another shot) but this sweet little angel did NOT want another shot. She screamed and kicked and fussed. But we got her to hold still enough to give her another shot.
While that one got more numb we decided to try and get the other one out. But she didn't want us to touch that one because it will hurt like the other one did. So we tried the first one after giving it sometime to get more numb. Wiggled some more. Things were going well. Then we grabbed ahold of the tooth with the "pliers" and AHHhhhHhHHHh "It hurts!!"
Which meant... more numbing
More tears.
More kicking.
More of the whole entire office hearing this poor girl scream her lungs out.

Now let me tell you something. It's frustrating enough when your patient won't cooperate and let you inside your mouth, but when they are loud enough where everyone can hear it... dentists hate that.
So in order for us to even get back in her mouth her older brother held down her legs. Mom held her hands. Doctor Young and I prayed she'd hold her head still.

This first tooth was still "hurting" so we went back to the second one. It came out--but not without some screaming. After that she would NOT open her mouth. The first tooth was so wiggly it was moments away from coming out. We literally needed 5 seconds in her mouth to get it out.
 "I don't want to get it out'
"I want to go home"
"Mom, please, I want to go home"
"I don't want to get it out!!"

All of us, mom, brother, doctor, myself--pleading with this girl to let us try ONE last time.
After what seemed like forever, she opened, we grabbed, we pulled.
She cried some more but finally it was over.

We all praised her, you did it! It's all over! Yay!
By now, both the Dr and I were beat and glad this appointment was over.
I walked up front with her to help her pick out a prize and I told her how great she did and I was proud of her.
Then out of nowhere, she hugged me. This was the tightest, sweetest hug I've received in a long time. And that small little sign of affection from a scared little girl to me, was the best part of my day.
It made that very long appointment worth every hard moment of it worth it.

  it's the little things in life that make the big things worth while