Day 117 of 365 Days of Being Thankful

        Today I am thankful that half of my root canal is over. I had a female endodontist and she was wonderful!  I would highly recommend her if anyone needs a root canal done.  She said to me...."just raise your left hand if you need me to stop for any reason."

          It reminded me of Olivia's first dental appointment at age 9 when we first adopted her. I don't think Olivia ever went to a dentist in Ukraine.  In her orphanage they only brushed once a day, in the morning. I don't think she even knew what a dentist was.  Our dentist,  Dr. R,  told her to raise her left hand if she felt any pain.  We had our Russian tutor on the phone and she translated everything for Olivia.  Soon as Dr. R. turned on the drill, she raised her hand, it wasn't even near her mouth yet. He tried again.  Soon as the drill came near her, she raised both hands! Then she clamped her mouth shut.  Our tutor kept telling her to open her mouth and she had to get the exam done. Olivia clamped her mouth shut and said NYET(NO).  Dr. R thought I should take her to a pediatric dentist. He said she might have to be put out for the treatment.  She had a ton of cavities but fortunately, she still had all of her baby teeth in her mouth! When we got home,  I called our friend Gennady who was born and raised in Ukraine and he talked to her on the phone.  He told her that he was going to take her to his Russian dentist and that she would open her mouth for him or he would yank it open.  She decided she wanted to go back to Dr. R.

I think she started thinking that Dr. R was a better choice! I called him and asked him if he would try once more and he did and it all worked out! I think she chose the lesser of two evils in her mind! She has not had even one cavity in any of her adult teeth!  We have been using the same dentist for about 40 years. When we first took Olya to Dr R when we adopted her, she knew exactly where she was going because Olivia spoke to her in Russian.  She seemed fine going to the dentist.  She opened her mouth wide when he first came in the room!  She must have been seen by a dentist in Ukraine.  We hosted Dasha, a 13 year old orphan from Ukraine who stayed with us in the summer of 2008. She had a terrible toothache the first night she was here. I took her to my dentist who said she needed root canal. The moderator for the summer host program found an endodontist from Operation Smile who agreed to give her the root canal. I was nervous taking her there because we were told that they could not receive any medical intervention unless it was an emergency. She was in such pain, I felt it was an emergency. I had the moderator sign the permission forms.  We had to take her back for three appointments.  She was a terrible patient, I think she was scared and in pain. The endodontist was really annoyed because he was doing it for free. While she was here, the host program asked me to find an eye doctor for her.  I called around and no one wanted to see her for free. Finally, I found the president of the Lion's Club and he agreed to see her.  He told us that she had a huge cataract and she would become blind in a short period of time if it wasn't removed.

  The Lion's club president found a surgeon in NJ who agreed to do the operation free of charge because she was an orphan. She would have been blind and that would have been terrible. So again, I spoke to the host moderator who signed the forms after talking to the eye surgeon.  The operation was a huge success.  Dasha was adopted by a family whose daughter was a classmate of Olivia's.   Their daughter, Amber, was an only child.  They got to know Dasha after seeing her when they were dropping off and picking up Amber. They moved shortly after they adopted her. I am friends on Facebook with Dasha, she graduated high school and has a job!
        Dr. R.and his receptionist came to Amy's funeral and burial. I was very touched by that.