Many of you may already be aware that Clifford had to have some dental surgery done that required him to go under general anesthesia. I searched the internet and asked many questions on if anyone actually had experience with this with diabetes and how that worked. I received a lot good information, and I wanted to do the same here.The one thing we experienced was high bg#'s. This could be in part from the worrying and stress Clifford was under because he was a bit scared about what to expect from the whole procedure. It could also be in part due to he had Orange juice to help bring him up from 99 (anything under 100 as per endo orders) at 11:30pm the night before. It could be both, or it could be 100 different things that diabetes does that we cannot control. They gave him some short acting during the procedure and monitored his blood sugar to make sure it was coming down. They were concerned about the high numbers. He was given what they called "Silly juice" before getting anesthesia. This helped to relax him so he wasn't as worried going into getting his anesthesia. It definitely relaxed him, basically made him drunk without all that puking ;).
After he was in there, they gave him the choice of scent to disguise the gas smell from the anesthesia. He took a few breath's in and within a few seconds he was out. His arms and legs did a bit of a flinch or jerk, but as they explained when they start to go out they will do that with their arms, legs, and shoulders. In total I think the whole procedure took 1-1.5 hours until he was in recovery already awake for us to go see him. He was out of it and looking miserable for another 2 hours while he went into a 2nd recovery room to watch cartoons, and make sure he could keep down 4 oz of liquids. The only scary side effect was his blood pressure went a wee bit low, but that was an effect of the anesthesia.
One important tip from me is not to watch the monitors like crazy because you will concern yourself. What I thought was his PulseOx or Oxygen Sat levels were in fact not, but they were his heart rate. Otherwise I was thinking 70s & 80s for pulse ox stats were something to be concerned of. In all he got 6 baby teeth pulled some due to overcrowding in his mouth, and 4 sweet new silver teeth as we told him (stainless steel caps). He got to bring his teeth home as well too, which need washed off so he can bribe the tooth fairy with them tonight for some cash.
Back to the diabetes part of it all. Although his blood sugar was high, I was not too concerned in fact that once in awhile with Diabetes you have highs that cannot be explained, and they happen. But I also knew that once it was over and he was more comfortable in his own environment and not scared and concerned they would be better and we'd get them back down, which we have :)
