First Dentist Appointment

Our little LadyBug had her first meeting with her dentist today. Oral health is important in general, but for a child who is going through chemotherapy is becomes an absolute must. Chemotherapy is a tough drug to tolerate. 

Rylie's biggest hurdle with chemo thus far has been mouth sores- the nausea has been pretty easy to get a handle on but the mouth sores have really gave us some trouble. When her blood counts drop she gets pretty miserable and weak and the mouth sores don't make things any better. She kind of goes on a banana and milk diet until her mouth feels good enough to eat again. Good thing about going to the dentist is we get a few extra tools (mouth wash in our case) and an extra brain to help us think of ways to ease the pain of these darn mouth sores. 

When we first checked into the hospital we had a really amazing nurse that told us there would always be something we could do to help Rylie be as comfortable as possible so to push the doctors and nurses into doing what we want and need them to do for her. She reminded us that we know her best so if something doesn't feel right to push back until we came to a solution that worked for everyone. We are so glad she gave us the permission to be "pushy" parents. Mouth sores are not "typical" for someone of Rylie's age but it was obvious to us that Rylie was miserable. Other than the obvious signs of the mouth sores she just doesn't eat- that is not something Rylie usually does. So we pushed back a little and between the dentist and oncologist we were able to come up with a few different options to help Miss Rylie through this next month of pain which will hopefully help us to figure out a good routine for her moving forward! It's definitely a continued learning process!