This Crazy Life

My ED daughter had braces.  Until yesterday.  She has not received much orthodontic care since early Fall 2021.  Veritas took her to an orthodontist while she was in their care twice to cut broken wires.  I had mentioned to her maybe we should just take the braces off, and we would redo them when she was healthier.  She did not want to do that.  So, we left them on.  For the 2.5 months she was home we went to the orthodontist twice.  She needs 3 permanent teeth pulled before they could do much else.  Once our outpatient ED clinic said she was stable enough (she needs to be put under with her anxiety) I made an appointment with an oral surgeon.  She completely freaked out during the consult, so we apologized and left.  Then her health declined.  Then we got admitted to another residential center.  Within days of dropping her off at ERC she had another broken wire.  She mentioned just wanting to get them off.  I took some clippers in and cut the wires for her when I visited her the first time.  We pulled the wires out.  The braces were doing absolutely nothing at this point.  Her sister had an ortho apt at home the next week, so I went in and spoke with the orthodontist about my sick daughter.  He agreed that taking them off was the best course of treatment and noted her file as such.  I called ERC, they reached out to an orthodontist they use and made an appointment.  That appointment was yesterday.  We have a regular family therapy session at 11 on Tuesdays.  I was very surprised when I connected to the meeting when Carrigan was all ready in the room.  Usually we talk a bit first, then pull her in.  Well, she was freaking out about the ortho apt, and her therapist thought I would be the best person to help her.  I basically told her we were doing it, it was done, and it was for the best.  She wanted to leave them on and go back to getting them worked on when she gets home.  I told her we would be in the same boat 3 or 4 months after getting home.  She would have had some care, but when she ends up needing residential again, we’ll be in the same situation.  Until she’s in a much better place there is no reason to just leave them on her teeth.  Side note, she didn’t even try to say she wasn’t going to need residential treatment again.  By the time I had her convinced to proceed with the plan it was too late.  So, they were going to reschedule.  Then they got a call that if she was there by 1145, they could do it today.  She went.  Against her will, but she went.  They let her call me when she got back, and she was fine.  Done and over with.  But then 2 things happened.  I knew the main reason she didn’t want them off was change.  Change is bad.  If she does anything differently something bad will happen.  She was afraid getting her braces off would cause something bad to happen.  Which coincidentally enough ERC suspended all visitation yesterday at her location due to an uprise in Covid cases.  So last night when she called, she was upset.  She got her braces off, and visitation was suspended.  I told her getting her braces off had nothing to do with visitation getting suspended.  But she didn’t believe me.  But then I gave her the better news, and this was a non-issue.  Her dad was still going to get to come see her this weekend as he’s vaccinated, and we already had airline tickets purchased.  So that conversation was pretty much squashed.  Then it hit me last night.  She had made a list of food rules with her dietician a week or so ago.  When I was there visiting this weekend, she read me two of them.  The first one she had to shake her leg anytime she was sitting still and especially while eating to help burn calories.  The second was she had to chew each bite of food 10 times on each side this way some of the calories gets stuck on her teeth.  I thought nothing more of this when she told me that at the time.  For whatever reason last night, it hit me.  The braces contained food.  After she would eat, she would always go rinse her mouth out and spit out all kinds of little food pieces that were stuck in her braces.  Without braces she can’t get food stuck in her teeth anymore and all those little pieces I’m sure will add up to thousands and thousands of calories and hundreds of pounds.  Sigh.