Chapter Fifty Three:
Dr. Miller excitedly tore the box open. He just had to see it with his own two eyes to believe it. He had asked the lab to push Dr. Morales' appliance to the top of the list. And while they told him they had trimmed their normal lead time to less than a week and could have it to him by the end of the week if they overnighted it, he hadn't really believed them. Yet that Friday he held in his hands a brown cardboard box from Specialty Orthodontics Lab.
After ripping the flap off the box like a kid at Christmas, he peered inside. He saw there were 11 smaller individual white boxes inside. They were unmarked, but he knew each one represented a patient. He knew that Dr. Andi had been busy with new patients, but seeing so many appliances made him realize just how busy she had been. Dr. Miller was only awaiting appliances for two patients. He realized the other 9 must be for Dr. Andi's new patients. Using the little knife he kept at his desk just for opening letters and packages, he carefully opened the first of the smaller boxes. Inside was a folded packing slip with the description of the appliance and the patient's name. But he didn't even need to look at it, he could see the appliance in the box was just a simple fixed bite plate seated on a mold of the patients teeth and mouth. This was not the one he was looking for. When he opened the seventh box he found what he was looking for.
He carefully withdrew the huge appliance from the box and pried it from the molds. Holding the appliance he thought it was amazing. And horrifying. It had some weight to it he realized. It was by far the largest and heaviest orthodontic appliance he had ever handled. He smiled seeing that they had welded the lower tongue crib into the buccal tubes on the lower molar bands as he had requested. This was different than normal. Normally, he would have inserted the tongue crib into the tubes after installation and slightly bent the ends to hold it in place. But he knew that it was possible for a patient to straighten it and remove it if they really wanted to. But by welding it in place, he knew there was no chance of that. He had also requested they weld the telescopes in place instead of using the normal screws. They had done this as well.
He held the appliance up and admired it from all directions. It was truly a work of art. He pushed his thumb against the spikes of the tongue rake. He could see they had sharpened them to a point as he had requested. Feeling them though, he realized just how sharp they had gotten them. Like a row of ten fishhooks. He smiled thinking about Olivia feeling them with her tongue for the first time. He placed the appliance back onto the molds and carefully laid it on his desk so that it was open. He then pulled out the pink acrylic plate that was also in the box. It was not on a mold, instead simply in a little plastic bag. He removed it from the bag and inspected it. It looked exactly as he had ordered. He gently mated it onto the steel Miller appliance. When he carefully closed the appliance, like would happen when Olivia bit down, he saw that it fit like a glove. A huge glove that would give Olivia's tongue no room to probe. Or speak. He pulled out his phone and sent the text.
He was working with a patient fifteen minutes later when he felt the phone in his pocket vibrate. He was eager to finish with the patient, it was just a routine wire change, so he could check his phone. Five minutes later he looked down at his phone. He saw the text reply from Olivia. She said she could come in tomorrow, a Saturday, to have the appliance installed. He replied simply with "YAY!" He had added a smiley face emoji. He thought that last little part was a bit ironic, maybe even cruel, as he doubted that Dr. Morales would be doing much smiling for quite a while.
That afternoon during their routine Friday afternoon staff meeting, he had announced that they would begin offering limited Saturday appointments. He apologized, he said he knew how important weekends were. But he said with so many adult patients who had fulltime jobs, he wanted to offer them the option. Just another service to offer to their patients and a way to differentiate themselves from other providers. But he explained they would only do it two Saturdays a month. He looked at Dr. Bender as he said "Dr. Andi and I have discussed it, we will alternate. So that means each of us will only have to work one Saturday a month." He then looked at Maggie, Alex and the new assistant Katie and said "and you girls can alternate too. Only one of you will need to come in on Saturdays, we won't be stacking patients on top of each other like we do during the week. And we won't see new patients on Saturday, only existing patients. So, there are three of you and only two Saturdays a month we will be working. So each of you won't even have to work 10 Saturdays a year. Unless you want to. But here is the kicker, we will be offering Holiday pay on Saturdays. And we will be offering a full 8 hours of pay even if we only work a half day. I want to make it worth your time. And show you how much Dr. Bender and I both appreciate you giving up a Saturday. I know it is short notice, but we have our first Saturday patient tomorrow. A real VIP, Dr. Morales. Who wants to volunteer to come in for a half day tomorrow morning?" All three girls eagerly raised their hands. Dr. Miller laughed and exclaimed "I love your enthusiasm! But I will only need one of you. We will set up a calendar this afternoon and you can work out who is working what days. And you can swap out too if something comes up. But for tomorrow, and please don't be mad Maggie or Katie, I am going to go by seniority. Alex, will you please come in at 8 tomorrow morning? Dr. Morales is scheduled to come in at 9. Her appointment will be extensive, much longer than normal. But I hope we can get out of here by noon." Alex smiled and said she could.
The next morning Dr. Miller helped Megan out of the BMW and walked with her into their office. They had dropped the boys off with his mother again. He had explained to Megan the night before that he would be working some Saturdays. But that he did not want that to cut into their time together. He had also explained he thought it would be a good idea for her to start working in the office a couple of days a week. The contractors had finished up Dr. Andi's office and she had moved into it, thus freeing up her previous workspace. Dr. Miller said he had a surprise he wanted to show Megan where her previous office had been. He asked her if she would come to work with him the next day. He knew she would say yes, because she knew that if she didn't he would not like it. And Megan did not want to disappoint her husband. Dr. Miller thought she was genuinely excited about the idea by how eagerly she said she would love to.
He walked with Megan down the hall, stopping at the closed door of Dr. Andi's old office. He opened the door and asked "so, what do you think?"
A huge smile broke out on her face. She awkwardly hugged him, there was no other way for her to hug while wearing her halo brace, and said "I love it. Thank you sir."
Dr. Brad kissed her on the top of the head and turned his head back towards the office. Only it was no longer a small cramped office. He had turned it into a nursery and playroom. He said "I miss you and the boys so much when I am here. Now we can spend more time together." He squeezed her before letting go of her and joking "and I am going to put you to work." He laughed and then said "I have one more surprise too. Do you know who today's patient is?"
Megan looked at him. How could she know who the patient was. She responded "no sir. Should I?"
Dr. Miller said "it is Dr. Olivia. She is getting her new appliance today. Come and take a look at it."
Sitting stiffly across the desk from Dr. Miller, Megan looked at the appliances on his desk. She gasped "oh goodness, that is big."
He picked it up and slid around the desk so that he was beside her and held it out towards her. He said "you can hold it if you want."
She carefully took it from him. She flexed the telescopes open and closed and asked "do these lock like mine?" He assured her they did. She then did as he had done when he first handled the appliance and felt the tongue rake. She pulled her finger back in shock as she squealed "ouch!! Those are so sharp." She thought a moment before she said "they will make her tongue bleed."
Dr. Brad reached over and picked up the acrylic appliance from his desk and replied "not if she wears this. She just won't be able to speak very well. Maybe not at all." He then looked at Megan seriously and said "and if she bleeds, she bleeds. She made you bleed last week angel." There was more he thought about saying but decided to just leave it at that. Instead he finished by saying "her case is very complex, and complex problems sometimes require complex solutions." At that moment Alex stuck her head in his office door.
When she saw Megan she was momentarily caught off guard. She didn't expect to see her in the office this morning. But more than that, the halo brace and protraction bar were jolting. She knew that Dr. Miller and Dr. Olivia had fitted her with the brace. But seeing it in person for the first time was a shock. She recovered quickly though and exclaimed "Megan! Good morning! So good to see you! You look gorgeous this morning. But you always do!" Dr. Miller stepped back as Alex took a few steps over. She leaned down and gave Megan a little hug. Alex then asked "so how are you doing with the new brace?"
Megan replied "I am doing well. The first few days were a little painful. But that is over now. It is an adjustment not being able to move my head at all. There are some things I just can't do. And a lot of things I have to do a little differently. But you wear a CTO, so you know about that. Not being able to drive sucks. But probably the worst thing is not being able shower. Brad has been so sweet and helps me with a sponge bath every day. But I haven't washed my hair since I got it."
Megan said "well, I would never know. Your hair looks incredible."
Dr. Miller had an idea and said "baby, I am afraid to wash your hair. But I just had an idea. I will take you to the little hair salon you like so much. Mal and Kari will be able to do a much better job than I can. Plus, I need to check on how they are doing. Kari just had her appointment this week. She got her Miller headgear set up for protraction. And she started turning her expander. And Mal came with her. Mal insisted she get a Miller headgear too, set up for retraction, instead of the high pull she was wearing. It was really sweet watching them together. So good to see two friends so supportive of each other."
Megan didn't know if it was her place to say anything. But she didn't keep secrets from her husband. She thought about the pictures and posts from Mal and Kari's personal facebook pages. Megan said "they aren't just friends. They are married."
Dr. Miller looked at her in surprise and said "oh, wow. I didn't know that. But that makes sense. And it explains how Mal was holding onto Kari after her appointment. She was a little upset. But anyway, I don't need to talk about patients." He changed subjects when he asked "baby, would you like to go help Alex sterilize everything? I would like for you to learn how." He looked at Alex and asked "would you mind training Megan a little bit? She is going to be working her some now."
Alex smiled and said "oh yay Megan! You can keep him in line for us." He turned back to see that Dr. Miller was smiling at her comment. Alex said "of course I don't mind training her." She turned back towards Megan and excitedly said "you have her appliance in your hand." It was the first time Alex had really looked at it. She said "holy cow... that is huge." She shook her head and continued "ok, put the appliance in the box it came in..."
Brad said "two appliances."
Alex said "ok, put both appliances in the box and come with me. I will show you how we sterilize everything. Instruments and appliances."
The two had been gone only a couple of minutes when Dr. Bender stepped into his office. She was wearing her Miller headgear with its four elastics hooked to her maxilla, pulling it forward, while the facebow was attached to her mandible, distalizing it in place. She smiled as best she could and cheerfully said "Good Morning!"
Dr. Miller looked up and gave her a big grin and said "Good Morning! This is a surprise. To what do I owe the honor?"
Dr. Andi said "I wanted to see the installation. And how the patient, uh Olivia, handles it. I don't think she is doing too well though."
Dr. Miller asked "why do you say that? She seemed ok when we were texting yesterday."
Dr. Andi said "because she is sitting in her car in the parking lot right now bawling."
