(From Abbey's journal)
Clayton is preparing to serve his mission.
Since I have been busy with work, I was not able to schedule his dental appointment early enough so he came home from BYU, he would have gone to the local dentist at home. We only managed to make his physical checkup appointment when he was back for the Christmas break.
Since he returned to BYU, I started to ask around on Facebook for dentist recommendations in Utah. After calling insurance, we finally got him an appointment for cleaning and filing out his dental form.
Unfortunately, the dentist recommended him to have all four of his wisdom teeth removed. Then, I asked again on Facebook for suggestion for oral surgeon in Utah.
Once Clayton heard he needed to take his wisdom teeth out, he begged me to let him get his wisdom teeth extracted when he comes home. Since he would like to start his mission this summer, I hesitated to say yes and in the mean time, more asking around which surgeon in Utah is good.
Many miracles happened in the process:
1) One of my good old BYU friend, Jerriane Dunn, was able to take the boys not only to all three appointments, but also taking them to grocery shop before the surgery and taking them to pick up medicines.
2) The initial surgeon canceled the consultation last minute and forced me to change to another one. I actually got an appointment the same day and at a closer location.
3) When I called the new dental office in Provo the first time, they asked if I wanted to have the consultation and surgery at the same time. The two available appointments were either on Wednesday or Thursday in the middle of the day. Since Clayton did not want to miss too many classes and he would probably kill me if I did schedule him, I only scheduled the consultation. After the consultation, Clayton felt ok to go ahead and schedule for the surgery but he was told they were book till February. But when I called again to make the appointment, I was told there were two cancellations on Friday and I managed to schedule him to have surgery in two days after the consultation.
4) Even before I scheduled any consultation, I searched up BYU calendar to see when would be the best time for Clayton to take his teeth out. January only have one Monday holiday which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 20. I was not hopeful because we knew Clayton needs to take him teeth out, I was already January 8. I am so grateful Clayton got to have his teeth out on Friday January 17, 2025 at 9:00 AM and he got four full days to rest before going back to school on Monday.
5) Brennan used his priesthood authority with his roommates to give Clayton a priesthood blessing before going to get his wisdom teeth taken out.
6) We always have DHMO (basic dental insurance) because we do not think we needed dental work. Since we totally forgot Clayton would need to have his wisdom teeth out, we did not switch to higher tier PPO plan. So the insurance did not cover much for Clayton's procedure. It would cost around $1,500. I was planning to pay it anyway as getting in the application early was important to me. When Clayton got his estimated quote from the office, the numbers were not matching with what the insurance company told me when I called. When I called the dental office again, they informed me they actually have a bundle deal for $1,290 to take out all four wisdom teeth, and if the payment is made the same day of the procedure they would discount another 10% off. So the total becomes $1,161. So we saved over $300 out of pocket fee.
7) Brennan was able to skip his classes and spent all Friday with Clayton after the surgery as his caretaker for the 12 hour. Brennan made tomato soup in advance and cooked yummy mashed potato for Clayton too.
8) Clayton is recovering well and he said the surgery did a very good job and he felt good after the first day, not two weeks that he feared.
I am so grateful for all the miracles, blessings and helps from everyone. Good luck to Clayton submitting his mission paper.
