The day of the appointment finally arrived. I picked up Big A from preschool, grabbed some lunch for the kids and we were off to see my doctor.
We arrived and went through the normal check-in process: weight (ugh - no matter how hard I try not to look at the number, I always see it. I'm much happier when I don't know the number), blood pressure, family history, the usual. The doctor was to be in shortly she said.
BAM!
Big A took a nasty fall. I shuffled him into the room, closed the door and tried to calm him down. There was a little blood on his lip - he must have cut it.
No biggie. A little tissue will clean that up. I grabbed a tissue to help him only to turn around and find A LOT of blood. And a TOOTH was MISSING. Pretty soon, there was blood on the floor, on his chin, on his shirt, on my shirt, and on my hands. All the blood made him scream louder. This made the blood flow freely.
I asked for a nurse to come help, but quickly realize that I had to drive him straight to our dentist's office. Because my cell phone was dead. Did I mention that part? (Yeah. A dead cell phone means that an emergency is for sure going to happen.)
We rushed out. Luckily, I had a drink of milk from Big A's lunch in the car. I put the tooth in the milk. Sure, it was his baby tooth, but it was definitely not ready to come out, and the root on that puppy was thick. I did it just to be safe. While driving to the dentist's office, I was feeling a wee bit stressed. I anticipated the relief we would feel once we got in to see Dr. Greg. But...
When we arrived, the parking lot was empty. The door was locked. Of course! It was Friday afternoon. And, why would a dentist work on a Friday afternoon?
"Quick. Think," I told myself.
My own dentist was just ten minutes away. Perhaps he's in - let's go there. We drove to his office, only to be met with the same sight - an empty parking lot and a locked office.
Did I mention that my cell phone was dead? Yeah. It was. So, we had no choice but to drive home. After an afternoon of calling lots of dentists, and my pediatrician, and maybe even a hysterical phone call to my husband (which I can neither confirm or deny), we received the advice that this is a very common thing. They don't put baby teeth back in. We went in for an X-ray shortly after and found no permanent damage done.
The rest of the day, Big A was jumping around, wrestling, running, and playing just as little boys do. I kept worrying about his mouth - but he didn't slow down a bit. Everything is OK now.
Moral of the story: Going to the doctor is hazardous to your health.
5 comments:
Oy. This day makes me want to cry for you, or take an Ativan. Either one.
Your picture at the top of your blog is darling!
Ok that being said, I can't believe your day! When Drew told me about it I wanted to cry for you too, but it sounds like you handled it perfectly. I had no idea that baby teeth had such long roots! Poor little guy. Good thing he's still a doll.
SO SORRY!!!! What a day!! darling little picture at the top!! LOVE IT!!
Ouch. Thankfully it was only a baby tooth - AJ did the same thing a few weeks before he started kindergarten by tripping up some brick steps. His front teeth didn't come out all the way, but they started to turn grayish before he finally lost them.
Hopefully you have recovered from the trauma...... it takes more time for the mamas.
Wish I were there to watch your kids so you could have a *pleasant* trip to the GI doc.
Nat
What a story- I hope you get back to YOUR appointment soon. That same thing happened to my brother when he was little and my mom just shoved the tooth back in (it was a little crooked though).
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