Tooth trauma

It's a miracle that's it's taken us this long for an ER trip with one of our children. Of course, it had to be Avery. We were a minute away from jumping in the car for a great start to our week. Jackson was going to school and I was going to take Avery to "Courtney's Drop-in" a place Avery and I love equally. She gets to play with fun stuff and I get to paint in peace. I had orders catch up with and we were so close.

Until.

Avery went running through the kitchen and took a spill. She fell on the lip of her high chair and must have hit it just right. So. Much. Blood. So. Much. Screaming. I tried to stop the bleeding as much as she would allow and after about 10 minutes, she took her paci and calmed down enough for me to load her in the car to the doctor. 

She started screaming when she saw where we were going. 

Warning: gross

 

 

After an hour at the doctor, we headed to the ER where we saw a specialist and a dentist. The laceration in her lip was very deep and "irregular" but the doctors (many of them) seemed to be leaning towards not stitching it. We were discharged from the ER and scheduled to go to the dental school at 2. 

Avery was able to eat some smoothie and take a rest before the dentist.

 

Her front two teeth were twisted and mashed up into her gums, but thankfully didn't appear to hit her permanent teeth, which would have caused greater concern. So she gets to keep those, for now. The one on the side was very loose and needed to go. 

 

They normally give laughing gas to children in this situation but the gas needs to be breathed in through the nose and they told me that most kids her age aren't cooperative allowing the tubes in their nose. So Avery had to tough it out (with Novocain, of course). They put her in a papoose, which sounds much cuter than it sounds. 

She had been attached to me the entire day and I was happy with how calm she was at this point.

 

 And how about the single tear falling down her face. Kills me.  But then the needle came out and all hell broke loose. This girl screamed like I've never heard (actually I probably heard her scream that loud six hours before).  The worst was the time when they put the needle in and when they actually pulled the tooth. They had to wait for gums to get numb so we just had to stare at Avery while she screamed. Not my favorite parenting moment.  Truly a traumatic few minutes for the both of us and I can only hope she forgets it soon!

We went into a dark room for recovery and she immediately passed out on my chest. I let myself have a little cry and felt very thankful that the day was done.

After a little snooze, we went next door to daddy's office where a JV game was going on. Avery was so proud to show off her tooth that the dentist let us keep. 

 

The tooth fairy gave Avery a dollar, though you can bet that tooth and that day will cost us many dollars!

I can't get enough of this smile today. It's crooked and puffy and it couldn't be more beautiful!