There Is Always Someone...

FrenchFry and his dad after a night in the ER.

A few nights ago, FrenchFry (2.5 year old) fell and landed with his mouth on a small wooden table.  There was a horrible, horrible sound and then the silence of a kid in shock and pain before the loud screams and cries.  I held him as his mouth filled with blood and we immediately knew this was a bad one and that his teeth were likely damaged.  After just a few moments of holding him, we jumped in the car and drove the excruciatingly long drive to the Children's Hospital.  (Why do we not live closer to the hospital?!)

By the time we got there he was mostly calm and watching videos on my phone.  The bleeding had stopped and he would only cry intermittently. We saw the ER doctor who couldn't find any damage to his mouth except for the clearly bent back front teeth.  She consulted with the on call dentist and we had an appointment for the next day at the dental clinic.

That night we had FrenchFry sleep in our bed so we could stay close and monitor him.  He woke up moaning a few times and we gave him some Tylenol.  The next day I stayed home with him and we cuddled on the couch and he watched way more TV than I'd care to admit while I took care of some work before his appointment.

Holding hands while he watches Umizoomi and I get some work done.

The dentist appointment was more traumatic than the actual ER visit for both FrenchFry and us.  He screamed through the exam and then had to get x-rays and since I'm pregnant I couldn't be in there with him. I feel bad for the other kids in the waiting room having to listen to him scream bloody murder for ten minutes.  Not exactly a great introduction into going to the dentist.  And then the dentist came back with our "two options:" either pull both his front teeth right then and there or wait a week and most certainly have to pull them then.

That's the point when I lost it.  I know they are only baby teeth but the news that they wanted to pull them was shocking.  I said no way to pulling them onsite, asked a few more questions and we left with an appointment set up for ten days later.  I've since come to terms with the idea that they may need to remove his teeth and it will be okay, but in the meantime we are also going to get a second opinion just to make sure it's really necessary.

So it's been a rough couple of days in the Ketchup house... but through it all and certainly now that we've had some time to see that he is going to be okay and to adjust to the possibility of losing the teeth, I know that it could have been way worse.   It can always be worse.

It was scary and hard, and it is sad to see his swollen little face right now, but he is okay.  There are parents who go through much worse with their kids.  And there are people who have tried to become parents and would give anything to be in our shoes with a healthy, normal kid who is going to have some accidents in his life and at worse might be without his front teeth for a few more years than we expected.

It's good to remember that there is always someone who would love to have your bad days....