Abby and Her Mouth!

If you think this post is about sass then you haven't been on Facebook lately! LOL!  Oh the adventures we've had this past week.  Let me set the scene for you:

Last Tuesday I headed to Abby's school for a scheduled parent/teacher conference.  As I approach the school I see Abby playing in front waiting for me to arrive.  I park the car in the parking lot and the moment I step out I can hear Abby screaming.  This isn't her "I'm faking it for sympathy" scream.  This is the "mommy's heart just jumped into her throat and she can't get to the kid fast enough" scream.  If you have kids, then you know what I'm talking about.  Unfortunately, I couldn't obey my instincts to run because I had a stronger "you can't leave your 3 year old in a parked car with the door open in the middle of a parking lot" instinct.  As I'm looking back and forth between the scene involving my injured child and the dawdling three year old I notice the school secretary booking it to swoop Abby up and take her inside.  As quickly as I can, I get Iris out of the van and head into the school.

In the office I can still hear her crying and I see she is rinsing her mouth out which is bleeding profusely.  I get to her and find out she has just fallen against the side of the school and smacked her mouth.  I take her face gently in my hands and examine her.  Her nose is not broken but her mouth is bleeding and her teeth don't look right.  Right away I see that they are chipped, and I know that her mouth is in a lot of pain.  "I'm so sorry, honey!" I say and I try to comfort her to get her to calm down.  "Tell me exactly what happened."

With her jaw rigged, she says, "I was playing tag and I lost my balance and I hit the wall.  It really hurts mommy!"

I tell the secretary that she was really fast in responding and she tells me that she heard Abby hit the wall and then heard screaming.  Abby hit the outside of the wall, the secretary heard the collision from inside the wall.  The wall is probably 2-3 feet deep with solid brick on the outside.  That will give you an idea of how hard Abby hit.  Pretty hard.

Needless to say, I canceled my conference and phoned the orthodontist.  If you remember, in November Abby got a palate expander.  I was concerned that she may have damaged it or having it in her mouth may have damaged her jaw.  We rushed over there ASAP.  This entire time her mouth has not stopped bleeding.

The orthodontist took a good look inside and said that she had cracked her teeth but the appliance was fine and there was nothing more he could do.  He referred me to a dentist.  Luckily this dentist, on his day off, agreed to see Abby.  It is now one hour from her accident and her gums are still bleeding.  He looks at her mouth, talks about filling the teeth (since she broke about 1/2 of one tooth and 1/4 of the other), but he can't do anything until the gums around the teeth heal.  See when a mouth suffers trauma like this, the gum tissue becomes inflamed and that makes the teeth loose and unstable.  He would have tried a stabilizing bar, but he figured he didn't want to add to her trauma by giving her a shot and messing with her teeth.  He made an appointment to see her the next Monday.

Abby was swollen for a couple of days, but then returned to normal.  She couldn't bite down at all with her front teeth, so she was on a soft food diet.  The next day she called me from school to say she fell on the playground, hit her chin which knocked her teeth and they hurt a bit.  I took her some ibuprofen and told her to try and tough it out.  I also gave her strict instructions NOT to run or be rowdy.

This brings me to Sunday... the day before her dental appointment.  I noticed after dinner that her lip and cheek were swollen.  I automatically worried about an infection.  She had been complaining for about a day that her two front teeth hurt, especially right under her nose.  I didn't really pay attention to it since it seemed to me that it came on when she was bored, in trouble or asked to do something.  But by Sunday night I knew something wasn't right.

Fast forward to our appointment on Monday.  Her lip and cheek are still swollen and tender.  The dentist rules out a nerve infection, but is now wondering if the bone above her lip is fractured.  Let me set this scene for you:

I requested nitris oxide for her because I knew that this filling was going to be painful.  So she's been on nitris for 20-30 minutes.  He puts the gum numbing stuff on her gums and then gives her the anesthetic shot.  I have NEVER seen this child in more pain.  It was killing me to have to hold her down while he put that needle in her gums.  She screamed so loud and hurt so much that I was barely able to contain my emotions.  This motherhood stuff is NOT for the faint of heart.

Once numb (the sensation of which totally freaked Abby out more) he determined that he probably shouldn't fill the teeth because they had shifted with the impact.  So now her teeth have been pushed into the gums causing them to be pressed together at the bottoms.  Any filling would fall out at this point is what he said.  So he smoothed the jagged break instead.  And he went back and forth whether to say that the bone was broken.  Finally he gave me instructions to head back to the orthodontist.  Whether it is broken or not, those teeth are not stable and need to be stabilized and straightened before he can fill them.  He also worried about root damage and referred me to an endodontist (these guys specialize in root canals).

So let me get this straight... a week ago her teeth were only chipped and we could do an easy fix after the gums heal.  NOW I'm being told that my daughter most likely has a fracture in her jaw (which she has had for a WEEK) and is now at risk for losing one or both of her front PERMANENT teeth?  Not only this, the exam has now left her writhing (and I didn't really understand what this meant until this night) in pain and her face is still swollen.  It was almost too much to bare.

The second we left the dentist Abby started crying and screaming about the pain in her mouth.  "It's killing me!" she said over and over and over.  I was so confused because she was supposed to be numb.  I called the dentist and while waiting for him to call back I went to the store for more ibuprofen.  I gave her that and called our home teacher to come help Nate give her a blessing.  The dentist called and said to see how the ibuprofen worked and call if it didn't so he could prescribe something stronger.

This is where we learn about the power of the Priesthood of God.  After the ibuprofen and a beautiful blessing, Abby went to bed and slept all night.  I give complete and utter glory to our Heavenly Father who, no doubt, was suffering as much as I was.  I am so grateful for the Priesthood Power and the miracles we receive from it.  This child was in so much pain that neither nitris, nor anesthetic could touch it.

First thing this morning, the dentist called to check on Abby and to urge me to see the orthodontist first.  He told me that the more he thought about it the more he was convinced her jaw was fractured.

The orthodontist confirmed the fracture.  He can't just stabilize the fracture with a bar because that would fix the teeth in the wrong place... which would add more problems.  So he put 6 braces and a wire on her top teeth to stabilize or cast the fracture and to guide the teeth to a straightened position.

This is where we learn about the power of Prayer.  This morning I solicited prayers for Abby.  Knowing how much she suffered last night and knowing how much her mouth would go through today with the exams alone, I knew she would be hurting and not very cooperative.  She was so brave and so tough when they put those braces on her!  I couldn't be prouder of her.  And it seemed that the minute those braces came on, her demeanor changed.  She was my happy Abby again.  If you don't believe in miracles, this should change your mind.  If my words aren't sufficient, hopefully the Spirit is testifying to you.  To see the change between the girl suffering, more than I've probably ever suffered in my life, the night before to the girl skipping out with a SMILE on her face was again a testimony of God's love for her and for me.

With one more appointment to go, we were on our way to fixing this problem.  The endodontist visit was short and sweet.  Her teeth are still developing.  The stems have not closed off, so there is a good possibility that the blood and tissues feeding the teeth will heal and "rejuvenate".  He put her on antibiotics as a preventative measure and we will revisit him next week.

I know this is long.  I don't know if you've read it all the way through.  I felt the need to put this experience in words.  I hope Abby can read it someday and know how much she is loved and how much we do for our kids so that they don't have to suffer.  It is hard to see your kids hurting, no matter the cause.  It is even harder to know that they have suffered more than you knew at the time... those are the moments when we really kick ourselves.  But it is difficult experiences that give us the strengths to face new challenges.

Now if I can just get Abby to slow down a bit, then my heart can resume it's normal beat.  Tonight I caught her lifting a portable booster seat over her head with a belt (don't even ask).  It came about 4 inches from smacking her in the mouth!  "I just spent $1000 on that mouth so you better just put that thing down!"  I shouted.  Then I thought a second and said, "Abby you have no idea how much your mouth would hurt if that hit you and you were close!"  That probably should have been my first reaction... I still have a lot to learn.

And here is the photographic evidence (I also posted these on Facebook):

The swollen lip and cheek after seeing the dentist (for the second time)

Part of the lip swelling is due to the anesthetic shot

There's that beautiful smile... now full of braces!

You can see that a lot of the swelling is gone already

Just a little bit of swelling in her lip and cheek

She was so excited about choosing colored bands

***If you look at the picture on the header of my blog you can see how big her front teeth are.  The space between them in that picture is due to the palate expander.  After we did all the adjustments, her top teeth started moving closer together (from the top).  In these pictures you can see just how much tooth was knocked out and how now her teeth are angled toward each other at the bottom.  Good times!***