Down in the mouth

It always amazes me how things can change in an instant. One minute you are laughing and enjoying lunch and the next minute your child has blood pouring out of his mouth. That was our day today. We were at lunch with friends celebrating her birthday and the kids were playing in the play area. Next thing we knew Caleb is coming out hysterical with an enormous amount of blood dripping down his arms. Immediately everyone's adrenaline kicked in and we were trying to calm him down and stop the bleeding. There was so much blood we weren't sure where in his mouth it was coming from. Eventually Heath picked him up and took him to the bathroom. After all that blood and then he didn't come back right away, I knew we would probably be heading to an emergency clinic. Sure enough Heath couldn't get it to stop bleeding so he took him over to the clinic which was in the same parking lot (blessing number 1).

I joined them shortly after and the bleeding had stopped. The damage was to his bottom lip and upper front teeth. We initially thought he might need stitches in his lip but it closed up pretty quickly (blessing nubr 2). The concern was the teeth and gums. While we waited to see the doctor I called our dentist and there was an emergency on-call doctor. So I called him and left a message. He called me back pretty quickly and I explained the situation. His concern was the teeth because they were his adult teeth so he wanted to see him right away. He said he could be at the office in an hour (blessing number 3). Once we knew we could see a dentist, the waiting around the doctor's office seemed ridiculous and an added expense. Heath knew the office manager from the clinic and went and spoke to him and they let us go without charging us (BIG blessing number 4).

We went to the dentist and from first look he thought things looked ok from the x-ray. When he really got in and looked at the teeth, he said his left front tooth was displaced and the right front tooth had a fracture line down the surface. He would need to push the tooth back into place and splint it with a wire to hold it into place. The next 20 minutes were difficult because it was uncomfortable for Caleb. Not only did he have to get a shot but he had to deal with the tooth being reset. Poor Elizabeth couldn't bear to hear her brother crying out in pain. The doctor had a little trouble with the splinting because of the bleeding but he did the best he could and was great with Caleb.

He will wear the splint for 3 weeks and for this first week we have to really watch for signs of infection. He gave us a rinse which Caleb just did before bed and the poor kid was miserable because it was so gross. And to make matters worse, you can't drink water after it because that makes it taste worse (the bottle even says so! Now that's bad!) Our biggest prayer request is that there was no damage to the nerves. That would lead to discoloration of the teeth and more problems later.

Caleb was very brave and handled it incredibly! He enjoyed picking out jello and popsicles and applesauce at the store and we even all watched Star Wars with him when we got home. Below are a few pictures. The first one is blurry but it is at the doctor's office right after it happened. The next are at the dentist and then tonight at home. I will warn you, they are not pretty!

All the black around his gum line is the clotted blood which will dissipate through the next few days.

Elizabeth has been so sweet to him. At dinner I put his plate in front of him and told him to take his time and chew slowly. She leaned over to him and said, "Don't worry Caleb. It's not a race. You have a booboo so eat slowly." She sure does love her big brother!

Please keep him in your prayers and I will update as we know more.