Many of you already know the details surrounding Davis's accident this past week. If you don't here is a recap- I received a call at work at about 4:30PM that he had taken a hard fall and hit his teeth and I should come right away. I tried to get an urgent visit with his pediatric dentist but they were no longer in the office. I headed straight to daycare and when I got to him he was sitting in a separate room with one of his teachers and one of the daycare directors. He was upset and I took him and held him to calm him. Then I said let me see your teeth- WOW they were gruesome. The word that came to mind was fangled... (and I am not sure that is a word.) Unfortunately he had tripped over one of his classmates foot and landed teeth first on a wooden chair. It appeared that he took the force of the fall on his gums and teeth as they were pushed down and back in his mouth (not out though) and his gums were bloody. We headed to the Pediatric Emergency Room because I needed someone who knew about baby teeth to help evaluate him. After being assessed by the doctor, who quickly said he will likely have to have both top teeth removed we were able to see the pediatric dentist. After many discussions regarding Davis's two top teeth we asked the dentist to try to save them. Davis was sedated and tolerated everything like a champ- from the IV, to the sedation, to just being in the ER. Unfortunately once he was sedated we could see the extent of his injury- one of the front teeth had a significant amount of the root exposed and they could not save his teeth- in a matter of seconds both front teeth were yanked out of his mouth. It all happened quickly and we feel like we were more traumatized from this than Davis. His little smile was changed to a cute toothless smile. It was going to take a little time for us to get used to this. There were now little holes at the site of his baby teeth. Of course the ED staff made comments like "He will look silly in pictures for a few years" but he will be ok. He woke up from his sedation and wanted to go home. After eating pudding, drinking juice, and stumbling around the ER halls like a little drunk boy we were ready to head home.
No tooth fairy came that night- I think the tooth fairy was tired and traumatized and didn't know how to respond. The next day we kept him home for some TLC and to make sure he didn't have any pain. He was upset at breakfast because he couldn't eat like he normally would and then when he drank it felt weird so he tried to just avoid food. He may have mentioned his "teeth hurt". After some encouragement to chew on the side teeth he successfully ate part of a banana and we did a celebratory dance. I knew he would going to be OK after this. We had a great day- he was busy talking (which sounds normal and not slurred at all) and playing hard. He did mention once to Chris that "I miss my teeth Daddy" which broke Chris's heart but honestly he has not really mentioned his teeth since then.
Friday morning came quickly and we decided he would head back to daycare since he had done so well and only needed one dose of motrin and refused other pain medications saying "I don't need them". I was a bit nervous to answer questions from his teachers or to see how Davis would respond (to his friends, teachers, me leaving, etc). BUT Davis made this experience easier... in route to daycare while I was talking to mom on the phone he said "Mommy sing to me" and then started to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and he was doing great- he knew all the words and just kept on singing. I started to sing with him but he said, "No mommy I am singing" and continued, "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so, little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong". He was reminding me of the TRUTH that Jesus loves Davis, with or without teeth. He is our STRENGTH when we are weak. When I got him out of the car I whispered in his ear again his reminder "Jesus loves you". He skipped right into daycare. The first person we saw was the director who had driven us to the ED and he went running into see her.... She said, "Oh Davis we missed you yesterday". Without missing a beat, he ran right up to her and said "look my teeth feel ALL better" and gave her a big ole smile. He hugged her and off he headed to see which friends were there to greet him.
So whatever you are facing today- Please remember that Jesus loves YOU!
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