Houston's First Trip to the ER

Well yesterday turned out to be quite a day. Houston had his first of four dental appointments to fix up his teeth. I told him if he was really good that I would take him to the store to buy a toy. Well the appointment went really well and they gave him a behavior rating that is the highest you can get. They rate the behavior so they know how soon you can come back for the next appointment. He was great so we are heading back tomorrow for the second appointment. Anyway, I made an appointment at the pediatrician for the afternoon to have his ears checked since he was out of school anyway. He's had a really hard time hearing this past week so I thought we'd go have it checked out. So we leave the dentist and stop by wally world, he picks out a truck and then we head to McD's for lunch before leaving to G'ville. (and I remember why we never eat there ... my stomach hasn't been the same since) I thought it would be a good idea for them to be able to run around the play area and get out some energy before the drive to G'ville. Turned out not to be such a great decision ... we are about two minutes from packing up and leaving to G'ville when this girl starts playing with the boys by acting like a dog that is chasing them. So here they go running and Houston trips and falls flat on his face ... hard! By the sound of his scream I could tell it wasn't just a little bump of a fall. So he picks his head up and the blood is just streaming out of his mouth. Having just spent $800 at the dentist I was about to be really upset if he busted his front teeth. Luckily the teeth were fine but his lip ... not so much. So here I am along with three other moms that ran to help me trying to catch all the blood. It was everywhere. We ended up with a bit of an assembly line of napkins and wet wipes trying to catch all the blood while also getting it off of my hands and arms and Houstons hands and arms all while also cleaning up the floor and trying to stop the bleeding. He was screaming bloody murder of course and someone went to get ice. When we took the napkin off his lip to put the ice on and got a look there was a unanimous vote to head directly to the ER. The ladies were all really great and helped clean up our food and get me packed up and to the car. So I called Brett to let him know what was up and he met us at the ER. Lucky for us the ER was about a block away so I didn't have to drive too far with the screaming. Brett met up with us and I called the ped and told them we weren't going to make it because we were at the ER. Brett took Brody home and Houston and I spent the next four hours at the ER. We were second in line when we got there but they had several pretty bad emergencies come in just after we got there. It went from only two people in the waiting room to it being pretty full of crying relatives. By the time we were seen his lip has stopped bleeding and the swelling was even going down. I actually called the ped back to see if they would see us but they said it had to be evaluated by an ER doctor because of where on his lip the wound was and that he may have to go to a specialist depending on how deep the cut was. Luckily the doc said that although it was close, he didn't need any stitches and she was very pleased with how well his body was already starting to heal in the four hours since it happened. I was pretty exhausted with the events of the day and the boys and I all crawled in to bed together at 8:30 last night.



Here's a pic I took when we got home last night. You can see his fancy silver molars on the left and of course his nice busted lip as well. Lovely. The big y-shaped cut is on the inside so you can't see it from this picture but you can definintely see the swelling. You can also see the red spot on the outside of the lip where the tooth almost went all the way through his lip.

This whole bad teeth thing really has me .... I don't know .... worried/concerned/feeling bad? We don't keep soda or sugary juices in the house. I only buy no sugar added 100% fruit juice. They drink water and soy millk. They have had quite a bit of candy since Halloween but I always make sure we brush teeth afterwards and we tend to eat fairly healthy. The only time we have dessert around is if other people bring it over or I make something for a birthday or holiday. We brush twice a day and use a flouride rinse. All this and Houston's mouth is a mess. Apparently Patsy had really soft/bad teeth so I think it is hereditary. I don't have the best teeth either by any means. Poor boys ... I don't think they had a chance. I had a fairly long talk with the dentist about all this and we are just going to have to be really strict about the amount of sugar they get and when they get it. They are now only allowed to drink water between meals. They can have juice and milk with meals but not between. Soda is completely out so no more sprite on rare occasions that we find ourselves out to eat except maybe for a birthday or something. We also have a flouride treatment gel we brush on before bed. Brody is going to be seen tomorrow along with Houston's second appointment so we'll see how that goes. Being self-employed definitely has it's perks but dental insurance is not one of them. This could end up being a pretty big situation for us if both the boys got Patsy's soft teeth. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. Not that we have any options. I've done a ton of research on dental insurance that you can buy for yourself and for us it just wouldn't be worth it because you pay so much for them only to cover a small portion and they have yearly coverage limits that we would have already met in one month!