blood

What’s that on the floor you say?  Blood.



What else could it be?  Finn’s blood to be more specific.  Bad things seem to happen in this house.  We have several injury prone children and one very clumsy very apologetic Daddy.  Many of you may recall the ceiling fan head injury several months ago. 

I was in the office doing some computer work when Scott called me.  I responded explaining I was right in the middle of printing the grocery coupons and the computer battery was about to die.  Geez he’s needy.  When he persisted, I slammed the computer shut and went out to see what he was so adamant about.

I walked out into the kitchen and the blood was already soaking Finn’s shirt and dripping on the floor.  I took a deep breath and flew into EMT mode.  Gimme Finn, a cold rag and a flashlight.  I assured Finn and Scott that everything was fine.  We had gathered an audience of sympathetic little siblings.  I held pressure on a, swelling before my eyes, spilt lip.  Once the bleeding was under control I examined further with my flashlight.  His tooth, his front tooth.  Shoot, it’s six pm on Friday night, I don’t have time for this crap.  This was all I could think.  His tooth was still intact, but not really pointing the correct direction anymore. 
I handed the now calm Finn to his still hysterical father while I searched for my phone.  First call was to my sister, real EMT and dental hygienist, definitely qualified to give dental advice via the telephone from 1200 miles away.  I called, twice, no answer.  I called my mom who offered sympathy, but no actual advice.  She suggested I text my sister.  I texted “Dental Emergency, call me.”  That got some attention.  I had her on the line in about 20 seconds. 

Ellen suggested not repositioning, checking his bite to see if the new tooth position affected his bite and following up with my dentist for an xray next week.  She also suggested I call my dentist for a follow up and second opinion.  I called my dentist’s answering service and received a prompt reply. She gave me the exact same advice and told me to make a “baseline trauma” appointment for next week. 

When I asked the dentist what our options were, I was surprised.  Leave it alone or pull it.  The tooth may fall out on its own or it may stay in its new position.  It can turn an array of colors from beige to yellow to black.  All sound charming but at least better than the tooth falling out all together.  Three year olds aren’t supposed to have missing teeth, it’s just wrong. 

I never want to say things like, I can’t wait for Finn to be five or six, but I will be sooooooo excited when the crooked tooth falls out.  As long as it can hang on till then and hopefully remains a normal color. 

Alright, time to go scrub that blood off the floor.  Some things never change around here.