Keeping the tooth fairy busy

A picture tells a thousands words.

Sophie used to have a typical cheeky, toothy, 5-year old grin in all her photos. Now, more often than not, she hides the top row of teeth or closes her mouth completely, with only the corners of her mouth revealing a slight smile.

A couple of months ago, Sophie lost 4 teeth ... all in a split second.

The family had riden bikes up to a park, about 1 mile from home. Nana and Poppa had been visiting from Oz and it was almost their last day in Seattle. None of us had a cell phone. After riding around the park, the girls decided to climb a tree. Can you guess where this story is heading?

Luckily, I guess, Sophie kept her helmet on whilst climbing. Kara was farther out than Sophie on a hefty branch. There was a slight dip in the branch and I remember thinking how smooth and polished that section looked, probably because hundreds of kids over the years had liked to sit or lay right in the bend.

I remember having told Kara to watch out for the slippery section. I may have even helped her across it but I don't recall the entire sequence of events. Sophie came up to the section and seemed hesitant to go out too far anyway and perched herself before the dip.

I was standing right next to/under Sophie looking out at Kara, when Sophie must have inched forward and slipped in my direction. But instead of falling straight down, she somehow fell out sideways ... several feet out sideways ... and her teeth found a small brick wall. Direct hit.

I don't remember hearing the noise at all. But Lance and my mom heard it clearly from 10+ yards away. Lance instantly knew it was her teeth (he recalled hearing that same sound numerous times when he used to play amateur football in Australia. Not his, thankfully). I just heard the silence, you know that silence you hear before the howling begins. I turned her over before the silence ended and held her as close as I could. I had seen blood around her mouth but I still hadn't realized what had happened until I parted her lips ever so slightly.

On first look, I could only see one tooth. And even that one tooth was dangling. I felt so sick.

Lance wanted to hold her and he told me to call an ambulance since we didn't have a car. Oh yeah, and not a cell phone between any of us. If you want to panic complete strangers and their kids, try running up to them in a middle of a park with blood all over your white t-shirt, trembling hands and face asking for a phone to call 911.

Anyway, to move this story along, so much seemed to happen in the next few minutes. My mom and Kara took it in turns to search for Sophie's teeth in the woodchips, to no avail; Sophie had miraculously stopped crying after less than 5 minutes, most likely due to shock; and the firemen arrived and advised us to get to the hospital ourselves to save the ambulance cost.

Oh yeah, no car. Lance had to ride one of the girl's bikes home and return with the car. Somehow my parents found their way home with Kara (poor Kara, who hates to see anyone or anything suffering in any way, was more hysterical than Sophie). Luckily for us, my parents were actually here and could help as much as they did ... and luckily we happen to live within a mile from the Children's hospital!

The rest of the evening went about as well as anyone could hope. Sophie wasn't crying or complaining but you could tell she was thoroughly miserable. All she wanted to do was be in my arms and for me to hold her so tight. Despite the situation, there were some tender moments where all I could feel was our love for each other. My only complaint was that the regular docs would not give her ANY pain medication before the emergency dentist arrived. If I had my usual bag with me I would have popped some ibuprofen into her myself (the dentist was even annoyed that she hadn't been given any).

Seriously, Sophie was the BEST kid ever. There were x-rays, poking and proding, more x-rays, more poking, then pulling. Turns out the reason we couldn't find her teeth in the ground was because all 4 had been impacted. Normally the dentist might leave them impacted so they could naturally fall out again, but the bone above her teeth had been completely shattered. Ah, but the good news is that this bone magically grows/comes down again when her adult teetch eventually come in!

So Sophie was given nitrous oxide and her teeth and all the bone were taken out. That nitrous oxide sure is marvellous stuff - Sophie had us in stitches with her stories about seeing Nemo swimming around the dentist's office! Even mid operation, Sophie was hugging the dentist and asking her how the tooth fairy was ever going to know in time that she had lost so many teeth, and whether the fairy would have to come back 4 nights in a row or would take all the teeth that night. The dentist assured her that she would personally tell the tooth fairy and that she'd pass on that Sophie had been the best patient ever! (She really had).

And talking of cell phones ... the dentist's office camera wasn't working and she couldn't find her cell phone, so Lance had to take the "before and after shots" of Sophie's teeth with his phone! Which of course was hilarious in that Lance didn't know how to use that feature on his phone. (And you can thank me for not posting those photos!).

So all is well that ends well. For the first week (well, after a couple of days off school first) Sophie was showing everyone her missing teeth and blackened gums, which was not a pretty sight in the slightest. So we thought she wasn't subconscious about her teeth and gums ... but then I started noticing how she no longer smiled in photos. Poor Soph.

Unlike Kara, who had already lost 6 teeth by the time she turned 6, the dentist thinks it will be another full year before Sophie's adult teeth will start coming down. So she'll have a toothless grin a while longer. It has affected her speech too, unfortunately.

But gosh that kid is the absolute cutest kid around, teeth or no teeth!