Helpless

One week ago, Peyton and I were at play gym. It was our 4th time going. He loves it and is a natural on some of the gymnastics equipment. It's a hard core gymnastics gym, like you see great gymnasts training in, not an overpriced "kids" gym.

He tripped on a gymnastics mat and hit his mouth on low parralel bar. Instant tears and blood. I quickly scooped him up and took him into the lobby. The poor kid was in so much pain and so scared by all of the blood. We went to the emergency room (where Matt met us) so we could figure out how much damage had been done.

He was uncooperative, to say the least. It took 3 adults to hold him down so the doctor could look at his mouth. His mouth was so swollen and eventually his nose and eye turned back and blue.

We went to a dentist on Friday which was just as hard. The dentist did not get to really look at his mouth and therefore no xray. Over the weekend, the break in one of his teeth got worse and actually split his tooth into pieces (still stuck in the root).

Bring in the pediatric dentist visit on Tuesday - I searched for one that would do nitrous oxide because I knew that would be the only way anything would get done.

I had to hold him down for the initial look and 2 xrays (because the first one did not come out). Then I had to lay him down in a contraption that velcroed his arms down, legs down and held his head still. Then I had to leave the room (which was fine with me yet hard to do at the same time). They called me in not 10 minutes later and two teeth were removed, Peyton was spitting blood out of his mouth and fighting still (he didn't want gauze to stop the bleeding). The dentist was sure to tell me "he's a smart little boy".

On the car ride home, he crashed and I finally cried. I was trying to be strong for him. I felt totally helpless throughout the whole process but I knew this needed to get done otherwise it would have been so much worse.

He is fine now, of course. He is so resiliant just like most kids. The tooth fairy came for a visit and he never wants to go to a dentist again.

Now to try and get him to go back two weeks so the dentist can see how it is healing . . .