That boy is rough on teeth

It was a beautiful, breezy wednesday evening. The boys and I had gone to spend time with Jim at the shop and they decided they needed one last race before calling it a night. Jim and I were the "finish line" and we standing at attention when our boys rounded the shop corner. Suddenly, Dillon was down and screaming. Jim and I were trying to run to him, and Cody was doing his very best to comfort him where he was. I just couldn't seem to run fast enough and my mind was racing with just what I would find when I finally got to him. I have never heard him scream like this before. When I finally got there, I saw his mouth was bleeding. At first I was relieved that his arm wasn't broken and figured he must have just cut his lip open. But when I saw the amount of blood we were dealing with, I knew it was bigger than a busted lip. Jim immediately took him to the hose and began to wash his mouth off. We still did not know the extent of the damage but when Dillon was able to say he couldn't feel his teeth, I began to panic. Jim reasoned, hoping against hope, that he had just hit them so hard they were numb. I told Dillon to open his mouth wide so I could get a better look. My worst fears were realized. His front two teeth were no where to be found.

This was not the first time he had done something like this. When he was two, I had just come home from my first homeschooling meeting of my homeschooling journey. When I pulled up, Jim and the boys were outside playing and Dillon ran to the truck and tried to crawl in. He slipped and broke his front tooth exposing the nerve. A root canal and a crown fixed it until he slipped getting out of the bathtub and knocked is crown out. That crown was replaced until it fell out again thanks to a piece of Starburst candy. The dentist finally gave up and suggested we just pull what was left of the tooth. He walked around with a missing tooth for about 5 years when his permanent tooth finally sprouted.

And now, that permanent tooth along with its partner was simply not where they was supposed to be. Jim put the boys in the car while I ran to the back of the shop and got on my hands and knees in the dark until I found those two precious teeth. All I saw were the long roots and felt the littlest bit of relief. At least they didn't break off. They were whole and could be put back in... (I didn't realize until I saw them back in Dillon's mouth that they were in fact, quite chipped) Jim and I discussed briefly the best course of action to help the teeth survive until we could get to the ER. Ideally, they should be put in Dillon's mouth, but that wasn't really an option. He was bleeding too bad and needed to keep his mouth open. Option number two would be milk, but we simply didn't have time to go to the grocery store.. so Jim did what has now earned him DAD OF THE DECADE AND BEYOND. He put the teeth in his OWN MOUTH! Never underestimate what a dad will do for the good of his kids!

We pulled up to the ER entrance and just got out of the car, leaving it running at the door. We quickly got Dillon registered and put the teeth in a cup of milk. Dillon made it through triage and back into a room before I even finished the whole insurance / billing portion of the evening. Jim stayed in the room with Dillon while Cody and I waited in the waiting room. At one point, Cody, who might have been the clearest thinking Walenciak that night, reminded me that the car was running and perhaps we should park it.

Mom and Dad came out and helped quite a bit. They sat with Cody in the waiting room, who refused to go home without his brother, while I went back and forth sending messages. Dillon, through his swollen mouth would tell me "Tell Cody hi" and Cody would continuously want updates. Through all the trauma and awfulness of the night, I saw how much my boys love each other and my heart has melted many times over thinking of that night. The one good thing.... and if you look hard enough, you will always find one good thing.

So, by 2AM, the teeth were back where they belonged, a little worse for wear. They were still very loose and there were no guarantees they were going to stay in their sockets... (They fell out several times before we could leave the ER) but we went home. We didn't sleep. Jim and I watched Dillon for the rest of the night until we saw the dentist at 7AM the next morning.

Thursday (my birthday) we will visit another dentist and see if Dillon's teeth are tight enough to undergo the root canals the dentist says he will need. He says that due to being cut off from the blood supply, the nerves will die and there is nothing we can do about it. We're pretty sure God can restore blood supply to nerves He created in the first place, but we also know that Dillon will need caps or bonding to fix his chipped teeth and make them useful again.

One thing is for certain... We are investing in some mouth guards for Dillon!