All I Want For Christmas Is

On Wednesday afternoon when I picked up the kids from school they asked if we could have Chick-fil-A for dinner. I was okay with this since Chet was out of town and I hate cooking for just myself. We headed to Chick-fil-a and then to Target. When we left Target and were back in the car Harris wanted to finish his Sprite so he reached across the back seat to the cup holder and got a hold of it by the lid and of course the Sprite spilled all over his lap. So I of course told him that he was going to have to shower when we got home.

When we got home he got into the shower and proceeded to do what 6 year old boys do in the shower, karate. All seemed to be going well when all of a sudden I heard a loud thud followed by a blood curdling scream followed by frantic calls for MOM!!! I ran in there and was confronted by Harris standing outside of the shower covered in blood. I freaked out and yelled (frantically not mean) "what happened?!" As he tried to tell me what happened he spit blood and teeth into my hands!  Crap! is what I was thinking at this point. I got him back into the shower to get him rinsed off and to evaluate the damage. It was bad. I got him out and immediately called the dentist. It was already 5 o'clock but he agreed to stay until we got there. Usually it takes about 15 minutes to get there but of course there was a car accident and it took us almost 30 to get there!

I took this while we were sitting in traffic on the way to the dentist. You can see the three holes on the outside of his lower lip and his missing teeth. And if you look closely you can kinda tell that the top left tooth doesn't look quite right.

When we finally got to the dentist and got into an exam room most of the bleeding had stopped but he was in A LOT of pain. When the dentist began the exam Harris actually asked him to numb it! The dentist looked at me and I said "if he's asking you to then go ahead." It took 2 whole vials to get him numb enough for the dentist to get a good look!

The first thing he took care of were the 3 holes he bit into the outside of his lower lip. He cleaned them really thoroughly with special antiseptic for teeth bites and then had to use a coagualnt to stop the bleeding before he could close them up. He decided against a stitch in each one and used surgical glue to seal them shut and minimize scarring. After the outside of his mouth was taken care of  he moved to the inside of his mouth. It was ugly. His gums on the top and bottom around his 4 front teeth as well as his lower lip were dark purple and looked like hamburger. His bottom gums and lip were so torn up he had to debride the torn up tissue from them. When he was finished with that they gave his mouth a good rinse before taking a look at his teeth. As he was looking at his teeth I commented that it looked like he had chipped one of the teeth on the top next to his fron tooth. He took a look at it and said it's not chipped but I want to get some x-rays of it. When he was examining the x-rays he said everything looked fine except that one tooth which was inverted! As in he hit it so hard it went back up into his gums!!! He said it wasn't a huge deal because it was a baby tooth and it would either fall out or come back down. So far it has come back down most of the way and gotten loose so we will see what happens...

When we were done at the dentist Harris asked if we could stop and get a smoothie. I obliged and got him one. We quickly discovered that he was too numb to drink it though. It kept dribbling out of his mouth! He gave up and decided that he wanted to call Gram Wendy and Auntie Lindsay. (One thing I forgot to mention is that the next day was school picture day...) As he was talking to Gram Wendy they were talking about school pictures the next day and said "It's school pictures tomorrow. But don't worry Grandma, it will be a good memory." And then while he was talking to Auntie Lindsay she told him "to smile real big for pictures so he can always remember he knocked his teeth out the day before. Harris said in reply, "Looking at those pictures later will still be really painful for me." Haha! He's so cute!

I took these the next morning, it actually looked a million times better. I was so glad.

It was quite swollen though!

Although it was a very traumatic experience Harris was really brave and handled it very well. I'm glad that he's all better now!

Brace Face

This morning at 6:30 Liv came into our bedroom in tears. Why? Well, yesterday she got her braces on. And while the procedure was quick (45 minutes) and painless the actual straightening of the teeth is not.

In the next 6 weeks the special wire that they put in will pull all of her teeth down from the top and up from the bottom so that they are all even and level. To accomplish this, every night she has to rinse her mouth with hot water or drink something hot. This will tighten up the wire which is heat activated (things have really advanced in the 20 years since I had braces). When she goes back to the orthodontist they will put in wires to do the actual straightening. The whole process will take about 8 months.

I love her smile and can't wait to see the finished product! 

Expanded

Today, after 3 long months, Liv got her expander off! I thought that it was just going to be grinding the cement off and then popping off the expander, but I was wrong! It did start with drilling, but when the assistant (whose first day it was!) went to suction her mouth, she stuck it too far down her throat and gagged her. After recovering from the gagging and then rinsing her mouth, the orthodontist grabbed some big plier things and started to "pop" the expander off. While he was working on getting it out, he kept commenting on how tight it was on her teeth. I figured that he would drill a little more of the cement off and then try again, but he just kept tugging on it. When it finally popped off, Liv let out a little scream and as the orthodontist pulled it out of her mouth there was a TOOTH stuck in it!!! He said that this occasionally happens when a baby tooth gets loose under the expander. Since the tooth wasn't quite ready to come out, she bled and bled and bled! She finally stopped bleeding and they were able to clean the rest of the cement off and send us on our way. When got out to the car Liv broke down and cried. She didn't know why she was crying just that she was scared when it happened and that her mouth hurt. Poor girl!!



Poor unsuspecting Liv ready to get her expander off...

The damage..

She gets a week for her gums to heal and then we will go back and get her braces on. Hopefully that goes a lot smoother!!

Scootin'

You know how I said that on Saturday "we loaded up the family including the dog and headed to the park." Well what I didn't mention was that while we were playing football Disney was at the far end of the field chasing the cottontail rabbits. I was watching her and taking some pictures of her when all of a sudden she just stopped running and sat down. I thought maybe she was tired but when she tried to get up she just sat back down. I hollered at Chet that she was hurt and he walked over to take a look. We thought it was probably just a thorn since she was in the weeds but when we couldn't find a thorn we figured she had just twisted her foot. We decided we better take her back to the car to keep her from hurting it further. She made it almost to the car before she sat back down and Chet had to carry her the rest of the way.

Chet and the kids going to see what is wrong

Sunday morning she wasn't any better but Chet still taking a wait and see approach. As the day progressed she was getting worse. She wasn't even trying to walk on it anymore. Instead she was scooting around on her bum. We were a bit confused because she wasn't acting like she was in any pain and even when we would try and find where she was hurt we couldn't. We were starting to become very concerned that she had done something to her spine and had cause nerve damage or even worse, paralysis!

First thing Monday morning we called the vet and made an appointment for that morning. I was scared to death that I would be leaving the vet without my dog because she was hurt so bad we would have to put her down. Chet was even so worried about her he worked from home that morning in case I needed him at the vet. When I got to see the vet she was just as puzzled as we were because, like I said, she wasn't acting like she was in pain. The vet started making a list of what she thought it could be; Hernia? Nope. Nerve damage? Nope. Paralysis? Nope. Finally she started working her joints. Hips? Yep! When she tried to rotate her hips she growled. She then took Diz back for some x-rays. When she came back she had good news and bad news. The good news: nothing was broken. The bad news: she had hip dysplasia and had dislocated her back left hip. Fortunately the hip had already popped back into place but the problem now is will it ever fully heal. Probably not and the only course of treatment, for now, is pain killers and anti-inflammatorys. Eventually, however, she will need a hip replacement. Right now we are doing everything we can to promote healing. We are giving her her pain killers in addition to glucosamine chondroitin tablets. We bought her a special orthopedic bed and we are keeping her from running or jumping up. The doctor said it will take about a week before she is feeling like she can walk on it again. So for now she is getting around by us carrying her or her scooting around on her bum. Poor Bean-o!

Gel toes vs. Keens

So, since school had just got out, Liv decided to run a little experiment. She decided to see if Keen brand sandals or her "gel toes" were tougher. The experiment ran like this; Liv and Harris would both attempt to kick a soccer ball at the same time, Harris wearing the aforementioned sandals and Liv barefoot, once contact was made the sandals were to hook onto the big toe nail covered in the "gel" substance and significant force would be applied in the form of a kicking motion. At this point in the experiment we collect the ensuing data...

Ah, science...

Switching now to a narrative of what happened; Liv came into the house screaming and bleeding everywhere. I had one of those weird moments as a father where I just had absolutely no idea what to do, none. Jaime looked at me to ask what we should do about all the bleeding and the screaming and I drew a blank. My brain went through all it's learning and stored info and could not come up with a way to fix the situation. I think part of this was the new surroundings and not having a primary care physician. Anyway, after my brain reboot, I decided to take Liv to the nearest urgent care. I called them on the way over to make sure they were still open (this was about 7 at night) and headed over. What followed will haunt me the rest of my days.

When I got her there, I'm pretty sure she had gone into shock because she was loopy. She had stopped with the screaming and sobbing and had settled into a weird delirium, laughing at funny things and making odd observations. When we got in to see the doctor, the poor Dr. wasn't able to evaluate the injury because just getting near Liv's toe sent her into hysterics. The Dr. determined that shots in the toes were the only way she would get to perform an evaluation. Speaking of hysterics...Liv pretty much freaked out at this point. Now, I can absolutely understand. I had shots in the toes when I had some ingrown toes taken out and it was awful!

Anyway, after the shots in the toes (and much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth) the Dr. showed me that the nail had ripped off and was still half attached at the cuticle and would need to be removed the rest of the way. I then did my best to distract my still hysterical daughter as the Dr. took a scalpel and proceeded to cut the rest of the toenail off at the cuticle. Halfway through the procedure, Liv could still feel the pain so the Dr. decided to give her another shot. Liv overheard and started thrashing around trying to bargain with Dr. for some sort of alternative option. Again, it fell upon me to distract her and the Dr. was able to give the shot without Liv even noticing. After that the Dr. finished up and Liv was thoroughly bandaged, given a special boot to a wear and a pair of crutches.

All in all, a harrowing experience for both father and daughter. Luckily, Liv is on the mend and is only 6 months or so away from a shiny new big toe nail.

Here is some picture evidence:

This is at the hospital.  This was the site I saw that drove me to take her there instead of just trying to deal with it at home.

Liv was excited when the Dr. told her that she would get crutches.  After a whole day of walking around on them, she seemed slightly less excited...

They put this gross but cool surgical foam on her big toe to cover where the nail usually goes.  This is the site we get to deal with every 12 hours when we wash and re-bandage her up.  I'm sure it's much worse for Liv...

Sunday Dinner and a Hike

Once a week (usually Sunday) we go to Chet's parents for dinner. We have done this since Olivia was born. We always have such a great time there. Tonight was no exception. After dinner we decided to go on a hike. It was so beautiful! It was warm and the birds were singing and you could smell the grass. Harris had a great time throwing rocks in the muddy puddles along the path and Liv had a good time until she slipped and fell. She only scraped her hand and elbow but since we were hiking they were filled with dirt and gravel! Thank goodness Grandma Wendy has accident prone boys because she had all the stuff we needed to get her cleaned up at home. All-in-all it was a great afternoon!

(Harris throwing rocks.)

Bye-Bye Retainer!

In June 2007 we had a family party at our house for Harris' birthday. The party had gone from inside to outside and some of the fam, including Olivia, decided to play some baseball. It was all fun and games until someone got hurt. That someone was Olivia. She was standing a little too close to cousin Trev and got whacked in the cheek by the baseball bat. At first we thought that she just got a good bump and bruise. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that we learned the extent of what happened. At first she just complained about a toothache. I didn't pay much attention to it because the pain just came and went. I thought that it was still hurting from the bump. A couple days later she woke up one morning and the whole left side of her face was swollen. So swollen that her eye was closed. I immediately called her doctor, Dr. Knorr. When we got to the doctors office he told me that she must have an abscessed tooth and I needed to take her to the dentist. Dr. Knorr called the dentist and they fit us in. When we got to the dentist they took a whole bunch of x-rays. When the dentist came into the room he asked us if Olivia had been hit in the face. We were like "no" and Liv was like "yes I was! Remember when Trevor hit me with the baseball bat?" What had happened was the bat had hit her so hard that it broke the roots of her tooth which in turn got infected. The infection spread through her face and had gotten so bad that she had to have antibiotic shots for a week! After the infection was gone they had to remove the tooth and put a retainer in so the teeth wouldn't move together. The dentist said that it would take about 5 years for the tooth to grow in. The other day however Livvy couldn't get the piece of "food" out of her retainer. So she asked me to help. To make a long story short it was a tooth, so I called the dentist, and today she got it taken out. The dentist told me that now I need to call an orthodontist so they can get started making room for molars and braces!

Field Trip

Today I went with Olivia on her field trip to the North County Equestrian Park. We had a great time. We got to go to different agricultural stations and hear from USU FFA students. I actually learned some things. We got to watch dogs herd ducks! "Why ducks?" you ask. I have no idea! It was so cute though, and the kids thought it was hysterical!

It was also great to be with Liv. It is fun to see her interact with all of her girlfriends. Boys, fortunately, are still "ehh". However, there are two boys (Kobe and DJ) in her class that won't leave her alone. It makes her crazy! For example, when we sat down to watch the herding demonstration one sat on each side of her! (pictured) Then during one of the stations, when I was standing with Kobe and his mom, Kobe said to me "I wish Olivia was in my group." It was funny.

UPDATE

Harris is fine, but looks like he got punched in the face now. There isn't a bump anymore, but the bruising spread from his forehead to his nose, eyes and cheek. Poor baby!

OUCH!!!

So tonight was Sunday dinner as usual at the Robinson's, until Harris decided that his bar stool was a "swing". Needless to say he fell off and the stool hit him right in the center of the forehead. After the initial shock and the crying that followed he felt fine. He didn't look fine, but he felt fine. Except when he went to bed he said "Mommy my bump hurts so much." :( The pictures are a progression of "The Bump" as the night wore on. I think that if it doesn't look better in the morning I will take him to the doctor though.