Toothache

We had made plans for Ruby, Jace, and cousin Sydney to camp again with Gary and Ruth in Pella.  Stef was planning to take all three kids at 1:00 Wednesday afternoon to meet Gary and Ruth halfway (they were already in Pella).  Well two days prior (Monday), Ruby woke up with a toothache.  Coincidentally, we had our regular six month checkups scheduled for two days later...the Wednesday morning of their camping trip.  As Monday and then Tuesday went on, she complained about her tooth and did not want me to get near it when helping her brush her teeth.  

 

So Wednesday came...we dropped Annie off with Stef so she didn't have to sit through our appointments.

 

Our regular dentist was gone so we had a fill-in.  He couldn't see with the normal X-ray what was bothering Ruby's tooth.  He suggested that we go to a second dentist, Dr. Matt, who we had previously seen to get Ruby's cavities filled.  Our fill-in dentist said the toothache could be caused by the filling that was already in that tooth.  He also said worse case scenario, Ruby might need to have that tooth pulled.  However, he wasn't certain as the X-ray didn't show anything major.  The dentist office offered to call Dr. Matt for us to schedule an appointment.  Dr. Matt is only in clinic a couple days a week and his days fill up rather quickly.

So we go home and continued to get all packed and ready for their camping trip.  At NOON, one hour before Stef was scheduled to pick them up, Dr. Matt called.  He had a cancellation that next morning at 8am.  I knew I needed to be responsible and take the appointment.  But I knew Ruby was going to be crushed that the camping trip was now cancelled.  And she was.  However, since I had no other plans for the day, we quickly came up with Plan B.  I would take the three big kids and Annie to Pella for the day and then I would have to take my three kiddos back home yet that night.  And once Ruby knew we could still go to the amazing Pella pool, as was well in the world again!

Thank you to Grandma Ruth for being our photographer for the afternoon!

I'm not sure if this is actually called "The Family Slide" or if our kids have just nicknamed it that, but we had so much fun on it!  Annie loved it and kept crawling out of the pool to head right back to the stairs for this slide.

We took a break for snacks.

It never fails.  He always picks one thing and then has to taste what Ruby chose too.  Luckily, he has a great big sister who is willing to share.

And this hungry monkey ate an entire ice cream sandwich.

Then we swam a bit more before heading to the campground.

It was Grandma Ruth's birthday so the kids gave her a few gifts.

Papa John and Grandma Dorothy of course came out with their Dairy Queen ice cream.  But we had to quick get some smores in too before I took my crew of three back home.

The following morning, Ruby and I headed to her second dentist appointment in two days.  Paul was able to stay home with Jace and Annie for a bit.  However, he needed to get to work by 9, so the plan was for him to drop them off with me on his way to work.  

Meanwhile at the dentist, Dr. Matt pushed and prodded on her achy tooth, which was not the slightest bit of fun for Ruby.  He did a second X-ray which showed an enlarged ligament near that tooth.  Dr. Matt informed us that he thought we caught the early stages of some infection and that we had three options.  One: to do nothing.  This seemed silly as we didn't want to be dealing with a toothache any longer.  Two: to do a root canal.  He informed us that he thought this would be very heroic.  Three: to pull the tooth.  Which he said was his top choice and what he would choose if it were his daughter.  Luckily, Paul came with Jace and Annie about that time so he could help make that decision.  We opted for option 3 and Paul was out the door.  

Jace made himself a nice little spot in the corner and was a complete champ by staying put and staying quiet while playing a matching game on my phone.  Annie went back and forth between my lap and watching Jace.  When Dr. Matt was sure that Ruby's tooth was sleepy enough for the extraction (she had Nitrous Oxide as well as some Novocain), he got to work.  It was HORRIBLE.  Ruby is my easy-going, laid back child.  But this was painful to watch.  Ruby could feel the pulling and got herself very worked up.  She was screaming and reaching out to me and there really wasn't much I could do except hold her hand and tell her she was going to be OK.  I wasn't expecting her to act like that and had obviously never seen her act like that.  It was definitely hard for this mama.  Luckily, Dr. Matt worked fast and after about 5 minutes (seemed like forever), he had her tooth out.  Then came the gauze.  She was so worked up that she couldn't settle herself down which caused her to HATE the gauze, which was needed to stop the bleeding.  Somehow, someway (thank you GOD!), I managed to get all three of them to the car in the midst of Ruby crying about the gauze and nearly gagging over the whole ordeal.  She cried the whole way home.  Once home, I got her settled on the couch with the Odd Squad movie I promised her before we even left for the appointment.  She definitely deserved it.  It took her awhile to fully settle down and through the Grace of God, by that afternoon it was like nothing ever happened!  It was honestly such a weird day...going from utter hysterics back to my easy-going Ruby girl! 

For the remainer of the day, she kept saying, "I can't believe I lost my first tooth!" in such a proud way!  Not exactly what we were going for and praying that the next tooth just falls out on its own!  Definitely not a situation I want to be in again.  But the tooth fairy was generous and Ruby found $5 under her pillow the next morning.  She couldn't have been more excited!

We went back a couple weeks later and now Ruby sports a small metal spacer in place of her missing tooth.  She wasn't afraid to go back to the dentist and has adjusted to the missing tooth and now the spacer just fine.  We now hope her tooth issues are over!