While we were in Charlotte this weekend (went up to visit John's parents and brother and my family), Abby developed a toothache. Abby is a very dramatic child (total understatement!) so whenever she gets a mild ache she acts as if 911 should be called. I'm sure there are many starngers out there that have witnessed Abby in "pain" and think I am a horrible parent for not rushing her to the ER at that moment. Because of Abby's flair for the dramatic we have developed the "less (attention) is best" philosophy...once we have determined it isn't serious of course.
Yeah, I know, get back on track...
Abby's toothache progressed to the point where she was in pretty bad shape. We got home Sunday night and by the time she got changed and in the bed it was 9:00. I gave her an ice pack for her cheek and she went to sleep. She was up at midnight in lots of pain and I brought her downstairs and laid her on the couch. I was already up because I was coughing and couldn't breathe. I gave her another ice pack and let her watch some tv to help take her mind off of it and hopefully lull her to sleep. NOPE. She was up the rest of the night and didn't fall asleep until about 5am and that was only for an hour.
Needless to say I kept her home from school and planned to put in a call to her dentist as soon as they opened.
Just so happened her dentist is out of the office for the week and the dentist that was on call for him is a 45 minute drive away. I could have called a different dentist but since Abby has had some extensive dental work done and this problem was either due to the spacer in her mouth (bottom left molar was removed) or one of the teeth next to the spacer. She also had a small "bump" on her gum right above her top front tooth (that she has a filling in). So we got an appointment with the dentist that we knew would be in contact with hers.
She was miserable most of the day and any time she tried to eat something it would start hurting. I was trying to keep Motrin in her to help with the pain. Getting her Halloween costume helped distract her from it for a little while. Her app't was at 3 and although I was able to arrange for Max to go to his friend's house right off the bus I still had Lucy and Ruby with me...;p
God definitely answered our prayers yesterday because as it turned out the spacer was loose and it was rubbing into and therefore irritating her gums. The dentist was able to remove the spacer easily (although Abby cried and wanted her daddy! I know it had to hurt since she was already in pain) and gave it to us to take back to her dentist to have adjusted and put back in. She has to have it until her 6 year molar comes in. We were so happy that it was an easy problem to fix and that it wasn't actually a tooth that needed a root canal. That would be 3 in one year and NOT GOOD!
My relief was almost short-lived however when the dentist told me that the "bump" on Abby's top gum was in fact an abcess on her tooth! The good news is that it is draining on it's own which is why it isn't bothering her :) Because it is taking care of itself we didn't need to get an antibiotic :)
Abby is still in some pain, her gums around the spacer are probably still tender, so I am keepiing her on Motrin for another day but she was able to go back to school today. She really didn't want to miss her class field trip to the Fire Station!
So I'll call her dentist again this morning and make an appointment for next week. It's time for her cleaning anyway. I am just praying that we can have an uneventful cleaning this time (read...NO CAVITIES!). She brushes her teeth like a champ and still has to deal with all this because of her teeth being so crowded in her mouth. I'm not in a hurry for her to start losing teeth though because we have pretty much been told by her dentist that she WILL be needing braces...like mother like daughter...sorry Abby ;(
3 comments:
Aww, poor Abby. I can only imagine the pain she was feeling. It's not fair for the little ones to go through stuff like that!
By the way, my updated posts aren't coming through for everyone. So, if you aren't getting them, the feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheDailyDribbles and you'll have to update that in your reader and/or blogger dashboard. You can also subscribe via email in a widget on my blog.
Poor Abby! I giggled at your description of her drama though, because Elijah is the same, in male form. He was sick a couple of weeks ago and I finally had the school nurse check him. He had a 101.5 fever...oops. guess he wasn't being dramatic that time! But! as us drama parents know, you NEVER know!
Aww -
loved your title.
Post a Comment