Over the past week, I spent several hours at the dental office. On Friday (Jan 5th) I had a routine teeth cleaning for myself. The following week, both Jay and Amber had separate appointments for troublesome teeth.
I did not know what to do! Was this a dental emergency? How could we tell if it was? Where do you even go for a dental emergency? Jeff, Jay, and Rose were at swim practice, so this crisis was on me. Even though I am paranoid about imposing on medical friends, I texted a picture of Amber's tooth to our dentist (who is also a friend from church). He was on a long bike ride (which I expected, since that's how he likes to spend Saturday mornings), but he called right away, mid-ride. He asked for a close up picture of the tooth, so I sent one and he said it looked ok enough to wait till Monday. He said her tooth would be sensitive to pressure and temperature, but she could eat and wait 2 days to come in to the dentist office. Amber and I were relieved. Our dentist told us to put the tooth fragment in some milk and bring it to the office on Monday.
It was dark and rainy on Monday. Right before I pulled into Amber's school to check her out for her dental appointment, I realized that I had left the tooth fragment at home! I glanced at the clock and did some quick calculations. If I turned back and retrieved the tooth, we would be about 10 minutes late to the appointment. Not sure how important the fragment was, I turned back and breathed through the pressure of knowing I was going to be late. It was the weirdest thing I have ever forgotten at home! I retrieved the little baggie of milk and bone, and headed back into town to pick up Amber.
At the dentist, they didn't end up being able to use the tooth fragment after all, but the peace of mind was worth being late for. I sat in the room with Amber while she was numbed and checked. Then the dentist rebuilt her tooth! I couldn't see how he did it, but an hour later, Amber's tooth looked as good as new! She was so happy to be there getting her tooth fixed that she wasn't nervous at all through the whole procedure. I think I was more nervous than Amber, because dental procedures make me anxious. I suffered from sympathetic tooth cringing the whole time we were there, haha. The worst part was when they used a little zapper to test that the tooth nerve was still alive. Ahhhhgggg, even the thought of testing a tooth nerve set me on edge!
Tooth #2: Jay had a baby tooth (second molar on the bottom left) with no adult tooth behind it. We've known about it for years, and it hasn't been a problem. Recently, however, that tooth became fused with his jaw bone and preventing his braces from moving it around. Jay's orthodontist referred him to get the tooth pulled. The appointment was for Thursday this week (Jan 11th). Back to the dentist we went! They thought the tooth might need to be drilled out (ultra cringe!) but it ended up coming out all in one piece right away, so the appointment only lasted half an hour. Jay came out to the waiting room with his mouth stuffed full of gauze and his left cheek a little saggy from the numbing agent. He was ready to go to school! "Are you sure you want to?" I asked. Jay said yes, so I dropped him off at the high school and told him to text me if he needed anything.
Two and a half hours later, I got a text message from Jay asking to be picked up from school. He couldn't change the gauze and spit out blood as frequently as he needed too while sitting in class, and the numbness had worn off. I was in the middle of doing battle with the barn floor--I had used the leaf blower to blow all the dirt out and was just beginning to figure out the new floor washer machine when he texted. I left the barn but then saw the garage: I had meant to blow out the dirty garage too! So I did that as fast as I could before leaving to pick up Jay. It was one of those mornings where I was spinning my wheels not quite accomplishing what I set out to do.
They gave Jay his tooth in a tiny plastic treasure chest-shaped box, and Jay had fun showing it to his sisters and reminiscing about the last thing he ate with that tooth: a cookie from his seminary teacher that morning. Jay spent the afternoon doing his school work and spitting in the sink regularly. The bleeding finally stopped by dinnertime, and he was good to go on Friday morning.
I have decided teeth are kind of like cars: super useful in an unobtrusive everyday way, and super inconvenient and life-interrupting when they malfunction. In the space of four days, we went to the dentist to have one tooth replaced and one tooth taken out.
Other updates: The temperature plummeted starting on Thursday evening and we had our first hard deep freeze of the winter basically overnight. Single digit temps with negative windchill and steady face-shriveling winds reminded us that it is actually winter. It was hard going from our mildest mid-30s/low-40 degree winter to this harsh unforgiving nose-biting cold. I made sure to run outside every day this week leading up to the forecasted cold so I could take some time off during the worst of the frigidity. We had to scramble to keep the plumbing in our barn from freezing, putting heaters next to the water fountain and in the bathroom. I started a list of things to remember for next year now that we are home owners again. The blissful adolescent years of renting are over forever! I'm glad, but it's taking a bit to remember all of those details that go into caring for a home in all seasons!
Jeff was home sick two days this week, and Jay was home sick one day. I started feeling a mild case of the cold they had on Saturday night, and stayed home from church on Sunday just in case I was contagious. Blah, January is so fun. It was hard to remember to take pictures this week, but I managed to get a few.
I did French braids in Rose's hair on Sunday, and it's been so long since she wore her hair all the way up like that, it brought back memories from when my Rose was a little girl, even though she's still almost a teenager.
French braids are like my only hair skill. I'm glad I have one hair skill.
I wrangled Amber's lively hair into two French braids on Monday, so she and Rose could match.
Half of the time I despair over Amber ever learning how to read music and play the piano, and the other half of the time I think maybe there's hope.
Sisters.
The tooth tragedy. Amber lost about as much of the tooth as possible without exposing the inner pulp. There's a divot in our basement stairs from the impact.
She was so calm and ready to get her tooth fixed.
As good as new! Modern dentistry is a marvel. Amber went back to school right afterwards.
Library visit: one of Amber's favorite activities.
Rose and Amber are learning a duet on the piano: BINGO. You know, B-I-NGO and Bingo was his name-o. It gets stuck in my head. Rose gets frustrated when Amber plays at an unsteady tempo and it doesn't sound quite right.
Jeff's new mug that Jay gave him for Christmas. Jeff may have had the latest version of Covid this week. We are hoping his recovery doesn't take six months like last year...he has been doing so well with his health! I really hope this doesn't destroy his progress! Thankfully it was a pretty mild sickness, so hopefully it will be a quicker full recovery.
I stacked all of the benches and workout equipment in preparation to wash the floors, but then couldn't get water into the floor scrubbing machine before Jay needed to be picked up. At least the leaf blower did an ok job of managing the dirt.
Friday morning, Jay and I had a 6am strength workout at the physical therapy clinic. Jay has made great progress over the past 6 weeks of these workouts.
I lost track of time on Friday afternoon and was late picking Amber up from school. It was extra stressful because the windchill was negative and I was so worried about my poor little girl waiting on the sidewalk for me! Thankfully our friend/piano teacher was also picking up her kids, and she let Amber sit in her car for a few minutes until I got there. Amber had hot chocolate and library books to warm up when she got home.
Even with the new mini split heater in the barn workout room, it was below freezing and the swim team workout was shortened. They piled into our basement to watch swim videos while Jeff pointed out techniques to work on. I was simultaneously happy that this fun group of teenage boys was lounged all over the place in our basement, as well as on edge because our house was full of people! Haha, that's a Shaina-issue, nothing more. These kids are great.
We won't see temperatures above freezing for another week! Bring on the epic power bills! And more teenage home invasions!
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