A month ago our boy Bronson had a horrible accident. What happened was, he hit his mouth on the wood frame of an ottoman. It was seriously less than a foot tall. The lid was resting on the edge of the ottoman and Bronson was sliding on it like a slide. He was on his tummy when the lid slipped off of the edge of the ottoman and his mouth went straight into the wood frame of the ottoman. It pushed his front teeth back, knocked out a baby tooth, loosened another baby tooth, and ended up with 11 stitches in his lip. Here's the long story:
We were at Ryan's brother Jason's house in Springville. The kids were downstairs playing, as usual, when we heard someone crying loudly. It didn't sound like either of my kids, so we sat and waited a second. Then a horrible screaming cry again, my stomach sank as I realized that it was Bronson. I ran and met him at the stairs. He was holding his hands under his mouth and they were full of blood. I grabbed him and put my hand under his and my hand filled up with blood. I yelled for Ryan and we took him to the sink. His lip was bleeding so badly that it was hard to tell how bad the injury was. We got the bleeding stopped somewhat, but he couldn't stop crying and shaking, I mean his whole body was just shaking in pain. We lifted his top lip to see that his 2 front permanent teeth were angled back into his mouth and behind his bottom teeth. It instantly made me sick to my stomach. His gums above his teeth were a dark purple and protruding out somewhat. Mind you, he only got these 2 teeth in 2 or 3 months ago. They are brand new, and he had been toothless for close to 2 years from his baby tooth getting knocked out (after being hit 5 different times). This kid has a magnet drawn to his front teeth to be hit! I was panicking and Ryan was very calm. I tried calling our dentists after hours number a couple of times, with no response. We figured his lip would need stitches so we decided to take him to the Emergency Room. We left Mazzy at the house with Jason and Sarah. The ride there seemed to take forever! I was sitting in the backseat with Brons and trying to hold his body, because he was still just shaking and crying so badly from the pain.
At the ER they took a look at his lip and told us that he would most definitely need stitches. They also said his teeth would need to be set back in place. I didn't want them to touch his teeth until I heard from our dentist. Our dentist finally called me, he was on the phone with me and the ER Dr. at the same time. He told me that the Dr. sounded like he knew what he was doing and to go ahead and let them set his teeth back and that they would splint them afterwards to keep them from moving or falling out. He also said that he wanted to see him tomorrow for xrays to see what sort of damage was done to the teeth. It sounded like the Dr. was going to be starting quickly so we called Jason and Sarah and asked them to bring Mazzy in about 40 min. so that we could just leave from there instead of driving back into Springville. Well, the Dr. got hung up with a critical patient and by the time they brought Mazzy to us, we still hadn't seen the Dr. By this time, Bronson had calmed down and his pain had lifted, miraculously. So he was being so good laying on the bed. We talked to him and told them some of the things that were going to happen. I told him that the shots would probably hurt, but that it would numb everything so that it wouldn't hurt when they stitched his lip back up. He was being SO brave.
Finally the Dr. and nurse came in to start, 2 1/2 hours later. They wrapped him up in a sheet to strap him down to the bed. He wanted Dad to hold his hand. They made it so his little hand was sticking out for Ryan to hold. It was so sad, he was so scared but he was being so good and so brave, he didn't protest or cry. They covered his face with a a sheet of something also so all you could see was his mouth. The Dr. decided to do a numbing block down off of both sides of the chin. He also had to numb the 2 front teeth. Sounds easy enough, right? He began with the shots for his front teeth. He had to run them up inside his upper lip and gums off of both sides of his teeth, so 2 horrible shots, that took FOREVER to run all of the novacaine in. He was just crying so hard because it hurt so much! By then Mazzy was crying because she was scared for her little brother and I knew that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. I told her that I would take her out as soon as they were finished with the shots and just not to watch until then. They started on the nerve block which those 2 shots were ran down inside the mouth down into his chin area. HORRIBLE!!!! I have never heard my boy cry like that EVER! As soon as he finished with those shots he immediately started sewing up his lip. The first stitch Bronson just SCREAMED and his legs came up in the air. My stomach sank because I knew he wasn't all the way numb. I asked if the Dr. thought he should numb it a little more and so he gave him another shot down into his chin. We know he felt the first 3 stitches for sure, and after that I think Brons was just so scared, he just kept crying and saying OW, OW, OW. I had taken Mazzy out of the room and everywhere we went we could just hear him in there crying and saying OW!! It was literally breaking my heart! It took 20 minutes to sew his lip up. 11 stitches! When they finished with that I poked my head in to see what was going on and they were getting ready to set his teeth back in to place. I knew this was going to be really painful, and poor Ryan was just so flushed looking. I took Mazzy to get a drink which was down the hall, around a corner and in a room. We were pretty far from the room Bronson was in and I still heard Bronson SCREAM when they set his teeth. By then my eyes were filling up with tears, and I just had to keep telling myself that I couldn't fall apart in front of Mazzy, she was upset enough. So I kept it together the best I could. We headed straight back for the room because I knew it was over. When I got in there, Ryan was crouched down on the floor still holding Bronson's hand and was REALLY flushed. He said that it was so intense that he (Ryan) almost passed out twice.
I went over to my sweet little boy, still wrapped and strapped and held his little face in my hands and cried and told him how much I loved him and how sorry I was that it hurt so bad and how brave and good he was and that it was all over. His little eyes were just glazed over and I could tell it was hard for him to focus I'm pretty sure he was in shock. I told him just to close his eyes and rest and that the worst was over. He was so clammy. We had to wait about 20 more minutes for the Dr. to come back in and splint his teeth. After the Dr. splinted his teeth they undone his wrap and let him sit up. After a couple of minutes he got really sick to his stomach, I thought for sure he was going to throw up, but I hurried and laid him back down on his side and that seemed to ease it. They gave us all the discharge papers and an antibiotic for his lip, so that it didn't get infection in it and nothing else. I asked them if we could get some pain medicine and they told me he would be fine until we got home to give him some motrin! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I asked again, and they said, he will be numb until you get home to give him something and that I should just alternate the motrin and tylenol, just like you do with a fever. We packed up and got the kids settled in the jeep. Both of them fell asleep almost instantly and that is when I could hold it in no longer! I SOBBED the whole way home! I have never felt that helpless and horrible in my whole life! I kept going through the whole ordeal and thinking, you should have had them sedate him, or gas him, why didn't you do this, why didn't you do that! I was totally beating myself up, because it was such a painful, traumatic experience for Bronson.
When we got home, I immediately got the motrin out and got some in him. We got Mazzy to bed and decided that Bronson would sleep in our bed with me and Ry would sleep on the couch. While we were getting him situated he asked "Dad, will you give me a blessing?" (Bronson has never asked that before.) Ryan said yes and asked him what he wanted Heavenly Father to bless him with. Brons said, that I won't hurt. Ry asked him if he had faith that Heavenly Father would help him. Bronson shook his head yes. So Ryan gave him a blessing, and blessed him that he wouldn't be in any pain and that everything would be alright. That kid never moved all night, only for me to wake him every 4 hours with motrin and tylenol. When he woke up the next morning he looked like a monkey. His lips and face were SO swollen! But, he said he didn't hurt, I couldn't believe it! I knew it was a tender mercy of our Heavenly Father!
We took him up to the dentist and he took the xrays of his teeth and put 2 little braces on them to try and steady them in place. He told us that the roots were completely broken off and that all the bones up in his gums and under his nose, where the teeth connect, were busted and shattered. Come to find out the ER Dr. only numbed the outer sides of his teeth, he felt the brunt of them setting his teeth! OUCH!! I honestly can't believe the poor little guy didn't pass out. And so the bad news continued. His teeth only have a 50/50 chance of making it. His teeth are so new that the bones and roots are soft. So if the teeth start to die, they can't do anything to save them, no root canals, because the bone is too soft. The only good news is because they are soft, there's a 50 percent chance that the roots might grow back and reattach. We had to be extremely careful for 2 weeks not to bump, touch, or move his teeth, which meant that we couldn't even brush them, no school for a little while. He wanted to see him again in 3 to 4 weeks for more xrays.
The school was wonderful to work with us! They just let us keep him home and do his school work here.
The stitches in his lip were supposed to dissolve in 3 to 5 days, and of course they didn't. We ended up having to have Ry's brother Curtis (who is an RN) take them out 11 days later. Thank you Curtis for being such a great Uncle and for being so sweet to take those out for us!
The 3 1/2 week check up with the dentist currently just happened last week. He had the xrays and to no avail, everything is still exactly the same. But at least it's not worse. Because this process of either healing or the teeth dying is going to take so long, we have to close our eyes and let him be a kid! Which is really hard to do! But all we can do is pray and hope for the best! So he's back out at recess and P.E. He fully understands though, that he needs to be careful and smart about the things he does.
So needless to say we have a LONG road ahead of us. This could take months and months. He has to go back to the dentist monthly and once the damage is healed, then they can shock his teeth to see whether they are a live or not. I'm still in awe of how many people have been praying for our Bronson! I have seen so many sweet tender mercies of the Lord through this past month! I am so grateful to all of our family and friends who have been so supportive and loving through this time! Thank for all of your prayers and fasts! We can truly feel those prayers! It's been a tough few months since Ryan was laid off of work in August. To add trauma in the midst of that, I can't believe I'm not in a straight jacket! I'm so grateful Ryan's found a job, now if we can just make it through his training, we'll be doing great! Thanks to all who have supported, loved and prayed for us during all of our trials, we love you all so much!
