out of my element

shortly after dinner last night one of our nurses came looking for the key to open our dental clinic because a person had fallen and their teeth were "broken into their face". we couldn't find the right key so off we went looking for who we thought had it. i went into the birthing center expecting to see an adult, but it was a little six year old boy whose front teeth were smashed and his lower teeth were all displaced and possibly his jaw also broken.

just a little sidenote - anything to do with injuries in the mouth totally gross me out!!

the dentist showed up and began to evaluate his injuries. she started to numb his mouth and he began to flail all over no matter how many people were attempting to hold him. so i offered to start an IV and give him some pain medicine and hopefully sedate him enough that she could get his mouth numb. of course doing anything such as that made me extremely nervous because of his injuries in his mouth and the fact that we could lose his airway. we have a pediatric nurse on this trip which it was great to have her there to help!! we were able to get him somewhat comfortable. our dentist dr. lawrence worked at removing his front teeth that were completely misplaced and pulling his baby teeth that were also crushed. (we found out that he had fallen forward going up stairs- ouch!!) so i ended up holding his arms and eventually even trying to help hold his tongue in place. let me tell you that whole experience was completely out of my element. i felt like many other must when they watch babies be born and can't handle it. i had to do deep breathing to be sure i didn't lose it!! over and over dr. lawrence tried to tie his lower teeth that were misplaced to the ones that were still intact and over and over it didn't work because we didn't have the right suture. she finally replaced his two front teeth. so really that is all he has in the front.

this little guy is stevenson. the dentist wasn't able to do all she wanted because she didn't have the right suture. so we have to send him to another hospital tomorrow. that is always a challenge due to money, but there is a group here who are all going to help get some money to pay the bill, that is if we can find someone who can do what needs to be done.

later this morning stevenson's mom said he was asking about the toys we told him we would give him while we were trying to get him to lay still. so really he is doing amazingly well and i had better go deliver a toy!!