Today's plan was as follows: Go to bible study. Come home and feed boys lunch. Drop boys off at their "play date" and pick up Jeff. Go to ultrasound at 2:30.
Instead, about fifteen minutes before the end of bible study one of nursery workers came in and asked me to come because Tommy was bleeding. By bleeding, she meant dripping blood from his mouth (as in, it's on his shoes). He had somehow gotten hurt on a ride along toy and at least one tooth was visibly knocked-in. We commenced a mad scramble to get stuff together, an unsuccessful attempt at transferring Nic's car seat, and a mad rush to our dentist, who thankfully is located just down the street from our church. He fit Tommy in (and didn't charge us- for which we are ever so grateful), and confirmed that his teeth looked bad and that he needed to see someone who specialized in children's dentistry. He called the office he refers to and they gave us an appointment at one. We rushed from the dentist to home to make some phone calls (my cell was dead), then went to pick up Jeff in case Tommy needed to be held during the x-ray. We swung through McD's for a shake (Tommy is on a "soft" diet now an I didn't exactly have time to make scrambled eggs) and made it to his appointment with a few minutes to spare.
The good news is that Tommy's permanent teeth aren't damaged and should come in healthy. The bad news is there is a 30% chance (really, how did the dentist come up with this number?) that he will loose 1 to 3 of his front teeth. One has been visibly moved/damaged, and the two teeth on either side of that tooth are in jeopardy as well. In the next seven to ten days we will find out if Tommy's teeth are bruised, and we will know when they turn color, anywhere from an off white to black...which means we will not be taking any pictures for our Christmas card anytime soon. After they turn color we wait another few weeks to see if gangrene sets in. If that happens then they will either do a root canal or pull the tooth/teeth. We should see signs of gangrene in four to six weeks, or right around Christmas. The perfect time for oral surgery. Best case scenario is that he avoids gangrene, he keeps his teeth and they don't change color too much (let's pray for this), most likely scenario is that he keeps his teeth but they will be discolored until they fall out when his permanent teeth move in.
I am so sad that his beautiful smile has been ruined, but, you know, it isn't the worst thing that could happen. Good thing we had that upcoming ultrasound to keep things in perspective.
Onto the ultrasound. They installed new video monitors in the last few weeks, so now there are cool flat screens on the walls. This means that I got to see a huge huge picture of my cervix. It looks great, but I wasn't losing sleep over my cervix. The baby continues to have normal measurements (arms/legs/rib cage). Since the dwarfing in SRPS is usually so dramatic Dr. M feels this is very good, but still not definitive. He said he will feel comfortable saying the baby does not have SRPS after our 20 week ultrasound, but until then it remains up in the air since dwarfing is so tricky to diagnose. I don't go back until December 7th, so we have about three weeks to wait until the next set of measurements, and then another two weeks after that until the 20 week. Still, normal is good. I will sleep well tonight.
Instead, about fifteen minutes before the end of bible study one of nursery workers came in and asked me to come because Tommy was bleeding. By bleeding, she meant dripping blood from his mouth (as in, it's on his shoes). He had somehow gotten hurt on a ride along toy and at least one tooth was visibly knocked-in. We commenced a mad scramble to get stuff together, an unsuccessful attempt at transferring Nic's car seat, and a mad rush to our dentist, who thankfully is located just down the street from our church. He fit Tommy in (and didn't charge us- for which we are ever so grateful), and confirmed that his teeth looked bad and that he needed to see someone who specialized in children's dentistry. He called the office he refers to and they gave us an appointment at one. We rushed from the dentist to home to make some phone calls (my cell was dead), then went to pick up Jeff in case Tommy needed to be held during the x-ray. We swung through McD's for a shake (Tommy is on a "soft" diet now an I didn't exactly have time to make scrambled eggs) and made it to his appointment with a few minutes to spare.
The good news is that Tommy's permanent teeth aren't damaged and should come in healthy. The bad news is there is a 30% chance (really, how did the dentist come up with this number?) that he will loose 1 to 3 of his front teeth. One has been visibly moved/damaged, and the two teeth on either side of that tooth are in jeopardy as well. In the next seven to ten days we will find out if Tommy's teeth are bruised, and we will know when they turn color, anywhere from an off white to black...which means we will not be taking any pictures for our Christmas card anytime soon. After they turn color we wait another few weeks to see if gangrene sets in. If that happens then they will either do a root canal or pull the tooth/teeth. We should see signs of gangrene in four to six weeks, or right around Christmas. The perfect time for oral surgery. Best case scenario is that he avoids gangrene, he keeps his teeth and they don't change color too much (let's pray for this), most likely scenario is that he keeps his teeth but they will be discolored until they fall out when his permanent teeth move in.
I am so sad that his beautiful smile has been ruined, but, you know, it isn't the worst thing that could happen. Good thing we had that upcoming ultrasound to keep things in perspective.
Onto the ultrasound. They installed new video monitors in the last few weeks, so now there are cool flat screens on the walls. This means that I got to see a huge huge picture of my cervix. It looks great, but I wasn't losing sleep over my cervix. The baby continues to have normal measurements (arms/legs/rib cage). Since the dwarfing in SRPS is usually so dramatic Dr. M feels this is very good, but still not definitive. He said he will feel comfortable saying the baby does not have SRPS after our 20 week ultrasound, but until then it remains up in the air since dwarfing is so tricky to diagnose. I don't go back until December 7th, so we have about three weeks to wait until the next set of measurements, and then another two weeks after that until the 20 week. Still, normal is good. I will sleep well tonight.
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4 comments:
Our power was out today and just came back on, so I rushed here to read your update. I'm glad for good news so far. Did you find out boy/girl?
Woohoo on the ultrasound! And poor Tommy:( We will be praying that he does not lose any teeth or have any complications. Big hugs.
What a crazy day! I just wanted to say, in my pregnancy with Maddy, it was first observed that something could be wrong at 14 weeks and by 17 weeks, her limbs were already 3 weeks behind. I would have thought that SRPS would have been more severe and obvious on ultrasound. I'm hoping and praying for official good news soon!
Hooray for the good ultrasound -- and I'm sorry to hear about Tommy's teeth. Meredith knocked a corner off her top front tooth (and, we later noticed, a bit off the corresponding bottom one) when she was 2. I'll be praying for no quick healing and no further complications. (They always manage to choose such excellent timing, don't they?)
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