Sunday, September 9, 2007

Owen and the E.R.

From the title of the post you might have thought that Owen liked to watch the TV show E.R. Well, not really, but he really does have a pension for visiting it. This afternoon he made his second trip and it was partly dad's (my) fault as I turned away for a second and he decided to try a face first slide down the kitchen steps. On one of the 5 steps he also thought it would be fun to try and stop himself with his teeth! Well, his two bottom (and only teeth for that matter) didn't win and they were basically bent horizontally forward. Cathy wasn't home so I ended up pretty much rushing him to the Emergency Room to see what they could do. There was a fair amount of blood too, so I was a little freaked out at that time. He was a pretty good trooper and didn't cry to much.

We didn't have to wait long and they checked him out for other injuries but it seems that he really didn't even hit his head or hurt any other bones. His teeth were another matter, the Dr. said that they would probably have to be removed as if he just bent them back into place they would adhere and grow onto his adult teeth and that wasn't good either. He had us try to contact our dentist but we couldn't get ahold of him so he talked to the dentist on call at the hospital and he said it would be best if he just yanked them out there. So back into the exam room Cathy went with Owen and he came out with a teddy bear and two less teeth for a total of zero now. They have a dentist appointement for tomorrow morning to take a look at what is left (which is nothing).

He has sure bounced back a lot better than I would be right now. He was smiling at the ER and has eaten and taken a bottle. He isn't really any worse for the wear other than no bottom teeth until his adult teeth come in. Poor guy. Oh, and I kind of feel like a deadbeat dad for not watching him.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yeah, you suck. ;)

Seriously, don't beat yourself up over it. Firstly, it could have been much worse. Secondly, it's likely that even if he'd been caught this time, he would have fallen at a later time somewhere else. I know you know all that, though.

The good thing about kids is they're resilient. That, and I doubt he'll remember this and think you're an awful father for it. ;)