Brianna's teeth

Nope, I haven't fallen off the earth, I've just been busy. Brianna had some minor surgery this past Thursday and well, now that she's all better, I can talk about it.

-sigh- I feel soooooooo relieved now that this is all done with. We've been dealing with this for the longest time. My poor daughter lost her top teeth in the autumn of 2005. I remember this very, very well because she had a field trip to a pumpkin patch where they were given a corn on the cob. Her best friend's mom and I were talking about how the girls had both just lost their teeth and had a hard time with the corn. Anyway, all the other kids' teeth started coming in and I saw no progress with Brianna. I waited and waited. In the spring of 2006, I had her dentist check her again. At this check-up, he pretty much kept asking me if I hit her. I told him no but he was insistent that she had hit her teeth and they had fallen out before time. I kept telling him that I don't hit her, no one else has hit her and she has never fallen and hit her teeth. Still, I was dismissed and told to just wait. We waited longer. We moved to Arizona and I took her to a different dentist here. He also told us to just wait. Now it had been a little over a year since she'd lost her teeth. Also, it looked like the teeth were there but covered. You could actually see the outline. This guy really got under my skin. When he asked me why we were there, I explained the whole thing while he took a look at Brianna's x-rays. I thought he was listening and when I was done talking, he said "Ok, let's take a look at those teeth". Then he was surprised that the teeth weren't in even though I had just TOLD HIM! Anyway, he didn't know what to do or say and he told us to wait a month. We waited a month, I called and he said to wait another month. All this time, I was looking up all sorts of websites for some sort of information. Rodrigo and I spent soooooo much time trying to find some sort of information or answer but couldn't find anything similar. I called around to various local dentists and specialists and no one really knew what to do. I finally found one specialist who was willing to see her. As soon as he saw her, he knew what it was. I was so relieved, I started getting verklempt talking to the doctor. The teeth were in fact in but actually covered up by gums. We were given another month to try to get the teeth to cut through. At least this time, we were actually made to do something. We were numbing her gums and rubbing them each morning and night. After the month, there was only a little progress and so we were sent to an oral surgeon. Then she had to be examined there and finally had surgery on Thursday. They removed a chunk of her gums to uncover her teeth. -cringe- I couldn't sleep the night before. I kept thinking she was going to be in pain, wondering why the first dentist couldn't have just listened to me, thinking that I should have been more insistent since I knew something was wrong, wishing I could go through with the surgery instead of her . . all sorts of things. The actual procedure took only about half an hour. After she was done, they called me into the recovery room and I was shocked to see all her teeth in. The four front teeth were uncovered completely. They're not like halfway in but all there all of a sudden. So for about two days, she had some soft food and lots of ice cream. She's been smiling all weekend, poor thing. Saturday she cheered at a football game and was just all smiles the whole time. She couldn't wait to go back to school today. I'm glad she feels better and happy that this is all over with.

feeling: very, very relieved
listening to: Paolo Nutini (Last Request)