a day in the life of a T O U G H guy

It was just another day in the life of Caden.
Without a doubt, he is our little tough guy. We are constantly reminded of this truth.

Here were some stitches and another crash and a little {major} fracture here. A few more tears and blood are here. Have I made my point?

We knew when he was two and we made our first trip to the ER {when he split open his nose} that there were many more ER trips in his future.

Yesterday was another one of those trips.

We had just arrived at the swimming pool. Mieseau- our favorite outdoor pool. Within fifteen minutes of arriving at the pool, I looked up to see Caden in Ty's arms covered in blood.

He and Ty went down the slide at the same time. Caden said he was on his knee and with a little extra push from Ty, we think he flipped over and hit his mouth on the slide.

Ty said even with the water, crowd and kids everywhere he heard the bang and knew that he was hurt.

There were little pieces of the red fiberglass from the slide on Caden's neck and towel from the crash.

Seriously, he took chunks out of the slide. What seven-year-old does that?

I jumped up off my towel and in an attempt to remain calm started wiping the blood off to see where the source was. I realized it was his mouth, but was not prepared for how gruesome it would look. This photo is with all of the blood wiped up.... much better looking.
He said he hit his tooth on the slide. As soon as he made it down the slide, he looked over at Ty and said, "Ty, my tooth."
He definitely hurt both front teeth. Both front permanent teeth.

At a glance {without looking too closely since I had to hold it together and figure out how to get to the hospital from where we were}, his right tooth looked as though he chipped about half of it at a diagonal angle.

His left tooth looked gone and the hole where the tooth was seemed huge. The amount of blood coming out was huge.

I told the other kids to gather their things and head to the car. Ty was amazing and carried Caden.

I ran to the German lifeguards to ask for some ice. Even speaking in German, they thought I was CRAZY. There is little to no ice in Germany. Not for your drink, not for an injury.

I finally got them to give me a plastic bag and luckily had ice in our cooler to make an ice pack.

After finding the address in the GPS, we were on our way- just 15 minutes to Landstuhl and the ER. En route, I had Ty texting Jim to have him meet us there.

I had our friend texting her mom to meet us there as well {she took the other kids home and Ty to work later}. I knew we would be a while.

Both Jim and Heidi were at there shortly after we arrived. Luckily, Jim was in a class and he had arrived home from work as soon as Ty called.

We are reminded once again {especially being here in Germany} how important our good friends are to us. We are so grateful.

After a while at the ER with the doctor not sure what to do, it was decided we would go to the dental clinic.

They gave him some Tylenol and Motrin and we were on our way.

I am so grateful we happen to know one of the doctors in the dental clinic. She worked on Justin and Ty's teeth. Her husband coached them both in football.

It's not often that I use the phone-a-friend card, but we wanted to make sure there would be someone in the clinic.

The ER doctor told us they couldn't get anyone to answer the phone at the dental clinic which worried us. Little did we know- we was calling the on-call phone at 3:00 in the afternoon instead of calling the clinic DIRECTLY since it was open. Ugh.

As we left the emergency room, I received a comforting call on my cell that our friend had called the dental clinic doctor and let them know we were on our way.

She also gave the general dentist a head's up that he needed to keep the oral surgeon and pediatric dentist there so they could check him out as well.

Just knowing she and her husband both took the time out to make the calls for us meant a lot and calmed my nerves.

As soon as we arrived {a 15-minute drive from the ER}, they were ready for him. The pediatric dentist was the first to open his mouth and knew immediately that his tooth was still there. Jammed and twisted, it wasn't knocked out.

The body is amazing.

The doctors agreed that this was a good injury. Caden would be alright. In time, they expect his tooth to come down and straighten itself out. His gums should close up as well. At the worst, they think he might need a little orthodontic help on that one tooth to straighten it out.

They spent a while covering up the cracked tooth to seal the nerve and reduce his pain. We will have to get that tooth fixed as well.

As if we were not amazed enough- the most amazing part of the whole experience was Caden.

He did not shed a single tear. No crying what-so-ever.

When they asked his pain level on a 1-10 scale, he said about a 3. Of course, he was clinching his fists and grimacing as the van hit each bump on the way to the hospital.

Then, he told them when he fractured his jaw the pain was about a 4. We decided his pain scale is a 1-5 instead of a 1-10.

The doctors {all 4 that he saw} were beyond AMAZED at our little tough guy.
We heard no fewer than a dozen times how shocked they were with him holding himself together.

We are excited to see how long this little tooth takes to drop back down.