The Pipsqueak is, if nothing else, consistent. Her likes, her dislikes, her sense of self, her empathy, her willingness to help... the list goes on, and much of it is positives.
Then there's the issue of her teeth. Y'see, they don't like leaving. She didn't even start losing her baby teeth until nearly all her classmates had lost at least 2-3 of theirs, and when she loses them... well, it takes a while. They get wiggly, they get bothersome, they hang on by a thread of tissue here, a bit of gum there... until (eventually) either they come loose while she's eating, or she worries at them until they finally let go.
Well, one tooth decided to make itself a bit more memorable. It got a little loose, then it got a little looser, and then it got wiggly (over the course of 3-4 weeks). Miri worried at it with her tongue, wiggled it with her fingers... and it just continued hangin' in there...
...until a part of it came out. Yep, you read that, part of the tooth came out while the remainder stuck resolutely to its spot in her mouth. There was no pain, no blood... just part of a tooth.
And then it did it again... still leaving a chunk of itself in place (still wiggly but definitely not showing any propensity toward actually leaving).
So, after a couple of phone calls, Miri left her math class 15 minutes early this past morning and we drove to the dentist. (AJ couldn't take still more time out of an especially busy time of day for what was a concern but truly not an emergency.) AJ told me the process: park the car, then call the dental office and they would either clear us to come up (it's a very small waiting room) or give us a round figure on how long we'd have to wait & then call us when it was OK for us to come in.
There was a minor glitch when AJ called me (just as I was tying my shoes) to let me know the dentist's office had just called her to say they were running about 15 minutes late, but that just made it easier or Miri to pack up all her school stuff -- necessary because she was going to complete the day at Grandma & Grandpa's while Yours Truly did a shopping safari before taking her to dance in the afternoon. Ironically, her dentist is in the same building as her dance studio.... but she still had PE and Digital Literacy and at least one more class to complete in the afternoon for school, so I'd have to drive her back & forth.
We got there in plenty of time, since I've finally begun to remember to turn off on the road that leads almost directly to the building instead of driving aaaallll the way up to the main road and then taking that back down toward the correct area... and despite the horrible Bluetooth connection between my phone and my car were able to hear the receptionist tell us it would be a few more minutes.
We sat in the car (A/C running because it was so warm & humid) only to see the director o the dance studio drive by. She waved, then parked & walked back to the car and greeted us with a cheerful, "Did I miss a memo or something?" I explained we were waiting for the dentist to call us up, and were invitied to come inside & wait in the comfort of the air-conditioned studio's couch. Of course, the moment we crossed the threshold of the building, my phone rang -- the dentist was ready to see Miri.
I sat & futzed around on my phone (after one of the techs checked both our temperatures) while Miri answered a bunch of health questions & then bravely went back into the next room on her own. She had said (several times) that her only concern was having to gargle with some kind of disinfecting solution that she said tasted really, really bad, but it was obvious she was nervous about the whole idea of possibly needing a tooth extraction or more. (Runs in the family; I'm one of those people who holds death and dentistry in near-equal status on the fear scale.)
Less than 15 minutes later, she was back out, puffy cheeked and a little red-faced, with the dentist exclaiming, "She's a champ!" Apparently Miri had turned down a Novocaine injection and the dentist had simply done the extraction with a topical anesthetic... which, of course, didn't quite stop all the pain but had the unpleasant side effect of having the poor kid drooling into her mask.
I was a little concerned on the way back to the car because Miri communicated (barely -- it's hard to talk when you have a mouthful of gauze and cannot feel your lips or tongue) that she was beginning to feel increasingly sore, and I tried to keep an eye on her during the drive to Mom & Dad's (she's still too short to sit in the front seat). After a few abortive attempts at talking -- and a quick "I NEED TO SPIT!" that had me hand her a plastic bag followed by a muffled, "thnkyoo" -- she just sat quietly, just giving me a silent thumbs-up when I asked how she was doing.
That said, my concern vanished just before we reached Mom & Dad's neighborhood; MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" came on the radio and my niece began loudly singing along and dancing to the music. (Both very admirable feats when one has a numb mouth full of gauze and is wearing a seat belt while seated in a moving vehicle.)
By the time the school day was over, Miri was back to her usual self, speaking clearly and more worried about homework or what the plans were for the weekend than about her tooth.
And the tooth...? The dentist put it in a little plastic box so Miri can collect from the Tooth Fairy. :-)
PS -- I did it again. Nineteen years later, I again told myself, "You'll be okay watching" and brought up a few of the 9/11 videos on YouTube. Did not go well. (Thus the 4:20am publication of this post.) Do not let your anger & anguish turn to fear or hatred -- but never forget.
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