Friday, August 22 - Saturday, August 23
Friday, Lucia babysat all day (her final stint), while I worked from home and Greta organized some school supplies. In the afternoon, a friend of Greta's who wasn't able to come to the bedazzling party tonight came over to bedazzle her spikes. When Andrew got home from CA around 5, we finished setting up the basement, and soon ten Upper School runners and three Middle School runners arrived with spikes in hand.
They were all very focused on bedazzling. I'd gotten fifteen vials of glue and lots of gems, so there were plenty of supplies to go around. The kids' shoes all look very sparkly and cute. We ordered some pizzas for the group. One of Greta's friends had brought a beautiful taro cake for the Middle School crew. Once Greta's friends left, Andrew set up the fire pit and the older girls came outside.
Here, the party took a turn. The girls were all having fun outside, swinging on the saucer swings, chatting, hanging out. I brought out a platter with s'more fixings and headed back inside. Then, I heard the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the ground, and the girls erupted in shouts of horror. I was halfway up to the porch and ran back down, full of dread. And the poor soul who fell was my own child, Lucia, who had simply tripped over some old landscaping lighting and fallen, hard, onto the stone patio. So hard, in fact, that she chipped her front tooth. A big chip.
I ushered her inside. She was crying a little, but mostly she was shocked and horrified: "My tooth!" she kept saying, her eyes wide, nearly panicking. "My tooth!" I took her by the shoulders and reassured her that this was fixable, that we would get it fixed tomorrow, that she was lucky she hadn't hit her head etc etc.
Somehow, this resilient teen rallied. After she held some ice to her swollen lip (her tooth had hit it) and cleaned up a bloody knee, she rejoined her friends and the party continued, with more bedazzling and then a sleepover. Andrew went outside and found the tooth chip, which we put into a ziplock baggie.
We couldn't believe what had happened, and we also didn't know how we were actually going to get this fixed as we'd promised. Andrew wanted to wait until Monday, when we could connect with her regular dentist, but Lucia was adamant that she was not going to go to school on Monday--her first day of sophomore year--with a chipped tooth. She said she has the funniest friends and she wouldn't be able to not smile or laugh all day, revealing the tooth. I called a dental chain that advertised emergency dental services, and the rep told me a branch had walk-ins available on Saturday mornings.
So, early Saturday morning, Lucia crept out of the basement, where her friends were asleep, and she and Andrew drove to Monroeville to see a dentist. Alas, they were turned away; apparently they accept walk-ins in theory, but they had no availability for walk-ins that day. I began calling and leaving messages with every dentist we knew in Pittsburgh--hers, ours, another one I'd seen recently. Andrew's college friend's brother is a dentist in Greensburg but was out of town; the childrens' hospital ER would look at her if we came, but if it wasn't an emergency they wouldn't do anything and we'd likely be there for hours; a cash-only dentist I found while googling "emergency dentist Pittsburgh" had an appointment available, but we google-streetviewed the office and could not fathom sending her there.
Of course, our very first text had been to my parents and Marian and Dale, who kindly provided some referrals for Connellsville dentists. And, as Andrew says, the Connellsville mafia churned into action. We called one of the dentists, who agreed to fit Lucia in. Lucia and I drove to Connellsville, where an x-ray confirmed no root damage, and by 2pm she had a beautifully bonded new front tooth and, once again, a perfect smile. The dentist and I chatted about some stained glass Dad had created for him one thousand years ago.
After a visit with Mom and Dad (Mom made Lucia some scrambled eggs, since she hadn't eaten all day), we headed home, and went to the pool, resuming an ordinary weekend.
What a freak accident. Lucia handled it all with poise and grit. She refused novocaine and just got through it. (I had to leave the exam room, afraid I'd faint. It was bad enough listening from the waiting room.)
Point of interest: Greta also has a bonded front tooth. In first grade, a boy on the playground at school pushed her, and she chipped a front tooth on the blacktop. It was a much smaller chip than Lucia's, but still. My poor babies.
Lucia, understanding that we'd had a variety of assistance in getting her the dental appointment, and also grasping the twisty connections of a small town, asked if everyone in Connellsville now knew about her tooth. The answer is yes.
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