What a Difference a Day Makes

God has shown His loving kindness to our family yet again today. If you're aware of the series of events our family has experienced in the past year or so, you're probably starting to catch on to the recurring theme of His faithfulness.

Our day started with the oral surgeon and his staff arriving to the office much too early on a Friday morning so he could get Cole's procedure worked into an already busy schedule. The whole surgery took only about 20 minutes and included removing one tooth, cleaning the socket of tiny fragments of fractured bone, placing synthetic bone graft material into each of the three tooth sockets, and restoring the gum tissue back to its normal anatomic position. In looking at the finished product, my untrained eyes think he did a most excellent job!

An "after" picture is included at the very end of the post, so if you are squeamish and don't want to see it, you can read the post without having to see the image. It's really such an improvement from what his mouth looked like on day one, you may want to see for yourself.

The hardest part of the day was coming off the anesthesia and driving back home. Cole was chilled and was shaking, trying to communicate with a mouthful of gauze that the pain was unbearable. A very different experience from when his big sisters had their wisdom teeth pulled. I tried to reassure him all the way home that we were almost there, but it was the longest ten-minute ride of our lives. Things have steadily improved since that point. He was able to sleep for a few hours after the first pain pill started taking effect, and he woke up with a healthy appetite and cheerful attitude.

Shelby says her biggest disappointment is that he's not funny. She was hoping he would be silly and loopy and say ridiculous things he wouldn't remember later.

To sum up: excellent surgical result, rough start to pain control, but otherwise a pretty good day. We continue to credit our heavenly Father with having protected Cole from potentially a much worse injury, for arranging the circumstances to provide him with excellent medical care, and for the prayers and encouragement of so many friends.

Another interesting thing is how many people have approached us to share their story and let us in on the secret that they are wearing one or more prosthetic teeth. Who knew?