2022--The Year of Wisdom Teeth

     So I had no intentions of having 3 kids get their wisdom teeth out in a 3 month time period but here I am.  Ethan is now 20 and was going to be home for several months so I decided to just get his out this past April before his internship with Intel began in May.  He only had 3 wisdom teeth so no big deal.  Well, my poor Ethan is a bleeder and I had one of the scariest few minutes ever with him after his surgery.  We were about a mile away from our home when I looked over at him in the passenger seat.  He looked at me and BLOOD, LOTS of it, rolled out of his mouth and down his chin and all over his chesr/shirt.  I was seriously panicked for about 2 minutes (that felt like an eternity).  I contemplated just heading to an Urgent Care but decided to get him home to see what I could do.  And the poor guy just kept asking me over and over again, "Mom...is this my fault?  Is this my fault???" BROKE.MY.MOMMA.HEART.💔. Well, after getting him home and Max helping me get him inside and settled in my bed, we got the bleeding to stop.  He did have to change his shirt and I brought over a small trash can for him to spit blood into (so he wouldn't swallow it and make himself sicker).  I had to go get his medicine and Max was begging me NOT to leave him there to watch Ethan alone--he was more scared than I was.  But I assured him he would be fine and that I wouldn't be gone long--and everything was fine from that point forward.  Ethan actually healed very well with no infections/dry sockets and very little swelling.  This was the only pic I took of the event that I called, "The Murder Scene": (the dark liquid in the trash can is about 2 inches of blood/saliva).

    So by June I was still not 100% over the trauma of Ethan--(even though I know it all ended well, the image of the blood running down his chin and all over his chest and shirt is forever burned into my memory)--I took Tatum to get her braces off on June 27th--a very happy day.  But I was informed that based on her X-ray that they had just taken, she needed her wisdom teeth out BEFORE then end of this year or they would mess everything up that we had just fixed.  So I called up the "Wisdom Teeth Guys" once again to make an appointment for her before school started up and I just asked them if they had a second appointment open on the same day/time, and they did.  So I scooped up that appointment as well.  Just figured we would get this all done in one trip.  Chris took the day off to help me with Tatum & Max.  Tatum (Chris likes to call her "Wednesday Addams) watched the entire process of the IV going into her arm and was just as calm as could be.  Max was a bit more dramatic (shocking I know😂) but he did really well afterwards.  1.5 hours later, we walked out of the office with 2 kids and 8 less teeth!  We knew Max would be a riot coming out of surgery.  After telling all the nurses repeatedly how much he loved them and pretending to be on a roller coaster as he was rolled down the handicap ramp in a wheelchair, we got these highlights on video: ("Brielle" is his girlfriend)

Throwing "Gang Signs..."😎

    Tatum had read somewhere that if you drank a lot of pineapple juice BEFORE the surgery, you wouldn't swell very badly.  They both chugged a gallon and a half of the stuff and discovered, IT'S A LIE!!!😂. They both swelled up pretty badly (MAYBE it would have been worse?!?!)  But Tatum is pretty mad because she did NOT like the pineapple juice but forced herself to drink it for no apparent reason...

    Well now that we're on day 6, I think we can finally say we're almost back to normal.  4 kids DONE with braces AND wisdom teeth.  Now those are some HUGE accomplishments.  High five mom and dad👊😅😂