To the ER We Go, Part Two, Different Child and Dear Money Gods/Stress Gods

Dear Money Gods,

Seriously?  Really? 

!#$%&*,

Me.


So I just looked down at my hand and there's a random bite mark on it.  I swear I bit my own hand and don't even remember it.  And that's the weird news of the day.  Stress.  It makes me do weird things.

Anyway, so yesterday morning I had a family portrait session (urban) in the morning.  It went great, had fun, cute pics.  I came home around noon, grabbed a quick nap, did some post-processing, then got ready for my afternoon session (urban senior portraits).  On the way to the senior session, around 3:30, I get a call from my son Zane (14) saying half his tooth is broken off and his lip is cut.  I tell my client that I have an emergency, apologize (they were very gracious) and turned around to get Zane from his friend's house.

At first glance, all I could see was blood and swelling.  The sight of the tooth kinda shocked me; it really was half gone.  My brain couldn't wrap itself around that concept.  I took Zane home and took a closer look. 

That's when I started to freak out.  It was BAD.  I could tell the cut in the lip had gone all the way through from the inside of his mouth.  My first concern was that the missing half-tooth was embedded in the lip (which was the size of Manhattan), since it couldn't be found at his friend's house.  My second concern was that the tooth wasn't going to survive the trauma.

I called my bff, Amy (who's a dental hygienist) and had her come see.  She said the fracture was clean and about a millimeter below the pulp (good thing), but that he was definitely going to need a crown at some point (bad thing).  Amy called her bro-in-law who's a dentist and described the incident and how the tooth looked.  I took a photo of it with my macro lens and emailed it to him.  Then I called the father of the boy who slammed my son's face onto the back of a wooden chair hard enough to cause that much damage.  (I'm not saying that to be blaming; it's just the fact of the matter).

I like this family very much.  They were very apologetic and the dad's dad happens to be a dentist and later it was arranged for us to meet him at his office in Mesa.  He put dental cement on the end of the tooth.  Zane visibly relaxed once it was in place; the air hitting the tooth had been killing him with pain.  Doc (who seems really wonderful) x-rayed the tooth and the lip to make sure the missing piece wasn't embedded in the lip; it wasn't.  We will go back this week (if the lip swelling ever goes down...it's HUGE and unrecognizable) for a temporary build on the tooth. If the remaining tooth lives, we can wait 'til Zane's 18 for a crown. If the tooth dies, we do a root canal and get a crown now.  Either way, I'm stressed out.  Zane's stressed out.  He can hardly eat or drink from the pain. 

I'm so far behind on work that I don't even know where to start.  I have an engagement album to design and order (to be used as a wedding guest book); engagement annoucements to design and order; a session to edit and get online; another session to get online; a session to reschedule; more sessions coming up next week, at least 2 and maybe more doctor's appointments this week.  Gah!

Dear Stress Gods,

!#$%&* to you, too.

Sincerely,

Me.