Some of the Suckitude

Yes. I'm a post behind and to top it off I'm going to have a bit of a bitch about the suckitude of Down Syndrome because tonight Ellie lost a tooth and we think another one will be out soon.  The problem with this is that a) she's only 4.5; b) if it was some sort of trauma, neither Tony or I or any other caregiver knows what happened and c) she couldn't tell us about it until her mouth was oozing blood.

Earlier in the day, I noticed El's lower front  teeth looked really spacey...liked they had more space than normal between them. I made a little note to ask next time we're at the dentist and went along with the day.  Next thing we're eating dinner and El's being a turkey (usual MO) but signed her mouth hurt.  When she still didn't eat or do what Tony asked her, he looked at her and realized her mouth was bleeding.  I looked in (yuck...momma does not do teeth and mouth stuff) and saw the loose tooth much looser...off to the bathroom (easier to clean up) to check it out and have Tony try to see what's going on.  Calls to pediatrician and pediatric dentist who both think some kind of trauma to the mouth. Upon further investigation it does look like she hit the bottom of her chin then bit down on her top lip.  Of course the nurse asks, "where does she say its hurting?" And you have to explain that El doesn't really talk, that even if she did I don't think she'd be able to answer some of the questions (what happened? Where does it hurt? How does it hurt/wat kind of pain? Etc) they want to know. 

And this is the suckitude part...the not knowing or having a way to know from El about what is going on with her. You'd think that a trauma to the mouth that caused two teeth to loosen would have resulted in tears, but I don't know of anything. There have been lots of other tears, but more because we won't get her a second serving of popcorn or let her put grapes in her bowl (she's very do-it-myself right now). 

And then, because you don't know, you have to worry about all the possibilities and even make up a few. And while you wouldn't want her any other way, you want (desperately) to know she's okay or to tell you when she hurts, but the stupid DS prevents her at 4.5 years old from telling you.

And to cap off the whining, we now need to go see out dentist (who is awesome) in this super crazy busy week and try to get x-rays from a kids who doesn't know what's going on and to explain about losing teeth and just overall dealing with this when all I really wanted was for a peaceful week with no extra drama.