First Teeth Scare

This story starts out with a very worried mother, but all turns out well in the end:

One of my greatest worries with having a child with a heart condition is he/she getting a mouth problem. Oral hygiene and heart health are very much related.

Two weeks ago Eli took a big fall, and the inside of his mouth was a scarpped up. It looked like it was healing well, so I didn't worry too much.

We came to Alabama a week later, and for the first few days of the visit Eli didn't eat very much. He was crabby and started running a fever. I took a quick look in his mouth one afternoon and to my horror saw his gumline inflamed and red. I had all these horrible thoughts come rushing into my mind: "He's has an ifection!" and "We are going to be in the hospital for day!" and "We don't know anybody around here, how are we going to know what to do?!"

My mom said that she knew a dentist in town who would take a look. Phew! I was grateful that he said he'd take a quick peak to help us know what to do. (Oh, did I mention this is at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Friday?!) While getting things quickly together I started to cry. Beinging in a new area, plus worry of this little 2 year old's health, took it's tool on my very tired mind.

The cute southern drawled dentist opened his office just for us, and sat down and took a look. He seemed concered at first, but with some further looks he relaxed. "Gums do this when children are teething. His fall and this gumline are not connected." Wave after wave after wave of relief flooded my body.

Two hours after that visit Eli's fever broke and he started eating again. Isn't that the way it always goes?