The Story of the Mouth

Sunday May 6 is now a day to remember for me. The incidents that took place have permanent effects and they will forever remind me of my experience on that day. It started out great with Brittany and I attending Sandals and then teaching the Kindergarten class during the second service. After that we rushed off to our apartment and finished some last minute cleaning so that we could move out. We made the place look great and didn't get any fines or damage charges.

Around 6 o'clock we went over to Kevin Callister's inlaw's house. They were having a little get together to see his son and hang out with some friends. We cooked up some chicken, sausages and veggies-then had a great time eating to our hearts desire. Later we got in the hot tub and relaxed for a bit. As the clock approached 9, Britt and I figured it would be time to head home seeing as we both had work the next morning. So she went up to see skyler one last time before we left. Since I was out of the hot tub and now waiting for Britt, I decided to hop around on the trampoline for a little while.

It had been a while since the last time I had been on one. After a couple minutes of boucing around I gathered up the courage to do a flip. So I did the flip and made the whole rotation...plus a little too much. I landed leaning forward at a 45 degree angle or so. Normally the trampoline springs you up, but if you're leaning forward it obviously shoots you forward. This is what I did and my face was propelled right into the metal bar and springs around the edge of the trampoline.
I tumbled off the edge, but my pride and manliness popped me right back up. I even climbed back on the trampoline (oblivious to the blood trail I was leaving). I climbed off the other side when I noticed the moisture in my mouth and felt the missing tooth with my tongue. I then proceeded to the bathroom and shut the door. As if the guys who had just seen me fall were going to stay outside and wait for me to come back out.

Within seconds there was chaos at the house. Looking in the mirror I could see (through all the blood) that I had chipped 3 or 4 of my top teeth, seriously bent my bottom middle two and lost the one next to them. We then began attempting to stop the bleeding with napkins, towels, ice and any other means in the area. After 15 minutes the bleeding started to slow. Meanwhile, there is a search party outside trying to find my tooth in the grass. As I was sitting in the bathroom holding my busted mouth, Brittany is freaking out trying to find out what to do. She called my parents who were able to get ahold of a family friend who is a dentist. We were told that if the tooth is found, I need to stick it back in. STICK IT BACK IN???? YES!

After 45 minutes of searching, and God's grace, the tooth was found. Brittany then kicked everyone out of the bathroom and told me that I had better shove that tooth back in its hole or else. I didn't know what the or else meant, but I knew she was serious. It took me a little while to find the cavity, but eventually I did and began to "place" my tooth back in its home. All I can say is that it wasn't a pleasant experience and I was only able to get it in halfway.

Soon after we left to go to the emergency room. Thankfully we only had to wait for a few minutes before being called in for the first consultation. They took a couple looks at it, took my blood pressure and then had me go back out to the waiting room. At some point Brittany informed me that the tooth needed to be in place all the way or else the tooth would begin to decay or die. So, I went into the bathroom, man'd it up and shoved that tooth back into the hole until I felt/heard a noise and had an excruciating pain/shiver throughout my entire body. I then walked back out to the waiting room feeling proud in my manhood. Pretty funny, seeing that I have 4 chipped teeth, 3 bent ones, a chopped lip and I'm holding a bloody ice pack to my mouth.

Not much later, we get called back into a room and the doc checks me out. He gives me a couple shots in my lip and then begins to stitch me up with 12 stitches-7 on the outside and 5 on the inside. I was trying to ignore it all, so I don't really know how long that process took. He had to pick some metal out of my lip, so that may have prolonged it a little bit. Before leaving we got prescriptions for antibiotics and pain killers. By the time we got home it was almost 2 am.

Regretfully, we were too worked up during the whole event to take any pictures. However I do a few pics of before and after the dentist.


The chipped teeth and stitches


The lip and crooked teeth


A keepsake the trampoline let me have (look on the bottom left side of my mouth)


The new grill

For those of you that prayed for me, thank you. God heard your prayers and has provided much healing. I am blessed to be in the condition I am in. Even though it was an accident, things could have been so much worse. I am thankful to serve a God who takes care of his children.