Treat Everything Like It’s a Miracle
About 3 weeks ago we had a sudden misfortune in the family. My older boy was scheduled to have a hockey match at 08h30 in the morning. By 09h20 his two bottom teeth were on the floor, knocked out by a hockey stick.
I know, I was hoping I would wake up from a bad dream. I was not so lucky.
We were scrabbling to get him to the ER, luckily the hospital was just a few minutes away. We ran into the emergency room and it looked like everyone just got up from Sunday lunch. I asked to no-one in particular and a pitch higher than normal.
“My son’s teeth just got knocked out, is anybody going to help him? Where is the doctor?”
I’m here, she said. She asked my son to open his mouth, she took one look and winced. She said to me that they don’t have a dentist on call that morning and that she was going to make a few calls.
From the bit I googled and heard I knew that his teeth had to go back in as soon as possible. I work with some medical experts and started making a few calls. This was Saturday morning and I was just hoping that someone would pick up. One doctor did. I said doctor, I have an emergency, please can you help me. My son played hockey this morning and his two bottom teeth got knocked out.
He said don’t panic (I was trying not to), and that he was going to make a few calls and call me back asap. A minute later my phone rang. He said, Dr D is going to help you, but you have to leave now. Dr D’s rooms phoned, Michelle we’re ready for you, come as fast as you can.
It was about 25 minutes away. I looked at my son and asked, boy, can you run? We ran to the car, got in and headed to Dr D’s rooms.
When we got to Dr D’s rooms, he was waiting for us. He took one look at my son’s mouth and I could sense that this was not a sight he’s seen many times. All I knew was that we were at the right place, we have made it in good time and now it was up to the gods. The doctor worked for about an hour. The teeth were put back in place and splinted. He did the best he could he said. Only time will tell. We could not ask for more.
This morning was our first visit back to him. We greeted and he said how nice it was to see everyone a little calmer today. He got to work, took some x-rays and did his inspection. He looked up and said, “you won’t say he knocked out his teeth.”
It’s not every day that someone comes in here teeth in hand. We still have a way to go with the recovery, full recovery is not guaranteed because of the nature of the injury. All I said to myself. It’s a miracle we got to where we are now without any major hiccups. It is indeed a miracle.
The doctor asked if my son has started playing sports again and I said, we have a hockey match at 09h20. He said: “back on the horse? I like it.”
What shall we do, wither and die?
After the hockey match, which went surprisingly well considering we lost 0–1, I had to rush to the post office to renew the license disc for my car. We walked in and the lady said, “ma’am the system is faulty and I can’t guarantee that you will get your disc today, maybe you should go to another post office?”
I thought that we are here now, let’s just cross our fingers. She was serving the customer in front of me. Even though the process was slow, he eventually got his new disc.
It was my turn and I was holding my breath. She punched in some keys and after a few minutes she said, “you are very lucky.” I said I know.
I got my disk and we left. It felt like two miracles today. I am making a point of counting miracles throughout my day. You should too.
