The Great Orthodontic Rubber Band Search

As you may recall Jack broke his jaw and his mouth is closed and held together with rubber bands.  So the Thursday before Christmas we were leaving town.  I could not find our bag of extra bands.  Several had already broken or fallen out and we replaced them as needed.

How bad could it be for a few days without backup?  Worse than you can imagine!  Jack had a small gap in the front of his mouth by Friday.  This meant he kept shoving small pieces of soft food through the gap to eat real food.  The small bites got bigger and bigger.  His mouth opened wider.  The gap got bigger.  More bands broke....  It was a downward spiral.  Saturday we called an "emergency" dental clinic.  They did not have and bands.  It was Saturday...clearly there were not any orthodontists with their offices open.  We called several pharmacies but nobody had any bands.  After an Internet search we discovered that nobody really sells them.  Great!

By Saturday evening he was down to just two bands.  He was shoving food in left and right.  He certainly enjoyed his grilled cheese for dinner.  He knew to stop if it hurt chewing.  Ideally I would have preferred he did not chew, however, I gave up the battle.  He already snuck some chocolate his grandparents gave him in the middle of the night.  The best I could hope for was to make sure everything was very soft.

Sunday rolled around and we called hospitals for the bands.  By my third call we discovered that the UK children's hospital had some.  Josh took Jack.  It was a bust.  They insisted on signing Jack in.  We may have been desperate, but not enough to pay for an ER visit!  So after we checked out of the hotel and hung out in the lobby Josh asked a girl in the lobby with braces if she had any extra bands.  No such luck.  Talk about desperate!!  The hotel was full of teenage girls for a basketball tournament, but when we needed to find one of the girls with braces they were suddenly nowhere to be seen (the boys did have fun flirting with them all weekend).

Sunday during dinner he finally lost his last two.  What a disaster.  On the road home Monday I called his surgeon.  I knew he was out of the country, but at least another surgeon could help us.  Boy was I wrong.

It took forever for the doctor to call us.  The answering service called me several times to see if he called us.  They gave him the message several times.  He FINALLY called as we pulled off the interstate to get home!

I tried to explain the situation.  He kept interrupting me.  I was trying to explain that pharmacies do not sell them.  He kept trying to tell me to call pharmacies.  I was not getting anywhere.  When I finally managed to mention that Jack was five years old he said "That is easy.  He does not have a driver's license or credit card.  You control what he eats."  Hello....have you ever had a five year old????  I would have to handcuff Jack to my body to guarantee he did not get any food.  At least a teenager could understand that if they ate they might have to be shut longer.  Try explaining that to a five year old.  Anyway, his final thoughts were to call pharmacies or call any teenagers we knew that I have braces.  Big help he was!

We did finally find our bag of bands after searching the house and got 8 in his mouth.  We made it through Christmas and on Wednesday I got the nurse at our surgeon's office.  Unfortunately they do not keep the bands in stock either.  Why not???  Apparently they only get them for the OR I guess.

So by Thursday I called an orthodontist and explained the situation.  They needed to know what size I needed.  I called our nurse again.  She did not know exact size so said how about medium.  So finally I get the medium bands from the orthodontist (they left them in their mailbox for me.  Not sure why they did not want me to come in).

Needless to say the medium bands are too big and loose.  We put as many in as we could.  They pop out easily and/or Jack pulls them out.  I give up!!!  He sees the surgeon in two days and we will see how it goes.  What a mess it has been.....making smoothies and milkshakes, constantly cleaning the blender, making baby type food, the great rubber band search, keeping Jack out of food.  I am so over it!!!

One lesson learned......there is a definite need for a black market for orthodontic rubber bands (though  I am not sure mist people need them as much as we did)!!

Flashback Friday - December 2009

I am just realizing I missed Friday yesterday!  I am a little messed up as to what day it is with the holidays and all!!

Christmas Eve at Oma and Opa's house!

 

 

Christmas Day

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas at home.  The boys slept in, for them anyway.  We went downstairs and of course it was present time.  Jack was initially disappointed.  He was upset he did not get something he wanted in his stocking. I had to explain that just because you put something on your wish list does not mean you will get it.  He worked hard on choosing things for his Amazon list!  Poor guy, well not really, he got plenty of things and got over the disappointment (besides, he has Christmas money from my aunt and uncle to spend)!

Oma and Opa came over for our tradition mimosa Christmas brunch.  This year I kept it simple, scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and pastries from our favorite bakery in the mountains.  Plus of course mimosas and sparkling pear juice.

The boys all loved their presents.  The favorites are Sean's LeapPad from Santa, Jack and Ewan's LeapPad games from Santa, new shoes from Mom and Dad, stuffed cats from Grandma and Grandpa and the remote control cars/trucks from Mom and Dad.  I am enjoying my new iPad from my dear sweet hubby.  I have not had too much time to play with it yet, but eventually I will find the time.  I also look forward to using my new yoga items from my parents, something to help me calm and relax.  The boys are enjoying it too since they got some drawing tools to use on it from Oma and Opa.  It must have been a popular gift though because it took a bit of time to get on the Crayola web site to download the app!!

My personal favorite gift is camp for the boys.  Oma and Opa got the boys four days of camp at the gym.  The boys are having so much fun and I am getting a few things done!!

I am now being tortured by all the post holiday sales. I did not get any gift cards so I am resisting the urge and will not get anything (especially with Jack's hospital bills coming in soon), well other than a couple things Sean and I got with Josh's Amazon gift card that he so generously shared with us.  We had some items we really needed/wanted on our wish lists and did not get them or a gift card so my dear sweet darling hubby kindly shared his. 

The boys were in camp today so I had a chance to clean everything up around the house.  Now I need to go through the toys and sort through everything.  Time for another purge, especially stuffed animals. 

Hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas!

Ready to find their presents!

 

Jack emptying his stocking.

 

Sean went for presents first instead of his stocking.

 

Checking out Sean's new shoes.

 

Ewan's and his remote control toy!

 

Jack and his new remote toy, quite excited though you can't tell from this face!

 

Ewan modeling his Christmas pjs.  I couldn't get all three boys together, imagine that!

 

Opa nodding off after brunch!!

Pre-Christmas Celebration in Ketucky

bagsalagretchen's photostream on Flickr.

We spent the long weekend in Kentucky and had fun with Josh's family. The boys enjoyed snow flurries on the way up. They had fun with their cousins. We helped Josh's brother celebrate his birthday.

Saturday we swam at the hotel, went on a train ride with Santa, found snow for a snowball fight, went to Shaker Village and out to dinner.

Sunday the boys swam again and in the afternoon we went to the ballet to see Twas the Night Before Christmas.

It was fun and hectic. I am glad to be home. More posts coming soon...Christmas and the great rubber band search!!

Flashback Friday - December 2011

Flashback Friday - December 2008

Christmas card photo (Ewan is just a couple weeks old and Jack just 13+ months)

 

 

Christmas Program 2012

This morning Jack and Ewan had their Christmas program at preschool.  Sean, Oma, Opa and I all enjoyed ourselves very much.  The girls did two dances and then all the kids sung several songs, along with a manger scene and a duet of "Silent Night". 

Afterwards we enjoyed some lunch and dessert.  Jack kept asking what he could have.  Poor guy wanted it all.  He asked to suck on a cheese puff and of course it did not work!  He finally gave in and had his chocolate peanut butter yogurt smoothie.  We packed a cupcake and put it in the freezer at home.  He has a good sized stash of Christmas goodies for when he is able to eat again!

I took some video clips and pictures, though Sean kept messing with the camera, especially the auto focus button, and pushing me while I was doing everything so needless to say the quality is not the best!!  Oh well, better than nothing.

Jack during the practice session

 

Ewan during practice

 

I see a few distracted kids in the back row!

 

Ewan singing during the program.  His position was not as good as during practice.

During the program he was usually blocked by the microphone wire or the

busy girl in front of him!

 

About half of the kids

 

Jack happy to pose with Santa!

 

Jack trying to suck on the candy cane Santa gave him

 

Ewan posing with Santa

 

 

Today Sean wanted nothing to do with Santa so no photo of him!!