Joshua had a very big day today! Although, I am confident he did not enjoy it. Soon he will, though.
In the late spring/early summer of 2012 we had received some photos of Joshua eating chocolate. As I devoured every pixel of those photos, I came to a sad conclusion. He had noticeable dental decay. Not an unusual thing for adoptees, but still not fun stuff.
So, we knew that he would need some dental work when he came home.
How much dental work brought tears to my eyes and nausea to my stomach the first night we brushed his teeth. It was far worse than we had thought. I could tell right off the bat the at least 4 of the molars had significant decay and the top front teeth did as well. It broke my heart.
Once we got home we found out the extent of the damage and the very high cost of repair. I spent weeks going from Pediatric Dentist to Pediatric Dentist trying to find someone who would work with us both on the cost of the surgery and one who would not require the thousands of dollars they were quoting us up front. Thanks to our *wonderfully slow* dental insurance, this took some time.
The Lord graciously led us to the dental college connected to a hospital located an hours south of us...and today Joshua had all of his teeth taken care of under general anesthesia.
God was so gracious to us and to Joshua. Going in we knew he needed 14 teeth worked on (yes, 14...he only has few more than that in his whole mouth!). The worst case scenario, which is what they really thought would become reality, was that they would have to extract 10 of those 14. 6 of them were front teeth. The top four, if extracted, would require a fixed denture. The extracted molars would need spacers. The dentist brought me a sample of the denture he would eventually get to approve it prior to surgery.
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| Licking at a popsicle for the first time in months! He can finally have some sweets again! |
We were praying steadfastly that the Lord would spare as many teeth in Joshua's mouth as possible...especially all of the front teeth.
And do you know what our Awesome God did???
That's right...he spared all of the front teeth! And not only that, but only 2 molars had to be extracted. So of the 10 they thought they would have to extract...8 are still in his mouth tonight!
Joshua was such a trooper today. He's done so well recovering. He's been drinking and eating soft food, napping, and snuggling with his mama. When the doctor called the second time tonight to check on him, she was amazed that he hadn't hit the 'cranky' phase yet. Nope. He was calm and content watching movies on my lap.
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| Zonked out! |
Can you believe the only things he complained about were his new casts from Monday and that Lily was sitting too close to him?
Praising God for a precious answer to prayer!
In Him,
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