The X-Ray Results

After I cracked my chin open the 3rd time I got an x-ray just to make sure that nothing was broken. I remember sitting in Dr. Heiston's (I have no idea how to spell his name. I only know he stitched my chin up 3 times and gave me penicillin shots in my rump all the time and that I got ice cream after I went to see him) office on the thin Dr. bed paper waiting for him to come back with the x-ray. I thought it was totally freaky that I was going to get to see my face without skin on it.
He came back in and told my mom that I had no broken bones but had some really deeply rooted teeth. As he looked at the x-ray he realized that the deeply rooted teeth were really an incomplete THIRD set of teeth.
I'm basically a shark.

(Sharen, you might not want to read this part...it involved the dentist)
I didn't lose all my teeth until I was 15 because I had to lose all my baby teeth, and a good chunk of my 1st set of adult teeth.
I remember one of them wouldn't come out so the dentist used his little picky thing and was yanking and yanking on it. When it finally came out it flew across the room and shattered against the wall.

(Ok, Sharen you can read again)
The Dr. told mom that I had to be really careful about hitting my chin area because the roots went down to my jawline. He said if I hit my chin just right, and he's surprised it hadn't happened these past few times, my jaw would basically start to shatter from ear to ear because of the roots compromising the strength of my jawbone.
Talk about bad news for a kid that catches herself with her face instead of her hands.

In 4th grade our gym teacher had the brilliant idea to play Crack the Whip in gym. I was on the tip of the whip and when I was whipped off I fell down and skidded across the gym floor on my chin. I didn't crack it open but there a good chunk of skin missing. Mom came to school with me the next day and I heard her yelling at the gym teacher in the principals office. This wouldn't be the last time I heard mom screaming in the principals office defending me.

In 5th grade I was playing 4 Square with some friends (before they stopped being my friends and accused me of being a lesbian because I got my period first...but whatever) and I tripped and skidded across the gravel playground on (you guessed it) my chin. Mom came to pick me up from school and take me back to the good doctor. I again, hadn't cracked open the chin. But i did have to spend about an hour laying with my head thrust back and a spotlight on my chin while the nurses dug gravel out of my chin. I'm pretty sure they missed a piece or two because my chin is still a little bumpy down there...but that could just be acne.

Also, around 5th or 6th grade Sharen and I went with our dad over to a woman from churches house. She and her husband had just split up and Dad was helping her move some heavy stuff. Sharen and I were playing with their daughter that was closest to our age upstairs in her new room. I can't remember exactly what we were doing, it involved bouncing on the bed and trying to knock each other off. But I got knocked off the bed and took a face plant into the nightstand with my chin. Overdramatically shrieking (I know you're very surprised) I ran downstairs and my dad told me to shake it off.

So in summary: I was a really clumsy kid that couldn't figure out how to catch herself with her hands. Oh, and I'm a shark.