Things You Thought You Would NEVER Say...

Kale! If you eat another of your shirts I'm going to make you go without clothing.

Feb 3, 2009

Who's the biggest BASTARD on the planet? Oh yeah... that's me.

It all started about a week ago when Phoenix started having severe tooth pain. He said it was the tooth in the very back on the bottom of the left side. I looked at it, and Amoo looked at it. It looked fine except there was a bit of gum over the edge of the tooth so we figured it just hurt because the tooth was cutting through the gums.


This past Saturday he woke up at 4:30 am screaming because it hurt so badly. I gave him ibuprofen and took his temperature because he felt very, very hot. He was running a fever of 102.5 and the left side of his jaw was swollen. I took him to the E.R. and they gave him some antibiotics. They thought his jaw was infected and instructed me to keep the dental appointment I had already scheduled for Tuesday.


By Sunday all of his pain was gone so it definitely was an infection.


Today we went to the dentist and for it being their first time we did pretty well. Kale only tried to bite off one finger.


Kale's teeth were perfect and had no cavities.


Phoenix's teeth were all fine except for the upper left tooth in the back. He never said it hurt on the top so we never thought to look up there, even the doctors at the E.R. didn't check there.


That one tooth had a cavity so large it was abscessed and had to be removed. We made an appointment for 1 pm the same day and went to lunch. After lunch I took the boys to walmart so they could pick out a pity toy. (You know, I feel bad for taking them to the dentist and letting them be tortured by evil nurses with sharp objects so... they get a toy.)


When we got back to the dentist I found out that I couldn't be in the same room as Phoenix. If it had been just me I could have but with Kale it was impossible. He would jump around and bump someone and the Novocaine would end up in someones eye, or something just as devastating.


Anyway...


I felt bad enough having to subject my eldest to a tooth extraction at his tender age, but when I was told I had to wait in the hall it felt like a mule had kicked me in the chest.


The whole time I worried and didn't even pay much attention to Kale who was sticking his head in each of the examination rooms to see who was getting a shot in their mouth or to ask each patient if they were getting laughing gas. The idea of a gas making you laugh entertained him to no end.


Of course, the nurse telling me to wait in the chairs didn't stop me from checking on Phoenix six or seven times in the 30 minutes he was in the room. There was a little window in the door so I could look through. And let me tell you what a terrible idea that was. Every spot of blood and every tear that fell from his eyes felt like a blow to my stomach. It was torture. Eventually I had to sit down and stop checking on him when one of the nurses asked me if I could keep Kale out of the drawers full of supplies. At last when he was done I asked the dentist if we could keep the tooth so I could hang it up in the bathroom. That way he will have a reminder of what happens when you don't brush your teeth correctly.


Normally they don't allow that because the infection from the tooth could spread if handled. But they wanted him to have a reminder of this experience too so they put it in a sealed sterile container and made me promise never to take it out. I'm going to get a picture frame for it and hang it up next to the mirror in the kids' bathroom.


I tried to get a decent picture of the whole in his tooth but I don't dare take it out of the plastic envelope so it kind of sucks.


The dark spot facing down is the cavity. It's huge!
Anyway...
So I feel like the biggest bastard on the planet today. I allowed my six year old to be tortured. Sure it was for his own good and prevented him further pain but it was still traumatizing. Maybe I should let him hit me.




Later
BD

2 comments:

Mammallama said...

I was married to your father. You can not be the biggest bastard.. You're the biggest bitch.

Tobi said...

You did the right thing. Even if it doesn't feel like the right thing. You stopped your child from feeling more pain and that's always good!