Of Blood, Cuts and Teeth (This is a Mom of 2 Boys Blog, You Know)
Posted on October 23, 2008 - Filed Under Body, Kids, Simple Life |
So, yesterday I hinted at Dante having an accident. Well, three out of four people have been bleeding around here in the past three days, so I`ll just start at the beginning. sigh.
Day One: Dorian
Dorian was out playing with his cousin Zanelle the other day. I usually just peek out at them from time to time because they`re old enough to play just fine together and usually don`t do Dante-ish type things like eat the puppy`s food or decide that rotten oranges are fun to squish and rub in your hair. So I kind of wasn`t paying attention. I even had the door shut, when there was a little knock.
I opened the door to find Zanelle and Dorian standing there, Dorian holding a shard of broken glass. Obviously, I scolded him and immediately took it away, but the damage was done. He`d sliced a finger. Zanelle, who is nearly 6 and knows better than to touch glass (hence the reason her toddler cousin was doing so) took off running with a guilty, “But we were just bringing it to you to throw away!”
Dorian was hysterical about the cut and freaking out. He didn`t let me touch him, but we managed to get it washed up and then put a bandaid on it. All good, no major injury.
Day Two: Dante
Remember this injury? Well, guess what? My boys decided to have matching scars!
Dante was at the inlaw`s house with Dorian and Irving while I slept off a late night of work and apparently, Dante was riding his little trike. He hasn`t really gotten the hang of scooting forward yet and the pedals are still too far forward for him, so he was trying scootch forward instead of his usual backwards . . . and he flipped himself right over his handlebars. I think a real motorbike would have done about as much damage!
There was blood and lots of it. Considerably more than his brother`s injury the day before! In fact, Dorian is quite disturbed that a puddle of his brother`s blood actually stained the driveway. He`s also the one who alerted Irving that Dante had fallen, since Dante couldn`t cry at the moment.
So, Irving brought the little guy to show me, and in my sleep induced haze, I saw what looked like a scrape on Dante`s forehead. Irving asked if I thought he needed stitches and I thought, “It`s a SCRAPE for crying out loud!” Then I woke up a bit more and wiped away more blood and discovered that it was actually a deep gash! So, yeah, stitches might be a good idea.
Off we went in search of stitches. The first three doctors we went to were closed, so finally we reached a pediatrician that we know fairly well, but is out of the way (our regular doctor wasn`t in for another four hours, too long to wait) and he had about TEN patients waiting. About an hour had passed by now, we weren`t about to take him to the hospital because they don`t let you go in with your child and I figured that would be more traumatic than a little scar on his forehead!
Finally I said, “You know what? Let`s just get some butterfly bandages and I`ll patch him up myself.” We went to the pharmacy, had a little consult with the doctor there and he agreed that butterflies were best, stitches would leave more of a scar.
Well, I`ve patched up a lot of holes in people in my job as a first aid attendant, but never, ever, have I attempted to put a butterfly bandage on a squirmy, angry 17 month old. I swear, those construction workers with their almost fainting and come ons as I patched them up were NOTHING compared to this!
Finally, I got the bandage on. Five seconds later, Dante ripped it off. I put on another one. Again, he ripped it off. He was due for a nap, so I rocked him to sleep and put one on while he was out. That stayed for the hour he was asleep. In the evening, I just stuck a plain bandaid on since the wound was still oozing a bit. The kid is going to have a scar. And at this point I`m totally willing to tell him “It`s all your fault” when he asks why the heck we didn`t get him plastic surgery or something when he`s older and wants to be a model or something.
Day Three: Me
I know, I know, this is getting to be the longest post in history, even for me! But this won`t take long, I promise. 
Remember my tooth that is rotting out of my head? Well, it finally got to the point where I was in constant pain, so this morning, I headed to the dentist. Which I was NOT looking forward to. I inhaled some saline solution to ensure the ability to breathe while at the dentist and tried not to puke from nerves. I was so sad about losing my tooth, which might seem silly, but I really detest the idea of part of my body being removed, even if it`s a stupid tooth!
So, needles, numbing, blah, blah, blah. My hands were shaking when the dentist came to pull the tooth out. He told me to expect pressure and a small amount of pain along my jawline. Ok, fine. I can handle that, after all I gave birth to two kids without any pain meds.
Well, the guy grabs my tooth and pulls and CRACK! Splinters of tooth fly everywhere! Seriously, there were pieces flying up in the air, down my throat . . . oh, it was awful! So the dentist stood there in shock, holding an itty bitty piece of my tooth in his pinchers and he said, “Ok, I think you have really brittle teeth.” You think?
So he tries again and pretty soon, it`s evident that this particular tooth is JUST as reluctant to leave my body as I am to have it go. It really hung in there. The dentist worked for nearly an HOUR pulling tiny shards out. He finally told me he was just going to break it up. And he used the drill on it to cut the darn thing into even smaller pieces. But that wasn`t the worst part. The worst part is that the anesthetic didn`t take completely!
Yeah, so I was in pain. Holding back tears because I really, seriously don`t do pain well (that`s a whole other post) and every time I thought he`d pulled out the last piece, he`d dig around again and find more in there! And they kept telling me to relax and breathe . . . while he`s hauling back and forth in my mouth and there are all these horrible cracking noises until I`m positive he`s broken every tooth in my mouth, and stabbing, fiery pains shooting right through my whole jaw. Needless to say, I didn`t relax much. I did think about how I would describe this torture to my blog audience though.
Finally, it was over. All the tooth was out. And then the dentist says, “Ok, so you have really fragile teeth AND your bone is calcified.” I have no clue what that means and at this point, my mouth was so full of blood, cotton and swollen to the size of a football that I couldn`t even ask. “Normally, I`d have to do bone surgery on a case like this.” Um, so why are you avoiding it here? You`re going to let me die of bone rot or something? “I`m going to put in a piece of synthetic bone so you don`t get an infection, because pieces of the bone chipped out with the tooth.” HA! I KNEW it wasn`t just one tooth coming out!
So, not only did I lose a tooth, I gained a chunk of synthetic bone. I don`t really want to know just what that is. All I know is that it HURTS and there`s a huge, HUGE hole in my mouth. (My mother-in-law said last night that I should get a root canal because who would want me with a big hole in my mouth? I replied, “Your son.” But my dreams of getting together with Jensen Ackles are now officially shattered.)
Yeah, so that`s the tale of three days, three different kinds of blood being spilled . . . three is the lucky number, right? Now we can have sunshine and rainbows for a few days?
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6 Responses to “Of Blood, Cuts and Teeth (This is a Mom of 2 Boys Blog, You Know)”
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Oh my gosh! Are you still alive? What a horrible week! I am so, so sorry, especially about the dentist experience.
Alive, yes. But barely.
I`m hoping the upcoming week will be a lot better. Especially once I can actually eat again!
oh my! Poor boys! You were a very brave mom! I am terrified after the fact for you! I tend to worry more before and after stuff like that… fortunately, I tend to chill out when actual emergencies occur and take care of things easily.. but thinking of events like this… eep! Sure hope they heal fast and stay whole. A rule in our house is “The blood stays on the inside”.
Sorry to hear about your tooth too :-(* Sore teeth are absolutely miserable. I had very crowded wisdom teeth which caused cavities on the back molars… I had two molars and all 4 wisdom teeth taken at once (or I wouldn’t have gone back)… all that pushing and cracking you describe.. yep. I remember. Felt like the dentist went through the back of my head to take the teeth. Fortunately the pain only lasts a few days :-/ ((((((hugs!!!)))))) hang in there!
ohmigosh! It sounds like a VERY bad week for you. Glad to hear the boys are on the mend, and so sorry to hear of your extraction… ouch just reading it made me nervous. I told Jose I hope I never have to go to the dentist in Guate…lol. He had a similiar experience here and had to go to an oral surgeon, he could have had anesthesia like they wanted to, but refused to be put out and just had the maximum novacain so he felt quite a bit of it. My friend that went to Huehue had her tooth extracted up there, she said the dentist in that village was the animal doctor as well, and that he pulled out her tooth with a pair of dirty pliers. At least you fared better than that. Hoping to get to Guatemala maybe next year, if we do-I’ll be sure to let you know!
All this blood and gore just in time for halloween! Do they do halloween in GT? I’m sure not like in the states…
OMG… I have not read anything for a little while due to work, and I have to read this!!! ewwww…
Poor boys, and you for having to go through it all… At least the boys only had their own ‘little’ things, whereas you had theirs AND your to deal with!
Get well soon everyone!!