Yesterday, my 12-year-old son woke up with half his face swollen and a toothache. Although he had mentioned a tooth bothering him earlier in the week, I pretty much didn't take him seriously and said he must be cutting a new tooth. Okay, I was wrong. A quick trip to the local dentists showed two loose baby teeth that would not come out and a molar above pushing down. Bacteria got in and the result was an infection. Basically he looked like he had a hot red golf ball in his left cheek.
Believe it or not that was the easy part. My son has a heart condition and takes a blood thinner. Of course the local dentist isn't going to do any serious work on him. He refers me to Children's Hospital in Boston and says the teeth should come out in the next day or so. Well, I call and they are booking into mid-February and do not care what medical issues my son has or how much pain he is in. After several frantic calls to his cardiology office at Children's Hospital and a phone conversation with Hematology, the plan is to head into Children's the next morning and wait in the clinic.
Well it poured rain, and an hour drive became a two hour drive with a cranky kid. Being a Mom, I kept quite about the traffic and my frustrations and tried to keep my son from becoming too upset. We waited half an hour to see a dentist who told us that my son needed blood work before they could decide what to do. The trip to the hospital lab took 30 minutes. Back to the Dental waiting room for another hour and 15 minutes. By which time my son is feverish, hungry and really mad at me. Oh, the joys of motherhood.
Finally, we get into the procedure room and they give him laughing gas, prior to Novocain, but is doesn't seem to help as he screams during the injections. This is followed by even more screams when they start prying out the teeth. All this time I am standing next to my son holding his hands so he won't interfere with the dentist. When the teeth are out I give a premature sigh of relief. Then they start digging out the infected tissue. All the while my son is screaming and glaring at me for initiating this torture. Guess I won't win Mother-of-the-Year.
When it was over, I had a kid that would not stop crying or bleeding for another half hour. Well, we made it home in an hour and he is feeling better. Me, every muscle in my back, arms and shoulders and neck aches from holding him down and the stress of the day. It was just another day being of a mother and now I am going to be sure to hug my son before he goes to bed tonight and tell him how much I love him. Hopefully, he will forgive me.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 24
hope he's feeling better in the morning.
KIDS gotta love em!!!!
Go hug that sweet boy and squeeze him extra hard!!!!!!!!!!
My heart goes out to you. I think most of us mothers have been there at some point when our child is crying out in pain and there is nothing we can do to help. It goes completely against our nature as mothers.
It is very hard to be a mom.
Just do what comes natural. You sound like a wonderful mother.
I remember when I got teeth pulled out prior to braces.....I came out fine and dandy, but when my mom saw me and saw that I was okay, she promptly passed out. It is funny now, but I am sure that it was really hard for her then. Give yourself a break:)