An Excess of Abscess

Body aches from sleep deprivation. Waking up every couple of hours to your baby's cries. Lots of holding him, lots of comforting him. Taking frequent short naps. Looking at the sink full of dishes and thinking, "there's no way I'm getting to that." Running to the baby's doctor in fear that something's wrong and you don't know how to fix it.

No, I haven't had baby3 yet! But the last couple of days have felt like it. My oldest baby has an abscessed tooth. If you remember from back in June, the first time I took Charlie to the dentist we were told his teeth were in bad shape. Considering he'd only had them three years of less, it was hard to believe. His two front teeth were near-abscessing so we cut out nearly all sugar until he had the root canals in July. So here we are, 5 months later, and he's never complained about his teeth hurting until this past Tuesday. At first I thought he just had a popcorn seed stuck in them or something. But his complaints became more frequent, and Wednesday night he woke up crying about them. So we went to the dentist Thursday, who said that he could find absolutely nothing wrong with them. But, he said, waking up in the night is a symptom of an abscess that obviously hasn't come to the surface, so start him on antibiotics now. This was the dentist who performed all the work in July, and who I had decided we would not use again due to the financial nightmare of it all. Anyhow, all day yesterday Charlie cried in pain, and even ran a fever while on full doses of both tylenol and ibuprofen. On into the night it went, and by this morning, the entire left side of his face was swollen! So we went to another dentist today, since the infection is showing itself now, and he showed me which tooth is indeed abscessed. He reassured me that the antibiotics will work soon, so not to worry (easy for you to say). So now we play the waiting game, and I try to keep up with his pain management. Charlie's not only feeling the pain, but also disappointed that he doesn't get to eat the strawberries I had just gotten him, among other sugary things.



Please allow me to lament for a minute, and if you have kids, maybe you can learn from my big mistake. I was always careful about Charlie's diet, making sure he didn't eat nuts, honey, or even strawberries until he turned 3. Yet the area I grossly overlooked was sugar. I let the boy drink chocolate milk from sun up to sun down. Somehow it never dawned on me what I was doing to him. He was so strong-willed I just figured this was one battle I wouldn't win (he would really throw a fit when he couldn't have it). But that was wrong of me. I should've put a stop to it long ago. This time it's a molar which will most likely have to be pulled, not just root-canaled. I should have been more careful.

There are things I'm thankful for in all this. One, Chuck and I had to cancel our romantic getaway this weekend to celebrate our anniversary, and luckily it's not going to cost us. Somehow the fear of what Charlie's going through takes the sting out of missing this weekend that I've been so excited about. Two, as if God knew we couldn't handle much more, Chance has been so good the last few days. No tantrums, just sweetness, always happy, very cooperative. Three, I'm so thankful for Chuck's new job, because he could watch Chance while I took Charlie to the dentists the last couple of days.

Anyhow, please pray for us. For peace despite the obvious scariness of the situation (I keep trying to NOT think what it must be like for parents whose children die from having abscessed teeth!), and most of all, for Charlie's swelling to go down, and for God to heal him quickly. Thanks so much!!