Corbin occassionally wakes up in the morning and does not want to go to school. He's too tired. Or he has me check to see if he has a fever. After this last incident, I need to be more sensitive to the little guy. He probably doesn't want to go for very good reasons. But I was raised and continue to do so with my children, "unless you are too sick, you go anyway." Dad goes to work to earn money for the family. Mom stays home and takes care of the little kids and house. The older kids job is to go to school and learn.
Well, this particular morning Corbin woke up whining, "I don't want to go to school today." I told him I was sorry, but he still had to go. He went and got dressed, came downstairs, and then I saw his face.
YEAH. O.K. YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO!!!
I texted my friend whose husband is an oral surgeon to find out if he thought this looked like an abcessed tooth or a sinus infection. Corbin had complained a few weeks back about his tooth hurting and he wanted to go to the dentist. So since then, it's been on my to do list. But life gets carried away, and I've been out of town a bit and haven't gotten around to it. Plus, he never said anything again. And then he complained of a headache one morning and I told him it's getting warmer in the days, he needs to drink more water. When he came home from school with the same headache, I asked if he told his teacher. He said, "Yes. She told me to drink more water." :) I gave him some tylenol and he perked right up.
Well, that night we had swim lessons and Corbin had been congested for the past week so I wasn't really sure the next morning...tooth or sinus? They are related you know! Our friend squeezed Corbin into his schedule and turns out he had both. His tooth was completely abscessed and needed to be removed and he had a bit of sinus stuff going on.
Poor kid! Funny thing is, each child is different that it's hard to tell. I remember when Corbin was a baby he had both of his ears rupture from double infection before he cried about it and I took him to the doctor. By that night he had a strange red swelling around one of his ears and I called a pediatric nurse in our ward. She took one look and said, keep an eye out for the redness to spread, that doesn't look too good. Well, we ended up taking him to the ER that night and he was admitted for mastoiditis (fluid in the skull behind the ears, at the base of the brain.) It's a precursor to menegitis. He spent a couple days in the hospital. It was so sad!!! He was in a prison crib with tubes pumping him full of antibiotics and I slept on a bed next to him. I remember thinking then that he must have a high tolerance for pain and I need to pay attention the first time he complains. Audrey (being my first) cried for five days before I had enough sense to take her to the doctor to find she had an ear infection. Parenthood is such a guessing game!!!
Well, Corbin got out of school the rest of the week. He wasn't even in any pain and ran around jumping on the trampoline and riding his scooter with Drew. But his face didn't look too hot so I told him he didn't have to go. He was on antibiotics but the doctor said the swelling would be slow to go down until the tooth was pulled. This was Day 2.
On Day 3 he went back to the Oral Surgeon, got put out, and had the dang thing pulled. The tooth fairy made a visit that night and he's a new man. There's got to be something with my kids and teeth. Corbin is down three as is Drew, and none have fallen out on their own! :) Dentists have got to love a mom like me. Less teeth to clean, right? :( Boo hoo!!!!!
My sister had her baby April 15th and I was lucky enough to be in town! I was attending a Zone Therapy Class all weekend but was able to split my time in class during the days and babysit their little boy at night. (Grandma had the harder job of babysitting during the day.)
