Daddy Come Home

October 2011 has not been easy!  Honestly I'm wishing it would just hurry up and end.  Not because I have any wonderful Halloween plans, but because even on paper it doesn't look good!  Dave's travel schedule has been brutal there hasn't been a single week where he has been home for more than 3 days and there won't be until December.  

Dave is gone on blue highlighted days, he also went to the cabin with Carson on the yellow days!                And he was gone the last 2 weeks in September!

It all started with his travel getting busy in September.  Then Carson and Chloe had a tonne of dental work that needed to be done ($$$$$).  I felt like I lived there!  About 2 weeks after Carson's fillings were completed he started to complain about one of them hurting. Then like I feared he had to have a pulpotomy (baby root canal).  About an hour later he started to complain a fair bit and I suspected that he should be on antibiotics.  A few hours after that Granda delivered the medicine, gave Carson a blessing and we sent him to bed!  At midnight he woke up crying and in pain and I noticed that his swelling had doubled in size! 

So I gave him an extra dose of meds and hoped he would make it to morning.  Well when he got up it was no better so I arranged for Mom to come and stay with Crew and get Chloe to school while I went to the Urgent Care Clinic.  MISTAKE!  The DR. there told me he was fine and that 'antibiotics do not work over night' and that I was in the wrong place. I should see a dentist since that was HIS area of expertise!  I told him that my concern was how quickly this infection was spreading and that I wondered if he needed IV and wasn't that within his expertise?  Nope!

 Fine? this all happened in a matter of hours!

                                       

So we ended up at the dentist where poor Carson had to have the abscess drained with basically no freezing since it doesn't really take when there is that much infection.  If only I could have traded places with him- it was horrible!  He was sweating and shaking with fear and pain.  He went through every emotion.  He was angry-we were NOT to touch him! He went through a period of self-loathing ("I hate myself- why didn't I brush better?") and even wished he would die at one point!  It was really sad!  We went from there to the children's hospital where they very quickly had him hooked up to IV antibiotics. 

At the hospital.

This is after the dentist drained a fair amount of fluid.  The picture doesn't do it

 justice the swelling was up over his nose and now affecting his left eye too!

He had to have several doses, which meant back and forth across the city every few hours. Carson looked so much better just a few doses in. The next morning I was told there in the infectious diseases clinic that oral antibiotics will not overcome these kinds of infections fast enough and that I had come to the right place.  Phewww!

Day 2 of antibiotics

                                                                                                                       

I've learned once again how hard it is to watch your children suffer. I've learned that it's time to be more confident in my mother's intuition and not to let doctors make me question it.  I've learned that everything goes wrong when Dave is away (which is really frustrating for BOTH of us)  but that I'm surrounded by such amazing family who all want to help ease my burdens!  I was so grateful for their help so that I could be with Carson.     

 Last day of IV. Still doesn't look like my Carson!

By Friday afternoon he was finally done with the IV and he was told he'd have 7 more days of meds but that he'd have a huge pill to swallow (literally) something he'd never done! But at least we were done with the hospital.  A huge relief!  However it all goes on for me! At 5:30 that night Jenn and Bruce had come to bring dinner and some relief - little did they know what they were walking in to! There was nail polish on the carpet, the toilet was seriously plugged and I was crying! Luckily for me Bruce is the kind of man that he is and against my protests unplugged the toilet!  It was no small feat. There were diaper wipes, flossers and 'such' involved -let's just say it was a thing of nightmares!

We were all so happy a few days later when Dave came home even if it was short lived. He managed to come home in time for Thanksgiving dinner and leave again. One Day!!!  The next day Crew and I got a cold so sleep is still evading me. Sick kids, no Dave and a whole lot to do -myself!  It has continued that way since and there is no end in sight.  Not until December when the travel will slow down....or so I'm told. 


I don't think I've ever said this in the Fall, but HURRY UP DECEMBER!  I can't take too much more!