I was really hoping for a kinder, gentler 2012...

Well, we officially have a big boy in our house, but not without the typical drama associated with all of Max’s milestones. Max lost his first tooth. It was slightly overshadowed by the fact that he also swallowed his first tooth. I get a call from the nurse when I was on my way home from the gym and I can tell she is on edge. She tells me that Max’s tooth has come out and she can’t find it. Apparently, after the tooth came out he clamped his mouth shut. Thankfully, I was almost home. We looked all in his mouth, really wishing the whole time that he could open his mouth a bit wider. Our worst fear was that he could have possibly inhaled it, but he wasn’t having any breathing issues and he said that nothing hurt in his throat. Once we quit messing with him he calmed down quite a bit. I have to say it was a bit frustrating. Now, to be honest, I have never looked forward to this phase. I hated pulling my teeth when I was a kid. It totally freaks me out and that is without all the obvious problems that could arise in our particular situation. Teeth have really been nothing but a problem since they came in. Teething was a nightmare for Max and with all that drooling we were always concerned about aspiration and pneumonia. It was such a relief when that was over and now we have a whole new set of worries.  Well, the remainder of the week passed without any tooth sightings, if you catch my drift and frankly I do have a line and searching through poo is definitely it. Sorry, if that makes me a bad mommy.

Okay, so you can't see the missing tooth in this one, but he is so darn cute.

So here we are one week later and we have a very sick big boy on our hands. On Saturday, he began running a fever. By Sunday, he was having problems breathing with oxygen saturation in the low 90s, still fever, and complaining of chest pain. Aaron and I decided to take Max into the ER for a chest x-ray, as Aaron has still not been able to locate a home x-ray machine. Our biggest concern was that instead of swallowing the tooth, he has inhaled it and it was causing problems in his lungs. Well, we braved the chaos of a Sunday afternoon at the pediatric ER and his lungs were clear (yea!) and all the viral tests (RSV, flu) were normal, so we headed home. He really doesn’t seem to be getting much better yet. He is requiring his Bi-Pap for breath support and some oxygen to give him a break. Of course, my biggest complaint is that his pulmonary doctor has relocated and we were completely unaware until I tried to page him this weekend, so now we have a new pulmonary with no idea what our protocol is. Even better, is that we couldn’t get in for a follow-up until May…are you freaking kidding me? Anyone looking to go into the medical field, we are in DESPERATE need of pediatric pulmonary physicians. It’s not glamorous, and sure there aren’t many cures out there for kids with pulmonary issues (e.g, Cystic Fibrosis, neuromuscular diseases with respiratory complications, asthma), but I haven’t heard of a hospital that wasn’t a 6 month wait for a pulmonary appointment. Now the good news is that they are supplementing with physician assistants and nurse practitioners, who we have always had good luck with, so after much prodding and basically telling the nurse how angry I was (in not the nicest words) that we weren’t aware there was a change in doctors we have an appointment on Monday with the NP.  It is times like this that I miss our Charleston team so much. As always I have already learned some valuable lessons from this experience. I will NEVER let a doctor convince me that we should only be in touch when Max is sick. If I had only kept our standing six month appointment, then we wouldn’t be in this position right now. The doctor’s reasoning made sense at the time. He didn’t want to expose Max unnecessarily to sick kiddos, but now that he is sick we are in a bad position. Of course I should also thank Tricare for cutting nursing hours. Guess what two parents were up all night with Max because we don’t have enough hours…yep, us. Since Max isn’t in school this week I don’t have enough hours to cover daytime help like I use to either.  Don’t get me wrong, I get it. Money is an issue and cutbacks have to be made somewhere (and we are far more fortunate than many families who lost care completely), and typically nursing coverage isn’t a problem for us, but when he is sick we definitely feel the strain.   I think if we could just get Max comfortable enough to sleep we would all feel better. We are walking that fine balance of rest, food, and treatments. Thankfully, we have only heard a few crackles (suggests the presence of fluid, not mucus) in his lungs and we are running treatments every four hours to clear them out. I do think today is our best day as far as fevers go, meds have barely touched them in the past few days, but today seems much better and controlled with the meds.

Here’s hoping to some sleep tonight for all of us (well, except the night nurse she better stay awake).  Poor Max whimpered all night and wanted to be turned every 5 minutes…I really wish I was exaggerating. While I did get a lot of cleaning done throughout the night…I’m now only one week behind in the DVR and Aaron was able to work on our taxes, I much prefer sweet dreams for all of us.

I think that is enough ramblings from the sleep deprived, nauseated, oh and did I mention pregnant (so I’m not quite as quick on my feet as I use to be) mom for right now. I guess I should have labeled this post with an appropriate warning.

Comments

[Natalie]

Congrats on the first tooth! The first tooth that Cate lost was that very same one- the bottom left. They look so much older minus a tooth, don't they? She is now missing four teeth, and two fell out while she was sleeping. Luckily, she was lying on her side and the tooth (both times) was stored in her cheek until she awoke. Had she swallowed either of them, I can promise you that I would NOT have checked the poo. :) Also? Is it necessary for boys to have such long eyelashes? I don't think so.
xo

[Jenna Schrock]

I see, it just happened recently. Don't worry, kids unknowingly swallowing their tooth after a tooth lost is normal. I hope Max gets well soon! You'll get through this, I know.