Eddie's Teeth

My poor Eddie.  I am sitting in the waiting room of the oral surgeon while Ed is having his wisdom teeth removed.  This kid has never been a stranger to the dentist, orthodontist, oral surgeons and endodontic procedures.  And I have become familiar with all their waiting rooms.  As far as they go, this one I am sitting in could use an update and new chairs, but this practice has the nicest people working the front desk. 

Eddie got his teeth the normal age babies do, 6 months or so.  Beautiful white straight teeth.  I was always amazed at his red rosebud lips and how they played of his white teeth when he smiled.  Right around his 3^rd birthday, it was a lovely day out and he wanted to run next door to play with his friend Elizabeth, who went by the nickname Beanie.  I called Beanie’s mom, Jackie, to let her know Eddie was on his way over.  I stood at the front door watching his chicken white hair bouncing up and down while he ran towards her front step.  All of a sudden I heard a noise that is instantly recognizable as teeth hitting concrete.  I bolted out my front door screaming, Eddie ran towards me screaming, and Jackie ran after Eddie screaming.  I scooped him up and the three of us ran into my kitchen where I sat Eddie on the counter.  He was bleeding profusely from his lip and mouth.  We got him hanging over the sink, crying, trying to get him to rinse his mouth out with water to see what happened in there.  Not an easy task with an almost 3 year old.  Finally he calmed down enough so we could peer into his sweet little mouth and OMG what a mess. The inside of his mouth looked like hamburger.  He was cut on the side of his mouth inside and out.  Jackie looked at him and said he needed stitches and there looked to be a crack in his fang, the eye tooth.  I got Ed comfy on the couch with an ice pop, and then collected myself before calling his dad.  At this time we only had one vehicle and I needed Bob to come home.  I knew I would be met with resistance, as Bob was working and going to school full time, he was 30 minutes away, so if I needed him to come home for any reason, it had to be a serious one.  Fortunately he had an opening in his schedule and he came right home.  Took a quick look in Eddie’s mouth, scooped him up and drove directly to the emergency room.  My husband said they gave Ed some Demerol to calm him a bit while he was in the papoose board.  Eddie looked up at him, his mouth all bloody, big green eyes rolling around in his head and said “I Love You Dad”.  Poor little guy, ended up with 5 stitches inside his mouth and 3 on the outside, he bit right through the muscle.  And his sweet little baby eyetooth was indeed cracked, right in half.  After his mouth healed, we had to address his tooth.  What should we do?  To try and save the tooth for it only to fall out in a few years anyway would be $800.  To pull it $200.  Considering we didn’t have two nickels to rub together, the $200 option seemed best.  How bad could it look, right?  OMG!!  We were like, what have we done? He looked like a hayseed, a hillbilly.  Eddie is a cute kid anyway and it just added to part of his charm, but it took us a good many years to come to that conclusion.

Fast forward 5 years…….Eddie’s teeth were straight, but he needed to have his upper palette expanded. I guess when the orthodontist can get ahold of a young mouth; they can manipulate it so it would mean less pain and torture later or possibly no need for braces at all.  He had the braces on the front four adult teeth, and the palette torture device in place.  I had a key that I would use in the morning and evening to turn the expander.  Eddie wasn’t too bothered by this, he said it felt like someone was tickling his nose.  My other two kids teased him, saying he was going to look like “Hey Arnold” the Nickleodeon cartoon character who’s head is shaped like a football. 

I was working outside the home at this time.  Emma had recently broke her arm, requiring many trips to the orthopedic.  Since Bob was basically unreachable and unable to help, I did all the running around for and with her.  Then I got the call.  The school nurse called me at work to inform me that Eddie had fallen on the playground.  She said his two front top teeth were slightly pushed forward, he wasn’t bleeding bad but probably needed to see a dentist.  I was so tired of always being the one running back and forth to doctors, sports practices and games.  I wanted some help.  So I called Bob and asked him if he could go and collect Eddie to see what was going on.  Although he groaned about it, he agreed to get him.  He said it was a good thing too.  I would have had the biggest freak out, bigger than the one I had when I found out how bad Eddie’s injury was. 

Bob walked into the school clinic to see Eddie sitting in a chair holding a gauze pad over his mouth.  When he removed it to show Bob, he was utterly in shock.  Eddies teeth weren’t slightly pushed forward like the school nurse had said, they were almost all the way out of his gums!  AAACCCKKKK!!  The only thing that saved them from going into the playground mulch WERE the braces.  Bob quickly rushed him to the orthodontist because he didn’t know where to go with him.  She sent them to an oral surgeon who put the teeth back in his mouth.  By the time they got home I was a wreck, Bob was a wreck, and Eddie was a wreck.  It wasn’t like his baby teeth where you could pull them out and others would grow in.  These were adult teeth.  Now he was in danger of losing them altogether.  I quickly made an appointment with an endodontist. He checked Eddie’s front teeth with a piece of ice to see if there was any loss of sensitivity.  Of course there was.  Now the real problem was to get this kid 2 root canals before his 2 front teeth turned black.  Yikes, time was of the essence.  My poor little guy, so much mouth trauma in his short 8 years.  After his root canal procedure, the dentist said it was a good thing we didn’t wait too much longer as his roots were already turning grey on their way to black.  He also said because now that his teeth were essentially dead, he wasn’t sure how long they would stay in his mouth.  And he would probably need implants one day.  Great, another thing to worry about. 

Fast forward another 13 years and he still has all his teeth.  Thank goodness for mouth guards during all the lacrosse and soccer seasons.  And another thank goodness when he decided to be on the high school swim team.  No mouth guards needed!  I still worry he will wake up one day with two adult front teeth on his pillow and Eddie has dreams they fall out as well. 

And there Eddie sits in the oral surgeon's chair.  Big green eyes rolling around in his head, chicken white hair sticking straight up, red rosebud lips holding in the bloody gauze.  As I was collecting my doped up 21 year old, the sweet assistant who seemed smitten with him, asked if he had any final questions.  “When can I drink alcohol?” came out of his mouth.  I was absolutely(no pun intended)mortified! My sweet boy is officially a man.  Now he can pay for his own damn implants!!

Singapore

Hi my friends!  I am in Singapore, halfway across the world!!  I am enjoying my time here(on day two) with my brother and his family.  Yesterday we went to Chinatown.  I remember it was a fun time but I was still foggy from the plane ride and time change.  After a good nights sleep, we woke up refreshed and ready to go.  Landed in Little India today.  Grace and I both bought sari's.  Mine is cream with gold embroidery and Grace's is pink with gold and turquoise and cream embroidery.  We put them on together with our bindi's and bangles, how fun!!  Singapore is a magical country.  Plus they are living a killer lifestyle and that always helps.  Waking up to a panoramic view of the yacht club is nothing short of spectacular.  Almost time to eat, Vanessa is cooking up a Thai dinner for us.  Tomorrow we are up for more exploring and afternoon relaxation time by the one of 3 infinity pools.....such a hard vacation....

3.11.11

What a day at the Gallegos house, or should I say what a week!  Monday I went into the living room and noticed a dark stain on the ceiling.  Upon further inspection we discovered the bathroom above the living room was leaking somewhere.  Bob had to poke holes in the ceiling to drain the water into a bucket sitting on two end tables stacked on top of each other.  We haven't been able to use our bathroom for a week now, as the plumber hasn't been able to get here before due due all the rain we are having.  He's busy replacing water heaters in flooded basements....AND we haven't had counter tops, a kitchen sink or a dishwasher for two weeks.  The plumber came today and told me that the bathroom was too big of a job for him and for me to seek help elsewhere.  As I was leaving to take Eddie to have his wisdom teeth removed, Bob came home to be able to meet the counter top guys.  Got back from the oral surgeons to have a house full of guys installing my shiny new granite counters.  Still don't have the sink hooked up yet, or the dishwasher.  That will be tomorrow-hopefully.  Now Eddie is asleep, maybe I can try and put some order back into this house.  My Mother is coming over this evening(God forbid anything is out of place) to see her two boys...Connor is coming home for spring break and Eddie, well, he's recovering.  Oh and what do you feed a vegan after he's had teeth pulled?  He can't have pudding, yogurt, ice cream...spent 45 minutes running around Stop n Shop looking for soy substitues.  Do you know they make a vegan soy free, dairy free, gluten free mac and cheese?  What the hell is in it? Crazy. Well that's been the day so far and its half over.....

Tacos are not kid food......

Kid food, according to my husband, is anything that could be found on a kids menu.  For example, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese or fish sticks.  Dinner has to be meat, starch, vegetable and salad.  Everyone knows I hate food to begin with, so this was no easy chore for me.  My kids did have their fair share of chicken nuggets and spaghetti o’s.  There were many a night where my husband was either working or in school so the quicker I could get dinner on the table, the better.  It was about 10 years ago when we moved to Connecticut that we instituted family dinner every week night.  Trying to hold off hungry teenage boys after swim or football practice wasn’t easy, but somehow I managed to make it all happen. 

I was lucky enough to land a part time job that allowed me to be home in the afternoon for the children.  I ran around  to doctor and orthodontic appointments, getting supplies for school projects, helping with school projects.  Because my husband woke up each morning and thought about what he wanted for dinner, he would pull something out of the freezer and leave me instructions.  That worked for a while, mindlessly preparing a dinner for him but not for me or the kids.  Maybe we didn’t want what he picked out.  I started collecting cook books, trying out new things.  For the most part, there weren’t too many disasters, although I have been hailed the Queen of Boiled Meat.  And I am sorry, I grew up eating my Great Grandmother’s bean and hot dog soup and it is delicious.  I think that was the night my husband took a taste and threw the rest in the trash and went out to eat by himself. 

One afternoon, instead of making what was instructed, I decided to make tacos instead.  We hadn’t had those for a good long while.  The kids were excited to help me pick out all the toppings and side dishes.  It was one of the few times all four of us worked together to prepare dinner.  We were singing and dancing around the kitchen setting the table, chopping lettuce, grating cheese.  Then it was the classic record player scratch noise, we all came to a screeching halt.  Dad was standing in the doorway staring with his mouth open in horror at the scene in front of him.  What? I asked timidly, What’s the matter?  It took a few moments for my husband to reply TACOS? TACOS FOR DINNER? THAT’S KID FOOD!  The kids and I slowly turned out heads to look at each other, for a brief moment the silence was deafening.  Then like a flip of the switch we all started laughing, the kind where you have lots of tears and sore abs the next day.  I don’t remember if my husband ate with us that night, I think he did.  He might have had leftovers from the night before, God forbid he eat a taco.  That night I realized that our family dinner nights weren’t all about the food, it’s who we are with that is the most important.  The kids and I would not have had all that fun together if I had been cooking one of his scripted meals.  After that incident, we all began to look forward to meal time.  There were many dark nights of brooding teenagers full of angst, but also many bright nights full of laughter.  Some nights we all had so much to say to each other, unless you were holding the salad dressing bottle, you could not speak.

Fast forward 10 years and we are almost empty nesters.  My daughter has moved out and the two boys are away at college.  We have settled into a pretty simple routine.  Monday night I am out of the house so he has dinner on his own, Wednesday night my husband dines with his business partners and I have only child dinner night at my parents and Thursday night we go out to dinner together.  Tuesday night has become my evening to make dinner and he cooks on the week-ends if we aren’t out with friends or family.  Recently we took out our counter tops in preparation for new granite counters.  My husband had to unhook the dishwasher and take out the sink as well.  Wow, no cooking going on in this kitchen for at least two weeks, that’ll be tough I said to my husband.  He looked at me and said, this will be such a hardship, you won’t be able to make dinner two whole times. 

Last night was the first of my two nights of making dinner.  I stopped at Whole Foods and bought already prepared salmon, roasted beets and salad.  My husband made it home before I did so there was no trickery to be had.  I was going to tell him I made everything in tin-foil for easy clean up.  As I was getting out the paper plates and plastic cutlery, he looked over the paper tub and plastic containers of food asked if there was anything he could do to help.  He took about six steps into the family room and then I announced dinner was ready.  We had a good laugh while eating, making fun of all the “hard work” I had put into the meal.  After we ate, he volunteered to do the dishes.  Such a nice guy.

I am hoping, truly hoping, that our counters will be in soon.  I have both boys coming home from school next week end.  One on his spring break and the other to have his wisdom teeth removed.  It’s one thing to eat out or bring food in when there are only the two of us, but for them, I really need to have a working kitchen.  My post surgery boy will need soups and comfort foods to make him feel better, and the other one, well, he just likes to eat all the time.  The outlook is good for taco night and dancing in the kitchen.  We will just have to make sure Dad won’t be home for dinner…………..

Hot Spots

Hotspots.  I wish I was writing about a fabulous resort or a good sale.  The hotspots I am referring to are on my dog.  Would that make them a vacation spot for fleas?  Or a $99 dress sale at Rover’s Bridal?  Alas, no.  Apparently when dogs get stressed, they can start an itch-scratch cycle causing an infected sore or sores requiring medical attention.  Wonderful. 

Jersey is our 10 year old Golden Retriever.  She has a very sweet temperament, but has her moments of being a nervous nelly.   I am the parent that has to take her everywhere, not my husband, her favorite human in the whole world.  Jersey does not like riding in the car.  She cries, pants, and her eyes bug out of her head. One time she got herself so worked up she pooped in the car.  But that is another story. 

This all started back in December.  We had just gotten back from a quick week-end trip to Virginia.  My girlfriend watched Jersey for us and had said that she was super nervous and had trouble settling down.  Got the old girl home and she seemed happy to be there.  The next Saturday, I noticed little tufts of hair about the house.  Later on that day, my husband said the dog had chewed a small raw spot on her back leg, looked to be about the size of a quarter.  Off he went to Petco for the cone of shame. We gave her doggie tranquilizers for the rest of the week-end to help calm her down.  I called the vet on Monday and of course, they wanted to see her. 

I was lucky that my son was home from college.  He helped me get the nervous nelly in the car and off we went.  In the waiting room, Jersey was ill behaved as per usual, trying to sit on my lap, crying, and straining on her lead.  Finally we get called back.  Vet comes in, takes Jersey out, and brings Jersey back in with half her leg fur shaved off.  Oh My Gosh, I am the worst dog owner in the world!  My poor dog had the biggest hotspot ever!! (well, I had never seen one before but I am assuming it was the biggest one on record) I can’t even describe to you what it looked like.  You just have to see one, or not.  My son was gob smacked, totally without words.  When he finally collected himself, he noted it looked like a brain, a bloody brain on her hind quarter/hip area.  Poor thing, I felt so bad for her.  I am guessing Jersey got herself all worked up between us leaving for the week-end and all the commotion going on in the house with the holidays approaching she started gnawing on herself.  The vet gave me a script for some antibiotics, and sent us on our way.  I stopped at the local pharmacy and was met with a “Huh? It’s for a dog, we can’t fill this.”  The pharmacist spoke over the partition and corrected the girl at the counter.  Not only did they fill her prescription, the antibiotics were FREE!!  I was very excited since my dog has a $200 yearly cap on health care and I had just spent pretty penny at the vet’s office.    After a few days of treatment, she was on her way to recovery.  All was well, or so I thought….

About the middle of January, I came down the stairs to see Jersey chewing her bum again and the familiar tufts of hair are found about the house.  Great, get the cone out.  This time I am ready, got the Benadryl, calming pills and doggie anti-itch spray.  That should hold us over till Monday when we can see the vet.  Unlike last go round, I don’t have my strong son to help me get the dog in the car and to help me manage at the vet.    

Fortunately the car ride was pleasant.  I walk in with Jersey straining on the lead, choking herself and gasping for air.  The sweet girl behind the counter checks us in and on we go to take a seat.  There were quite a few people in the office that day since it was a day before a big snow storm.  The only spot for us was next to one of—gasp--our parish priests!  He also had a golden retriever, a big, beautiful, CALM golden retriever.  I was absolutely mortified sitting next to them.  Jersey tried to jump onto the priests lap more than once.  She also slobbered all over him and his beautiful dog.  Good grief!  They finally call her name and back we go.  The vet and I decided that Jersey was all stressed out about the snow.  She didn’t have anything to sniff and had to do her business in the driveway.  We got our prescription and then we were on our way. 

Jersey is finally done with all her meds, the snow is melting and she has grass to sniff.  Since the last round of hotspots, there has been a big life changing event in the Gallegos household.  Older sister has moved out and Mom & Dad are quasi-empty nesters as her brothers are still at college.  Jersey has taken to this rather well.  No indications of anxiety so far although she has been crying, yes literally crying for attention.  As I am writing this essay, she is trying to put her nose under my hand for a quick scratch.  In a few weeks, my husband and I will be traversing the globe to visit my brother and his family.  Jersey will be staying with a friend from work who has a golden the same age.  Since they get along famously and my girlfriend treats Jersey to people food, I have a feeling our Jersey will have a blast and not want to come home.  And hopefully, this ends the hotspot happenings.