One of the things I worry about a lot now and in the future is knowing when J is ill.
Minor illnesses are easy to diagnose and treat, such as coughs, colds, stomach bugs and viral infections causing rashes, but anything internal and more serious I am sure we will not know until it is quite advanced, and that worries me.
J does become, naturally, lethargic when ill with the common infections, and I can treat him with childrens medicine to relieve pain and high fever.
As I like to think I am on the ball and pro-active rather than reactive, I would hope I would be able to spot something not quite right and get him sorted.
But, as is in the medical world, it is very hard to find out what hurts and where, if the patient does'nt talk.
It is the same for his teeth.
How will I know he has tooth ache? I hope he will be able to demonstrate through natural body language the problem so I can get it fixed. But as he is not a good patient and will not tolerate sitting in a chair having someone prod about his mouth it will be a long hard process getting him diagnosed and helped.
Any kind of procedure dental wise will have to be done with a sedation, but I worry that he will be freaking out internally but not able to move.
I still remember the drama over his first tooth wobbling and finally coming out.
He would eat sideways and scream and cry when he moved it with his tongue. For a week he held onto his tooth by the thread of a nerve and one day on collection from school his teacher handed me a tissue with his tooth in it. It had made it's way out of his mouth, onto the school hall floor during assembly, much to the consternation and crying from J.
The next few teeth were greeted with worry and upset, but he dealt more easily with it and I learnt that as soon as he alerted me to the fact his tooth was wobbly, he would have it out of his mouth within thirty minutes flat, flushed down the toilet with no trace.
The other day he caught his big toe nail on something in the garden ( he loves being bare foot ) and, as always, I knew something was wrong by his cries.
I saw it had ripped half way up his nail, along the nail bed, and was bleeding. As the nail had not come off completely he was fiddling with it.
I tried to clean it of dirt with some tissue and water, which was met with many howls of panic. Then, thinking it would be best, I attempted to cover it with a plaster. Oh no no no. That was pulled off straight away.
So I fashioned three of them, pulled tightly, and covering his whole toe. It was perfectly suitable as protection for his nail.
They lasted on his toe for a total of 180 seconds.
J decided he wanted to be au naturel and let it heal freely. Which it did.
It looks fine now thankfully and he's stopped picking at it, so I know the pain must have ended for him. Thank goodness.
