The Joys of Parenting

I'm sure you'll all remember my minor addiction to "tragic Mom" blogs. Well, perhaps it was all preparation for the past two weeks...

I never thought that I would EVER say, "I wish my child JUST had MUMPS!" And yet, I repeated those words about half a dozen times over the past week.

When I created this post about Loki having the Mumps, I'm not entirely certain that we even had doctoral confirmation. And while our doctor was fairly certain that we were correct and that Loki did indeed have the mumps, there's no way to tell for sure, without a blood test. And since you can't really treat the mumps anyway, we both decided that it was unnecessary, at the moment, and we'd revisit the topic the next time Loki had blood drawn.

After about a week of being not quite himself, Loki looked to be on the mend. He regained his interest in toys, his voracious appetite returned and he was pretty much the typical toddler we have all grown to know and love! EXCEPT that his mump lump didn't seem to be healing. In fact, it appeared to be getting redder and larger.

All of this would, of course, take place when WB and I were both SUPER busy AND when our doctor went out of town. So, I was corresponding with him via email and since Loki seemed to be acting pretty normally he assured us we didn't need to worry. By the time, I was too concerned to ignore this new growth that we came to call 'George', it was Friday afternoon just as the Doctor's office was closing so I had no choice but to wait until Monday morning.

By Monday, George was moving outside the city limits and trying to annex Loki's right eye. The doctor we saw ordered an ultrasound for Tuesday that nearly destroyed the very fiber that holds our toddler together and keeps his eyes in place. And by this morning George had his own zip code (and began building real estate on said eye (read: STY) !

After getting the run around nearly ALL day ~ the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (whose receptionist wanted to know if Loki's problem was his " E - A - R" and to whom I wanted to respond to with, "No, it's his L - U - M - P" and I'm still not entirely sure why we were spelling things in the first place) took one look at Loki and told us his jaw was abcessed and that he needed to drain it. Which he did rather quickly and the promptly wrote a prescription for Amoxocillan and some crazy eye drop that should emancipate Loki's eye from the evil grips of George and his manifest destiny.

We have been worried sick for weeks and in 20 minutes time some strange man, in a strange place suctioned all of the anxiety carried in my sons ever growing chin into a little syringe and says, "I know it's kinda weird and gross but check this out," and waves around a milky bloody mess of goo that he plans to send off for analysis.

WOAH!

Between all of our appointments today, I single handedly wrangled both children into and out of Chick-fil-a. Another wild and wacky experience to add to my running list...and while it was difficult in and of itself, the hardest part was fighting back the tears as the other children on the playground looked at Loki and made faces and said things like, "I don't want to play with him, he's scary" and "Oh no, here he comes, run and hide."

Now, I know kids will be kids and I was probably a little strung out from all the anxiety of not knowing what sort of demon George was and also by the possibility of George having to be surgically removed (which is what the first doctor told us this morning), but wow, you don't really know what it's like until you are that kid (or that kid's mother). Though, in their defense, Loki did look a little frightening.

I'm just happy it's all over for now and that this "tragic Mom" can go back to being the zany mom who lets her son eat pizza in the bathtub!