Thankful

It's been a rough few weeks here in our house; Husband appears to be falling apart.  Last week he pulled a muscle out in his back.  Just as he seemed to be starting to make a rebound from that he developed a problem tooth.  The tooth was sore, and then his face started to swell, and then his tongue swelled, and he was getting strange pockets of puss in his mouth.  He made an appointment with his dentist.

Thursday evening I dropped him off at the dentist and took the boys to the library.  We had been at the library for about 10 minutes when Husband called.  First he was being told he had to go see an oral surgeon right away; but then when no oral surgeon was found to still be on-call he was told he had to go to the ER.  The dentist told him if I wasn't going to drive him; Husband being the dad he is was worried about keeping the boys out too late, especially on a school night, then he was going in an ambulance.  Apparently this was more serious than we thought it was.  I drove him to the ER and we agreed I would take the boys to dinner (since it was now going on 5) and then for a walk and we'd decide from there what to do next with them.

Dinner was oh so good, and the boys really showed down; but I was too worried about Husband to eat.  The walk was good, the sky was a bright hopeful blue and the air was just a little crisp; and again the boys were both being angles.

After the walk I decided to let the boys watch some cartoons in the car before heading into the hospital; as it was just going on 7pm now, and for some reason I felt like it was too soon to see how things where.

Around 7:30 we went in and I asked for Husband at the front desk.  The receptionist was very serious and somber and I suddenly feared the worst.  She told me he was out getting a CAT scan and told me where his bed was located and that we could wait for him there.  I think we only waited about 5 or 10 minutes for him to get back from his scan, but the time really seemed to drag on.  When he came back he was in good spirits; which made me smile, and he was hooked up to an IV with fluids, antibiotics and morphine (which I suppose made him smile - no really it was seeing his boys that made him smile).  We were told there was a chance he was going to be admitted to the hospital.  Apparently the infection in his face was just that bad - and too think I thought the dentist was over exaggerating when he said he had never seem something like this before.  We visited with Husband some more, but once TT wanted to start running wild in the ER I knew it was time to go outside.  I opted not to bring the boys home since he hospital seemed to be close to making a decision about Husband staying or not.  We kissed him and went outside to watch more videos in the car; it was now getting very dark out.

As time went on, TT grew tired of being in a non-moving car; as one would expect from a 2 year old; a little after after 8:30 we went to go see what was going on.  Just as we got to the front of the ER out came Husband.  He certainly received a hero's welcome, especially from RR.

On the way home we got his prescriptions filled and treated everyone to a milkshake.  So thankful to have him home with us; and on the mend.

Since then his dentist and primary care doctors have both called several times to follow up with him.  They both tell him what a lucky man he is to be alive.  Apparently the infection and swelling was so bad he was at risk of it closing off his airways.  We are also lucky it didn't develop to strong of a foothold in his blood stream or worse.  So for now he is fighting the infection on a very strong dose of antibiotics and painkillers, and then once the 10 days is up  it's back to the dentist to see where we go from here.

I am thankful he is home with me, on the mend; even if that means snoring in my ear.