Yesterday was clinic day here in town. I’d geared up for a fight, honestly, when I talked to the receptionist because she doesn’t usually take messages that involve the doc calling someone back, and I know damn well she doesn’t like making last-minute appointments. But, I demanded to have Dr. B. look into what was going on – it’s been just over six months (and three rounds of antibiotics) since Dr. B. was going to refer Care to an ENT doc in the city. Mid-September was when we first talked about it, because within a week of school starting, the kid was back to not swallowing.<\/p>\n
She was out of school for a full four weeks in the fall, another three days in December, and at least ten since the new year. December was bad, though – it wasn’t just her throat, it was her ears and jaw.<\/p>\n
Since then, Care has almost completely stopped eating solid food, and when she does eat it, she either smashes it up soft, or picks it apart into little pieces. I know she thinks no one notices… but geez. It’s kinda obvious. Thing is, it’s not only hurting to swallow, it’s hurting to chew<\/em>. She’s been in almost constant pain with her jaw – it’s even started to disrupt her sleep – which is already broken up thanks to apnea, choking, coughing and on and on.<\/p>\n Dr. B. didn’t shrug it off, but did suggest she try to manage the pain with tylenol or advil. Since this last round of antibiotics, from the doc I can barely stand in – the one who claims I don’t suffer from migraine and refused to prescribe the drugs suggested by the neurologist, she’s been even more miserable than usual. There are lumps by the joint, and just under and behind. Even swallowing water hurt the other night, and I know she was doing that thing I’m not allowed to mention (involving the tear ducts…) after she went to bed.<\/p>\n Anyway. I figured six months is plenty of damn time, since I’d been assured numerous times that the receptionist\/secretary had sent it in.<\/p>\n o_O I got bitchy on the phone yesterday, and lo…a call back within an hour, with an appointment scheduled. Didn’t even need to speak to Dr. B., which leads me to think maybe someone dropped the ball, again, with health care paperwork involving my kids. But, anyway…for now, we can relax knowing Care’s gonna get in there, finally.<\/p>\n I’ve also been reading the stuff the other doc sent, and it’s familiarly<\/em> interesting.<\/p>\n For those of you who have said I’m a better mom than my mom was, you’re right, at least in this instance. I always knew it was my tonsils causing me so much grief…but because she was under the impression I was faking to get out of school (until the time the school called my grandparents because I passed out in class – but she still didn’t take me to the doc) she never did anything. I don’t know if I had as many bouts with it as Care has, but I don’t remember most of the last BIG bout, and that’s what makes me focus on getting Care fixed now, rather than later.<\/p>\n I don’t want her to be stranded with two babies and no help, with a 105*F temperature, and a missing four day period. The husband was away working – and I probably would have called him home if I was conscious – our lane (we lived on a farm at the time) was packed closed with 3 foot deep drifts of snow and I had no way out but walk. The neighbor picked up a prescription for me (I managed to call the doc as it was settling in and he called the pharmacy, etc.) and I met her halfway down the lane. I got in the house, and after that I don’t remember a damn thing until four days later. I know I was alone with the girls, but I don’t know how I took care of them. I did, apparently, because they were fine when my ex got home, but… I don’t know how<\/em> I did it. Maternal stuff, I suppose.<\/p>\n There are many other things that could be causing Care’s illness and pain, but I’m going to focus on it being chronic tonsillitis\/adenoiditis. Everything from the apnea to the pain (even her asthma!) can be explained by those little glands misbehaving.<\/p>\n Fingers crossed they all come out in three weeks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday was clinic day here in town. I’d geared up for a fight, honestly, when I talked to the receptionist because she doesn’t usually take messages that involve the doc calling someone back, and I know damn well she doesn’t like making last-minute appointments. But, I demanded to have Dr. B. look into what was going on – it’s been just over six months (and three rounds of antibiotics) since Dr. B. was going to refer Care to an ENT doc in the city. Mid-September was when we first talked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[103,657,656,655],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-pondering-on-writing","category-snark","tag-care","tag-ent","tag-sick","tag-tonsils"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}