Bite Your Tongue

We had a crazy time at our house a couple of weeks ago. Do you remember this post about Avery? Well Parker wasn't about to be outdone by his little sister! And boy did he top her black eye injury with a big whopper!

Parker had his last dentist appointment Wed April 10th to get his 3 other cavities filled on the left side. If you remember, he previously had the right side done. I was going to be going out of town for my cousin's wedding the next day and I had already re-scheduled the appointment a couple of times and early morning appointments book months in advance so I had to keep this appointment. Thankfully, my mom was already in town b/c we were flying to NC together the next day. I figured I'd stay with Parker and my mom until they took him to the back. So we hung out in the small room while we waited for the anesthesia to kick in. About 45 minutes later, the called Parker to the back, I said goodbye, and dropped Avery off at daycare. Kevin picked my mom and Parker up about 45 min later. Everything had gone well according to the nurse who called me after the procedure was finished.

My mom called me around 11:30 asking if we had cotton balls. When I asked why, she said for Parker to bite down on. I didn't think much of it since he had a hard time keeping the gauze in his mouth the last time and I figured the gauze probably fell on the floor. She also mentioned that Parker was acting a bit crazy and running around. I told her to try and keep him still and to put a movie on. Then I get a somewhat frantic call from Kevin around 12:30 saying that Parker had basically torn his tongue apart. I heard hysterical crying in the background. I frantically gathered my stuff, drove home, called and left a couple messages for the dentist to call back. When I got home, I saw Parker's practically mutilated tongue and waited anxiously for the dentist to get back from lunch. I didn't wait for them to call back...at exactly 1:30, I called the office. After explaining what happened, they agreed to see us right away. Dr. W said there wasn't much to be done and to continue giving him Motrin for pain and they would prescribe antibiotics to ward off any possible infection. He also advised that his tongue would swell and look a lot worse than it actually was. I was a little relieved when we left the office, but felt so horrible for Parker.

He was pretty clingy and didn't want to let me out of his sight. I decided to take him to McDonald's to get a frozen yogurt to help with his tongue and since the only thing he had eaten/drank since dinner the night before was the drinkable yogurt I told my mom to give him. He gobbled up his ice cream and said he was still hungry. I'm a selfish Mommy and decided to get myself some fries, which I hid behind my purse, but of course Parker saw them and wanted some. I was deathly afraid to give him any...or rather afraid of his reaction when the salty fries hit his tongue so convinced him that the fries would hurt his tongue. Thankfully he accepted my reason and I ended up throwing away half my fries. I deserved to starve after eating them in front of my starving child! I convinced him to not eat when we got home and finally got him to nap.

Parker ended up running a fever after his nap...just 101 degrees, which according to the paperwork the dentist sent home with my mom, this was normal. If it didn't respond to fever reducing meds or went above 101 then we were to call the dentist. Thankfully his fever went down
He went back to school the next day (I figured the fevers weren't due to an illness and the dentist said it was normal after having aprocedure). My mom and I left for NC and Kevin was left to fend for himself. Umm...yeah if I had known how this would have all gone down I would have cancelled my flight!!! Parker was miserable the whole weekend and threw tantrums left and right. Poor Kevin had to do everything by himself.

It took Parker's tongue about a week to heal. During that time he barely ate. I'm already a bit very OCD about making sure the kids eat enough healthy foods so this was a really tough time for me. Kevin made Parker tons of smoothies (made w/ strawberries, bananas, kale, quinoa, protein powder, yogurt, and milk), which he thinks of as special treats and LOVES them. But after having it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a couple of days he was over them. Kevin switched to chocolate milk just to get some calories in him. Weird thing was on Thursday Kevin got a call to pick Parker up from preschool b/c he has a 101.5 temp. Parker asked for chips...umm salt + HUGE sores on tongue = not a good idea. Kevin delayed this but getting him to take a nap, but the first thing out of his mouth when he woke up was chips. Kevin said he ate a huge helping of sour cream and onion chips without any complaints. Yet on Sunday he couldn't even eat cake at his cousin's bday party! Hmm...

Anyway, when I got home from my trip on Sunday we switched him to PediaSure to make sure he gets calories. At $10 per 6 small bottles, they weren't cheap, but that was pretty much all he was "eating". I also mixed his nasty tasting antibiotics in with the PediaSure to help mask the taste. It had been a fight to get Parker to take his meds every morning and night, but this way Parker just thought yucky medicine was all gone. Sneaky, sneaky! It was a tough week, but we all made it alive...barely!

WARNING!!! Graphic pics below...you've been warned...they are quite gross looking pics of Parker's tongue! If you look and end up throwing up don't blame me...you've been warned!!!

Parker's tongue the day it happened...see the chocolate milk mustache?

This was on Friday...Dr. W warned us that lots of white stuff would be on his tongue and that it would look a lot worse than it actually was, but I was not prepared to get this text from Kevin!

On Saturday...looked much better

On Sunday...looked a whole lot better.

It's been 2 weeks and Parker's tongue is healed for the most part. There are still a couple of small spots that have tiny sores, but he hasn't complained about them and he is eating normal.