On Thursday, February 16th, my phone rang around 4:00 pm. It was Craig. I took a deep breath. I mean, it couldn’t be anything much about the two of us. The week before we finalized our divorce and we both seem to be moving on quite well. He told me that he got a call from school, Aleck had fallen, and he wanted me to cancel his Hebrew lessons for the afternoon. Well, Aleck falls a lot, why don’t we assess the situation before we start canceling stuff, was my answer. Craig started protesting but I told him to just call me when he got to school. But before Craig called he sent over the photo of Aleck, face all bloody, lying on the floor of the school. Fuck Hebrew lessons, I was shaking and in tears. Then Craig called. We should call our friend, the pediatric orthodontist he said, we should call Aleck’s dentist I said, so I did. His dentist wasn’t in but I spoke with the receptionist who did a great job of calming me down and helping to guide me through the next steps. She wanted me to take photos of Aleck’s mouth, send them to her, and she would tell me whether we should go to the ER or not. If we went to the ER we needed to go to Illinois Masonic because Lurie doesn’t have dental services, plus IM is where his dentist works teaching the residents there. As the photos of the inside of Aleck’s mouth dropped into my messages I knew we were going to the ER. I sent them to her anyway and she confirmed, so Craig brought Aleck there and I met them.
It was weird being back in crisis mode again, but now as separate individuals, no longer a complete family unit. However, it didn’t affect the way we operated. I stopped at Craig’s apartment first to walk Sox and grab Aleck’s IPad and Switch so we had what he needed to wait out an ER visit, while Craig checked them in and got the ball rolling in the ER. I took Aleck through the CT scan while Craig ran to pick up the prescriptions at the nearest CVS before it closed. I held Aleck down and forced him into cooperation while the nurse slapped some gauze on his torn-up chin, Craig blew up rubber gloves to make them look like turkeys and get a giggle from Aleck.
While waiting in between nurse and resident visits, Aleck was mostly on his IPad, the group chat with his classmates was going wild. Many of them had seen the fall, they were coming out of Anime club at the time, and they were all very concerned. Originally called, “Serial Killers” the group chat was changed to “RIP Aleck’s Teeth” while we were in the ER. The kids were having a blast talking about who in the class they should take teeth from to donate to Aleck’s cause. It was definitely the type of love and support he needed while the blood was still pouring out of his face.
The CT scan showed that his upper jaw bone is fractured. They got ahold of his dentist and decided that nothing was going to be done this evening. We had an appointment to see his dentist the next morning and they would probably be pulling down those two front teeth that were knocked up into his nostrils, and then brace them. As we left the ER, in about three hours’ time which is a record for any ER visit, we think this was probably the 6th one, Aleck started asking to go back to my place. Thursday evenings are Craig’s evenings and I’m pretty sure if I would have asked Craig would have sent Aleck home with me. But I wanted to prepare myself for the next 5 days. I wanted to get one more good night of sleep, I wanted to get one workout in the next morning, I wanted to do a few things for myself before I dedicated the next five days to being a full-time nurse-mommy. It would be the first time I’ve taken care of wounded Aleck without someone to tag in when I needed a break and run off to Target to get lost in the dollar section. I pulled Craig aside and he totally understood, agreeing that even though our hand-off time is 4:30 pm I’d be taking Aleck back to my place after the dentist’s office the next morning. We hugged and the boys went home.
The next morning I got in my workout, grabbed coffee and a protein bar, and headed to the dentist. They had already done an assessment of Aleck’s situation and were taking X-Rays. Nothing was going to be done right now. For the next ten days, our job is to keep away infection, keep him fed and hydrated, let the swelling go down, and let his mouth heal. In addition to the teeth that were knocked up, one tooth is also loose, and he bit down so hard when he fell that he made huge sores in his bottom lip, having bitten through it. I brought Aleck home with me, fed him some cottage cheese, made him comfortable, and placed my Instacart order of soft foods and a bottle of Old Grandad. I knew it was going to be a long 5 days.