Toe Jams!

Since I mentioned Ethan's infected toe in the previous post I figured I'd go into detail with it, just a little though. I wouldn't even bring it up except for the fact that Ethan made it seem as though his toe infection was going to kill him. Also the interesting way I had to step in to save the day despite hubby's efforts.

About a week ago Ethan comes to me telling me that his big toe hurts so I take a look at it to make sure he didn't cut it or anything which he didn't. I ask him if something fell on it or if he stubbed his toe somewhere and he says no so I tell him that maybe his shoes squeezed him too tight and to brush it off. Days pass by and occasionally he complains about his toe but miraculously he can run up and down the stairs and rough play with his brother and also play outside with it. One day it was really bothering him so I look again and its swollen but I didn't see any cuts on it so I put alcohol on it and tell him to chill out. By the end of that day it was filled with puss so we got alarmed.

I remembered getting little infections as a kid and the process my mom did to get rid of it. So I proceed to follow the same process. I boiled some water for him to soak his foot in so the skin would be soft enough for me to pierce with a small needle or tweezer and squeeze all the puss out. I then realized that he had an ingrown toe nail and that's what caused the infection. Hubby then steps in and says he wants to get it out for him since he's a man and he felt Ethan would be more comfortable with him doing it so I step aside and tell him what to do then leave them be. Before he even put a hand on the toe, Ethan begins to scream bloody murder as if his toe nails were getting plucked out. It took hubby 30 minutes to calm him down and he still didn't get any puss out because he refused to let him squeeze it. So we put some more alcohol on it and sent him to bed.

The next morning I check in on him and realize that he had a fever which meant the infection was getting worse so I was determined to squeeze some of the puss out but we still decided to take him to the doctor to get some antibiotics. So I start the process and proceed to squeeze his toe. Again, Ethan screamed bloody murder. Hubby and I had to hold him down and I had to squeeze as fast as I could. Luckily I got a good amount out and he felt a little better.

I told this story to say that no matter what happens or how dirty the work is, moms will always get the job done. The night before hubby took 30 minutes trying to coach Ethan and merely touched the toe and wanted to do it because he's the daddy and he thought Ethan would get tough with him and let him do it so I gave him the opportunity to do it since I didn't want to control the situation. In the end I got the job done because despite all the screaming and squirming Ethan did, the 1 minute of pain made him feel hours of relief afterwards. So no matter how small or huge the task is at hand, moms will ALWAYS get the work done to make sure their babies are all better. (The pic above doesn't do much justice to how his toe really looked. This was taken 2 days after the first attempt at squeezing the puss out.)