This is going to be long, just so you know from the get go, but I promise by the end it will come full circle hopefully for you as it has for me!
This past week has not been the best of weeks for the Derting's. I have had a rough couple of weeks at work since Christmas break, don't get me wrong I LOVE my job, but it has been very trying lately. On Tuesday I had a meeting all day and I had this little bump on my chin and I squeezed and squeezed all day trying to get it to pop (there will be some gross parts, so beware) and it popped a little, but it was still there. By Tuesday night I had self diagnosed myself with a boil. I tried the old remedy from my Grandma to put a raw potato on it with a band aid on top. I did it for a couple of hours and nothing.
Wednesday morning it was bigger and harder and still nothing would come out of it. It was almost on my jaw line and it had a little round place of dried blood (told ya, gross). So I went to work and took some Tylenol and kept heating up a paper towel and applying it because it made it feel some better. By lunch it looked a little better, so when I got home dumb, dumb me squeezed some more and I felt it move around, but NOTHING would come out!
Thursday morning it had swollen up into my lip. So it was swollen from my jaw line to my lip and as much I hated to go to the doctor by this point I was scared it could be something very serious and convinced myself that I must go see someone. I got ready, put make-up on everywhere, but that part of my face and went to work with a swollen lip. I called the doctor 1st thing and they said come at 10. ALL I asked was that they not cut my face open because I didn't want a ridiculous scar on my face. The doctor looked at it and said he wasn't sure what it was, but that he wanted to try and SQUEEZE something out of it...okay go ahead, but I have tried and it hasn't worked. He put a glove on and stuck one finger in mouth, in front of my teeth and the other on the outside and pushed till I almost cried! And guess what NOTHING! He said he didn't know if it was the dreaded word MRSA, but since nothing would come out he couldn't test it to see, so he gave me an antibiotic to heal the "bacterial" infection that he thought it was. He said since it was so hard (a very tough knot the width of a quarter from my jaw to lip) he didn't think it was MRSA, but couldn't be positive. He recommended that if it got any worse I go to the hospital the next day. So I came home took my meds and slept the rest of the day...mostly in pain.
Friday I called into work because as soon as I stood up the pressure from standing caused it to throb. Brooks called in as well to stay with me and take care of Missy. Now I think I should say that it probably was a little worse, but I kept telling myself it wasn't. I slept most of the day and looked and felt horrible. I prayed that something would show me that it was going to be ok, so that I would know that I didn't need to go to the hospital. I finally broke down Friday night and decided that if it wasn't better by Saturday I would have to go to the hospital because it was so tough and hard I couldn't talk or open my mouth to eat. Friday night I couldn't sleep because I had slept longer in 2 days than I have in 6 months, so I stayed up till about 3 and felt like the meds had finally started to kick in. It didn't look any better, but it was feeling a little better.
Yesterday morning I got up and ran to the mirror and it was swollen again, but it felt better and Brooks said give it an hour to see if it goes down since I had been sleeping on it. I got up and started our winter cleaning. And by mid morning I could see a small difference THANKFULLY! By the afternoon I had 2 whiteheads on it that I was to scared to touch because the lesson has been learned that you should NEVER squeeze a bump! SO I let it sit and watched it get bigger and bigger, but left it alone. I went to bed hopeful that it would drain during the night.
So this morning I hear Britan coughing in her room (Brooks has finally convinced me that she sleeps better in her crib, probably because I was incoherent for the past 3 days). SO I ran in there and she cried a little and coughed a little, so I FREAKED out, go figure. I started looking up whooping cough because I have heard how dangerous it can be, but Brooks was certain that it wasn't that, that she probably has her first cold and I started thinking that maybe its her first tooth. I took a HOT shower and little her sit in the mist in the bathroom to open her up. AND then it happened I finally stuck a needle in the whitehead and it began to.........................I will not share anymore about it because it was the worst thing I have ever seen and through the 2 hour process I told Brooks I would rather have 10 kids in 1 day compared to this. I thought that it looked 100 times better and I decided that I was going to the store because I needed to get out. I put new make-up on and through out the old and stuck an Angry Birds band aid over the open part and went out the door. I thought I looked pretty cool with my band aid and compared to the past 4 days this was HUGE improvement. I was very enlightened and my eyes were definitely opened at the local grocery store. I knew I wasn't dressed in my Sunday best, but my hair was fixed, 1/2 my face had make-up and I had on clean clothes, but you would have thought by MANY of the looks and stares I got that I had rolled out of a trashcan and picked up a band aid on face along the way. I was very disappointed to see how society really feels about people that don't "appear" to be normal. I kept my head held high and still said please and thank you. It makes me sad to think that there are such unkind people in the real world and most had on their Sunday best!
I am getting to the circle, so keep reading......
Through the past few days of what I felt was misery, not being able to move, eat or talk without pain has made me realize how much in life I take for granted. Now that my sweet baby acts like she doesn't feel well for the 1st time in her life, it is misery all over again and now all I want is to make her better, forget about my face......................BUT
Once I see how others are so much worse than us and how this morning when I checked Facebook and saw Prayers for Pearce, a little girl that wasn't suppose to make it once she was born and now she is 11 months old...., but now they don't know how much longer she has. I don't personally know this family and I will not even try to describe what her diagnosis is, but I have followed her story for over a year now and seeing her mommy hold her in the hospital bed not knowing what the next week, day, minute or even second may bring reminds me that I have so many blessings to be thankful for and so many things that are so pointless when you look at the big picture of life.
So to those that decided to give the unkind stares today, I pray for you and I hope that you never have to endure the pain that many others in this world are experiencing this very minute! I am very thankful for this crazy thing that has happened to my face because through this I have learned MANY unforgettable lessons, first and for most DON'T SQUEEZE A BUMP, but most of all the many blessings and abilities that I am blessed with everyday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for taking the time to come full circle with me and I only ask that you say a little prayer for a little girl named Pearce!
Much love from the Derting's!
