I knew it!

I decided to start work early, 6:30 a.m., since I had to leave at around 5:00 p.m. for my dentist appointment. The phone rang at around 7:00 a.m. “Gaudie is not going to school. He has been throwing up since last night. Can he stay there with you?” That was Mama. “I think he had too much pasta last night. He threw up. I gave him warm milk. Threw up again. This morning, I think we didn’t warm the soup up really good. He threw up again,” she added. Yan na nga ba ang sinasabi ko. She probably let him eat as much as he could. You can’t do that to kids.

Seven-year old Gaudie stayed with me while I worked. I let him take a nap in RK’s bed. Later, he went downstairs and I gave him some arrowroot cookies. That was the closest thing to crackers that we had. (I didn’t realize that we had Skyflakes.) I knew that crackers are the best thing if you are throwing up (like when you have morning sickness during pregnancy). I gave him water to drink, from the Brita, not cold. He was fine. He didn’t throw up. I let him watch TV until around noon. We went to their house and waited for his siblings. Then he asked for his bucket and begun throwing up. I decided to call Dr. D. It was a good thing that we got an appointment at 1:00 p.m.

Dr. D told me to give him crackers (I was right), diluted apple juice, ginger ale, Powerade, or 7-up (I knew that too).

The sidewalks were very icy. It can be very tricky walking on ice. I tried to avoid the shiny ice as much as possible. But kids just slide through ice as if they’re skating. I see them sliding through the ice gracefully on their way to school. Sometimes, I still slip.

I left at around 5:00 p.m. for my dentist’s appointment. It was already pitch dark outside. Houses and apartments were lit with Christmas lights.

I had a root canal. I asked the dental assistant how long it would take. She told me about an hour and a half. She placed the rubber dam around my mouth, which would be open for the entire procedure. I wasn’t looking forward to that. Dr. J told me to open my mouth as wide as I could. He started poking and probing on my tooth. I held on to the armrests for my dear life. Sometimes he would squish my lips really hard. That felt uncomfortable. We were done in an hour. Dr. J couldn’t finish the root canal because it was complicated. There was not enough room in one of the canals for him to get through. He referred me to a periodontist, a specialist who will finish the procedure.