All About the Toe

Towards the end of last term Brent was starting to get annoyed with me.  He felt that the only child I cared about was James because I was forever running around to either swimming or athletics because of James.  So needless to say when he started getting a sore toe he didn't tell me about it, "because you don't care mum!"  We went into Rebel Sport and tried on some new football boots for Brent.  We had to send Scott up the shop ladder to get the boots that were in the middle of a stack of boxes, up high above the display case.  We got our hands on the box and Brent tried on the boots and yippeee they fit!  I then tell him to take off his Christ's College football socks so that he can wear his normal shoes again and I noticed that he had worn another pair of socks underneath his football socks.  I queried him about it at the time and he said "because mum I wear shin pads & they have that thing that goes over your foot, so it will be the same as that."  The way he said that to me like I was some moron stopped me from questioning further so I left it at that.

Monday came round and it was time for football trials which Brent went to.  When I picked him up afterward he was in a very angry uncommunicative mood and wouldn't tell me much except he didn't want to play this sport anymore.  I asked him why and there was no response so instead of pushing the issue I let it be.  Wednesday came and again there were football trials and again when I picked him up he was in a foul mood.  I asked him what was wrong and he said he hated the team he has been put in.  He has been put in the 14th grade so he is with the boys that are in year 10, the same boys he played with last season and they lost every game.  Oh well I can't argue with the fact that that would annoy him.

Monday 30 March James finally told me that Brent's toe looked funny.  I asked what he meant and he wouldn't tell me, so I asked Brent what was funny about his toe.  At first Brent wouldn't tell me so I told him to take his socks off so I could see what's so funny about his toe.  Oh dear, that toe wasn't looking funny at all, it was a big, red, angry, bloody mess. I asked him how long it had looked like that and Brent's response was a couple of weeks and he didn't want to tell me because he thought I wouldn't care.  Lovely he gets sick but won't tell me, because he thinks I don't care. I need to read his mind to find out that he is sick to be able to show I care. It makes no sense.

Scott and Brent went to the afterhours doctors and eventually came back home with antibiotics and being told Brent was not allowed to do running or kicking (goodbye football for a while).  After a week of antibiotics the mess hadn't really cleared up so we went back to the doctors and got more antibiotics and while we were there the doctor rang the podiatrist and the podiatrist suggested that after that lot of antibiotics were finished we should go and see him.

A week ago we saw the podiatrist for the first time and he took a good look at the ugly toe.  He came to the decision that Brent had an ingrown toenail and that it will never get fixed unless he removed part of that toenail.

Yesterday was the procedure to remove part of the toenail.  It didn't take too long and luckily he gave Brent some local anaesthetic to numb up the whole toe.  Brent was then sent home with a huge bandage on his toe and told to rest for the rest of the day, which suited Brent just fine.

We went back to the podiatrist this morning and Brent has a smaller bandage on his toe now and strict instructions not to do any running or kicking for about 6-8 weeks while his skin mends itself around the left over toenail. He has to change his dressing every second day and wear the dressing until there is no more blodd, pus coming out, probably 6 weeks.

Brent was also told by the podiatrist that next time he should actually tell his mother when he gets sore toes because it would've been easier to fix earlier on.

Dear Brent I hope you learn just one thing from this. I love you dearly and will always be there for you no matter what, but I can't do that if you don't talk to me, I am not a mind reader!