When I was pregnant with our twins over five years ago, I broke a tooth. At the time, I didn't go to the dentist because I had gone into pre-term labor at about 22 weeks. I didn't want to do anything that would put more of a risk on my pregnancy. I just figured I would take care of it after they were born.
The twins were born a little over 4 weeks premature. They were healthy, but they were little five pound babies. They needed to be fed every two hours for the first few weeks.
Along with caring for the twins, I also had a 1 year old and a 3 year old at home. Taking care of my tooth was the last thing on my mind.
Six months after the twins were born we packed up and moved to a different State. It was a pretty smooth move, but my husband's new job required him to work a lot of hours. Once again, I didn't get my tooth taken care of. I made sure I cleaned it well. It didn't hurt. So I just didn't bother getting it fixed.
A little over two years after our move, my husband lost his job. We lost our insurance. I went back to work.
After nine month of being unemployed, my husband was blessed with another job. I stayed working for a few months more and then I came home to be with our children. In that time, my tooth broke off more.
I still ignored it. I kept it clean. It didn't hurt. So I didn't go see anyone about it.
A couple days ago I took my kids to the dentist to get their teeth cleaned. While I was there, I asked the dentist about my tooth. It had been hurting lately, so I thought it best that I had it looked at.
The dentist office wasn't busy so they took a quick x-ray. My tooth is abscessed. The dentist told me that my tooth couldn't be saved. He will have to extract my tooth.
I had to fight back tears.
I felt so shallow, vain, thinking only of my appearance. It is just a tooth. This is not who I am.
I know this may sound silly, but I have already been struggling with my weight over the past couple years, now I am loosing a tooth. I felt ugly. I thought of my husband and how I was not pleasing to his eyes. It still makes me cry.
The whole point of this post is to remind moms to take care of themselves. Life gets busy. Taking care of small children, a home, a husband, it all takes up all our time.
If I had just found an hour or two to take care of myself all those years ago, my tooth wouldn't be infected and it wouldn't be getting pulled.
We, as mothers, seem to take care of everyone but ourselves. But if we don't start taking care of ourselves we could loose a lot more than a tooth.
I pray for all of you moms out there who are caring for your husband, children and home. I pray that you take time to care for yourself. I pray that you don't feel guilty for taking that time to care for yourself. I pray that you remember caring for yourself is part of caring for everyone else.
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