10 little monkeys jumping on the bed,
one fell off and knocked his head,
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"
Har, har, har. I know what you are thinking. "5 kids, 10 kids, same thing." Well, it's not. I only have 5. And today, one of my little monkeys jumped on the couch, fell onto the coffee table, and knocked her head. She knocked her head so hard that her teeth almost poked through the lip, some teeth loosened, and she might have a gap in her pearly whites a little earlier than normal.
Since she split her lip, the amount of blood pouring out terrified us all a little bit. Her pj's absorbed so much blood that her injury looked much more serious than it was. My stoic 13 year old typically takes charge whenever any of the other kids has an injury. Today, she tried her best to disinfect the wound, but the blood kept pumping all over the sink and bathroom floor.
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| She liked looking at the pictures I took of her. It distracted her from the pain. |
As the bloody girl and I walked into the ER, ambulance workers stopped pushing a gurney to nudge each other and point at her. People on the sidewalk stopped walking and stepped aside to stare at us walking past them. The ER staff saw her and ran from whatever they were doing to see what was wrong. The amount of blood on her was impressive. This was not the red carpet attention I was looking for.
Of course, my little patient was more stoic than her mother. I didn't have the stomach to look at her wound at home nor did I have the stomach for it at the hospital. My queasy reactions when they probed her lip prompted them to get me to sit down and prevent, "a second patient." Silly, medical staff. I don't pass out. I just gross out and make everyone wish that I would just pass out.
Better than any anesthetic, my girl was glued to the TV. She watched PBS and the Disney channel with undivided attention. Without TV channels at home, she isn't bored by these shows. Her eyes never once left the TV screen while the doctor described the needles or the stitching until he mentioned popsicles. Once he said the word popsicles, her eyes momentarily flashed towards me as her eyebrows shot up. That made the doctor and me laugh. Finally a reaction!
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| She watched the TV through that hole in the sheet thingee. |
Well, my girl took the needles, the pain, the tugging, and the sewing all with minimal whimpering. Anytime she cried out in pain, I kept reminding her that we'd hit the dollar store for a prize. Of course, afterwards I tried to back out of it, "Can we just get a toy from the grocery store since I need to buy you some soft food anyway?" Nope. I'd promised the dollar store during that pain, therefore to the dollar store we went.
She chose something that broke as soon as we got home, but she was happy. A little children's Advil for the swelling and she was good to go, running around the house like nothing happened before. One time she bonked her head on a door which made her sister and me look at each other in disbelief. Will this girl send us back to the ER so soon? Let's hope not.
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| 10 stitches |
we have done SO many trips to the ER.
ReplyDeleteAbout a year ago, we were in there for one *exactly* like yours (except ours invovled and older brother's wrestling move.) Anyway....the doctor was a young one, and she insisted that the "new progressive" way to handle serious mouth wounds was NO STITCHES. Well, the mouth was really bad, and I was skeptical, but I went for it.
Verdict? A year later, my kiddo's going to have to have corrective oral surgery. He's got a hunk of skin inside his mouth that hangs down, and he already had a speech impediment. It's awful.
Moral? Get the stiches over and done with! Once they're done, they're done! Good job Mom, and little girl ;-)
That story is horrific! Don't tell me they tried gluing the lip. Anywhere in the mouth will get wet...how can glue withstand that?
ReplyDeleteThis is a good reminder for us to go with our gut feelings. We trust the doctors because they are trained professionals who've supposedly seen more of these cases then we'll ever see in our life. However, sometimes a mother's intuition knows best.
i've totally morphed into "that Mom" who insists on my way or the highway with the medical professionals. this was the same kid who limped around on a broken ankle for THREE MONTHS before the Drs. finally X-rayed the right part of his body. i kept bringing him back saying, "he's not getting better!" 5 leg and knee casts later, they finally casted his foot. i should have learned my lesson that go-round. that was a BAD summer....he was in a cast so long, he got foot rot, like the soldiers in 'Nam.
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