Cue Adrenaline

Last night our Enrichment Board put on the first, of what I understand will be several, Fireside Chats. If you happen to be an old fogey you may remember a certain US President hosting this in a National Style gathered around an old radio. I, being not so fogey, yet, do not recall these. But it sounded like a nice night.

I did attend and was in the process of being uplifted and even enriched, which was the whole idea after all, when my cell phone rings LOUDLY. I forgot to put it on vibrate. (and during a very sentimental story by the speaker, of all times) I gathered my stuff and ran into the hall to answer. This is what I hear once I yank it out of my pocket and ask, hello?

"Syd won't stop bleeding. And I think she needs stitches. Please come home IMMEDIATELY."

All the while Sydney is screaming in the background. Needless to say, I morph into Momma-Bear Mode and run for the car. I think I sped all the way home...only 3 blocks....but I don't remember the drive. I DO remember wondering WHAT PART my baby girl was bleeding from.

I walk in the door and things sound considerably calmer, but my girl is happy to see me, and I can tell her Dad is too. We cuddle and love and I clean her up a little. Soon she is calm enough that I can ask what the heck happened to my girl's lip.

As is the custom of Dad's bedtime routine, they were preparing to play a computer game together. Sydney, being her independent little self was trying to get the best seat available and slipped, smacking her lip against the edge of the desk. She had blood coming from the inside and outside of her lower lip. She BLED like crazy. Dad was afraid she would need to puke it up, she swallowed THAT much....and I found papertowels on the counter like the one pictured just below...

Because of all the blood it was hard to tell if we were dealing with 2 seperate wounds, or one big hole that went through her lip. I called our on-call Doc and left a message with as much info as I could....stating I didn't think stiches could be done INSIDE the lip and that there is a TIMEFRAME after injury that they need to be done, and should I take her to the ER for the outer lip, as it's only 1/2 inch and I couldn't tell how deep at that point...it was about 9pm and Instacare was closing.

Can you believe that I have never made a visit to the ER with any of my children? Me neither. Knock-knock....that's me knocking on wood...

When the Doc called back we spoke and decided that based on the size of the wound and the fact that it wasn't gaping we would be alright just leaving it be. She may have a small scar though. He said I seemed to know alot, and was I a nurse? No, I answered, but I do have 3 kids! I took that as a compliment! (and left out the fact that I sometimes dream of doing just that when I "grow my kids up" and want another job).

This is about an hour after the injury....before it had time to swell so much, like it did today, but after bleeding had all but stopped..

Here is the outside of the lip. You can tell at this point that this laceration was made from the upper teeth, and not the same teeth that cut the inside. Poor baby is pretty swollen today, but we're keeping the frozen go-gurts coming.

Here's to NO ER visits!!