Children. One long string of trips to the emergency room

[elfs]

Well, the last picture I posted of Kouryou-chan may have been beautiful, but that's the last one that will be for a while. She smashed her mouth in this morning after slipping on the snow. She and Yamaarashi-chan were playing outside and she was getting onto the sled, slipped, and planted face-first into the ground. Unfortunately, the ground she hit was asphalted, frozen, and not covered with snow at all.

Omaha came running in with her just as I was about to hop into the shower. Blood was running down her chin and had covered her jacket. I took a look inside her mouth-- lower lip lacerated, front two teeth knocked in, trauma to the gums on the upper right. Trip to the dental ER.

We couldn't convince her to open her mouth enough to take a dental X-Ray, but the dentist said that, well, they are baby teeth, and if they're broken they'll fall out and if they're not, they'll heal and reset and she'll get a second chance with her adult teeth start to come in three years. I hope she keeps the teeth-- she has a beautiful smile.

We got home and tried to get some children's ibuprofen into her. She wouldn't drink it. We ended up putting it into an infant dosing syringe and, drop by drop, sticking it on her tongue as she held it out. It was kinda funny but it made me aware of just how much her mouth must hurt that she didn't want to open up any further than that. Omaha cleaned up her face, too; there were minor lacerations on her cheeks and nose from the fall as well.

She's drinking near-frozen watered-down apple juice through a straw and it's soft foods (lentil stew, orzo, rice soups, banana smoothies, yogurt) for the next week.

Yamaarashi-chan was wonderful through the whole ordeal, mostly staying out of the way and not delaying getting into the car on our trip to the dentist. I was the one worse freaked out, I suspect, after Kouryou-chan. The roads weren't too bad, thankfully, despite the constant snow we've had all day. The trip home was harder, the snow heavy and sticking even to the freeways, but we made it back without incident.

And now I think I'm gonna take my damn shower.

Comments

Gosh, I'm sorry

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

that really was a lovely picture, and it sounds like an awfully traumatic experience. Hope everyone feels better soon.

[swirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

That is totally sucky, I send hugs. It is a good thing she likes lentil stew.

i know how she feels

[(Anonymous)]

i did that to my self when i was about 7 but i was running to see a blimp that was flying over the house tripped over the dog and landed on a cement porch
if her teeth arnt actualy broke then she will be fine just a little sore for a few weeks she will get tired of yogurt i recomend sorbet left out for a little bit with vitamins crushed up into it so she keeps her levels up

[yarnaddict.livejournal.com]

Yeowtch. =( I'm sending positive thoughts her way. Poor dear.

[zaiah.livejournal.com]

After all is well and this is something to be remembered as another joy of childhood.. You might want the pictures then.. so be sure to take some now! :)

In other words, I'm sorry she's had such an accident and I know you'll all pull through quite nicely.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I had a horrible accident like this when I was in tenth grade. I was racing my brother down a hill on my bike, and when I realized he was winning, I sat up. The wind pulled me backwards, my feet flew forwards and got stuck in the spokes of my front wheel, and I went flying over the handlebars of my bike. I was told by witnesses that I did a double-flip.

Anyway, I landed on my face and my chest. My chest just ached for a couple of days. My face blew up like a balloon. It was many months before my face was back to anything like normal, and I still have some barely noticeable scars from the accident.

When I told Kouryou-chan about this, she said asked me if I cried, and I said oh yeah, I cried. She said, "I guess even adults cry too."

It wasn't worth it to remind her that I wasn't an adult at the time.