So yesterday, we were getting ready to leave Charlotte to go back to Durham after a quick one-day visit (to see my dad, who is doing great, btw).
I finish packing the car and head upstairs to get the girls who are playing on my parents’ treadmill. Lucy wants to show me “One More Thing” and she turns to get on the treadmill. Instead, she trips over my mom’s foot and lands face first on the base of the treadmill. Her lip is split wide open and her top front tooth has been pushed back. We get ready to go to the ER when I realize that we’re probably going to wait 5 hours for them to tell me they don’t do anything with split lips. So instead we go to my niece Tess’ pediatrician who sends us to a plastic surgeon. 4 hours later we arrive back at my parents’ house, 8 stitches in Lucy’s lower lip.
It’s heartbreaking. HEARTBREAKING I tell you. And Lucy is definitely discombobulated about the whole thing. But she was a Trooper (with a capital T) yesterday. Very deserving of nothing but popsicles to eat for the next week.
And, hey. We now have the first notch in our totem pole.
Awww… poor Lucy. I have to say, you sound remarkably calm about the whole thing. Reading between the lines, I’m going to assume you weren’t quite so calm right when it first happened. 😉 Either that or you’re just amazing.
I gasped when I saw the word “treadmill”.
Poor thing!
I think it’s proportinal as to how much blood they lose—that’s at least how much drains out of you as you deal with the trauma. And every time I look at Skyler’s tongue(a la the slide mishap we had), and the chunk missing…every time my heart and stomach seizes up. Just remember that they are INCREDIBLY resilient.
Lucy and I were both covered in blood instantly. Ultimately I got to wash off our hands and arms but not our clothes. Once we were back at my parents’ house, I asked Lucy if she wanted to see what her lip looked like. After staring at herself in the full-length mirror for a minute or two and asking me what the stitches were she said, “Mama! Look how messy I am! Look how messy my shirt is!”
And Erin — the interesting thing is this: right when it first happened, I was as calm as chamomile tea. Only after we went downstairs and the bleeding slowed down enough that I could see that her tooth was bashed in did things start to unravel for me. I broke my own tooth when I was nine (full story here) and it still makes me sick with fear to think of that happening to Zoe or Lucy. Much much worse, for me, than stitches or broken bones. Can’t really explain that, but I can tell you that my own tooth ached all day yesterday.
Hey I just had my own “first experience with stitches” last night. My son also cut his lip only the upper lip and right in the center. I thought I was gonna lose it seeing the blood drip out of his lip & the anxiety of knowing what he was in for at the hospital. It didn’t help that the plastic surgeon at the hospital had absolutely no tolerance for my son or children who cry in general. He made an already horrific situation only that much worse. I had to hold down my son who was blindfolded and terrified for what seemed to be the longest 10 minutes of my life! I watch him very carefully now to prevent future injuries. I was wondering if you did anything special to prevent infection. I am keeping his mouth area as clean & dry as I can and he’s on antibiotic but did you do anything special during the healing process? Rub any antibacterial ointment on Lucy’s lip? I feel your pain. It’s rewarding being a mom but certainly NOT easy.
Your personal story helped worry wart moms like me, so thanks for your story.
Karen-