Saturday, August 21, 2010

Our ER visit (warnig: blood mentioned)


Don't mind her lunch all over her cheeks and still in her mouth. This actually looks good and much smaller than how it was initially. That "hole" was huge and more detached.

Just an added bonus. I finally found out why the toilet is getting clogged and where all our toilet paper is going! Apparently Kate thing the whole roll is needed to get the job done.

This is her lower lip where her teeth had gone in.

The "outfit" she wore for me to pick up the prescription. A ballerina PJ shirt, with a tutu and dora underpants. At the pharmacy they asked me if I was "new in town" how could they tell!?! Just 4 kids and one in underwear? They also were kind enough to tell me they deliver :)

Wednesday night we had just finished up dinner when all of the sudden Kate just fell and smacked her mouth on the edge of our wooden bench. I jumped up from my chair and immediately grabbed her and already there was blood everywhere. I grabbed a dish cloth and wet it with cold water and just shoved it in her mouth and had her bite on it. There was so much blood I didn't even know where it was coming from. I was just hoping and praying she still had some teeth left. After the bleeding slowed a little I could see that she had put some teeth into her lower lip. I thought maybe that was what happened but when I let go of the rag the bleeding was still pretty intense and I knew there had to be an injury somewhere else. I lifted her upper lip and sure enough she had cut the ligament(frenum) between her two front teeth and up into her lip. It looked like a big and deep cut, but again with all the blood it was a little hard to tell. We called our Bishop and he quickly reccomended a pediatric dentist. We called him and explained our situation and he thought we better take her to the ER to have a oral surgeon look at her. We called some friends we just made in the ward and asked if we could drop our older kids off. In our experience with ER's in the past you basically wonder how many hours or days later you will get out of there. The hospital is right behind our house, literally walking distance so we got there quickly and ran in. By the time I got there Kate was beginning to calm down. Her mouth was quite swollen by then but the bleeding was under control. She was so sweet and good the whole time. The checked us in then we went to triage and she never fussed or told them not to look at it. They took us back quickly to be seen. Side note: When I got to the ER I was so annoyed because a woman in front of me had just brought in her little girl with a little rash on her arm. I wasn't aware that a rash on an arm warranted an ER visit(insert sarcasm here) I was just mad that my daughter was distressed and bleeding all over. Anyway... The nurse came in then the Dr. soon after. They decided not to do stitches and said it would heal either way. I was shocked because I have seen this type of accident several times and with this severity there was always stitches. For Kate's benefit though I was glad she wouldn't have to go through that and be traumatized etc. She was as sweet as could be the whole time. The Dr. looked her over completely and also found she was getting an ear infection in her left ear. I couldn't believe it. I don't think she has ever had an ear infection and she hadn't fussed about anything. They were going to put her on antibiotics for her mouth to help avoid infection and said it would also help her ear.

I think we were in and out of there within an hour. They even gave her a dose of antibiotic and pain meds right then so that we wouldn't have to go to the pharmacy that night. I was so impressed! I felt like we were so blessed that night that most importantly it wasn't more serious, 2nd that our friends who we've known such a short time were so willing to take our kids, and 3rd that we were in and our so quickly and so well taken care of.

We had a follow up appointment for Kate yesterday and things are healing well and the ear looks good. She was such a brave little trooper and we were so proud of her and so glad she' doing so well.

3 comments:

Jessica said...

Oh my goodness - that is a big hole!!! Poor thing - glad it was not worse!

Jordan Merrell said...

I am so glad that everything turned out ok and that you had friends that you could leave the other kids with. Poor little kate, she is such a trooper and I love her outfit that she wore to the pharmacy. :)

Angelle said...

Wow, Ash! Poor little thing. You're really starting off on the East Coast with a bang!