His Unfortunate Little Mouth

 In jail on post-op day 2 while cousin Hailey looks on

My sister and her cute children are staying with my parents for a month.  Madeline, Benson, and I went down to visit for a week.  We had the best time.  It was a week full of family, shopping, talking, sewing, and not having to deal with our 2 oldest because they playing together ALL DAY LONG, everyday.  It was seriously the best week.  Until the 6th day.

Benson was was having a good ole' time looking a the library books stacked on the ceramic tile hearth after breakfast on Tuesday morning.  He slipped on a book on the floor with his pajamaed foot, and his mouth hit the edge of the hearth.  Hard.  Hard enough that we could hear it.  I ran to him and saw that he had bitten his lower lip.  Then I saw blood on a book on the floor.  He was hysterical.  I looked in his mouth and saw that his top teeth were pushed back in his mouth, and his top gum was, I don't know, all messed up.  And lots of blood.  You might think a nurse would be all calm and collected in this type of situation.  You would be wrong.  I panicked.  I couldn't think straight, and didn't have a clue what to do or where to go.  Everything is different when it's your own child.  My sister called my dad and got the location of the nearest urgent care facility.  I gave Benson some tylenol, put on some necessary underwear, found some shoes, and ran out the door.  My heart nearly broke putting him in his car seat.  Those things are the worst sometimes.

We were triaged well at the urgent care, and didn't have to wait but a few minutes.  The doctor took one look in his mouth, and immediately left to call a surgeon.  There was an oral maxillo-facial surgeon just down the road, and we were told to head over there right away.  The surgeon came out into the waiting room to look at Benson.  He told me that his maxilla was broken and he would need to set the bone, suture his gums, reset his teeth, and put a brace over his teeth.  He could start the procedure in five minutes.  I guess teeth injuries are time sensitive in order to preserve them, and it's still possible he won't keep them.  He gave him a shot of ketamine and versed in the waiting room to sedate him.  Benson was asleep within a couple of minutes.

We took him right back and started the procedure.  The doctor allowed me to stay in the room and watch because of my professional background.  And he felt it necessary to announce to the staff in the room that I'm a recovery room nurse.  Like, be one your best behavior - she's watching.  I chose to sit.  Everything is different with your own child.  He was able to just use local to numb the area instead of giving him IV sedation.  They finished in about 15-20 minutes and put him right in my arms.  He woke up and we headed back to my parents' house.  I was so impressed by how we were treated by the staff and both facilities, and how quickly everything went that morning.

A couple of hours later after he got a nice nap and a little bit to eat, Benson decided to get up and walk.  He fell right on his face and his mouth filled up with blood.  Again.  The bleeding stopped, but one of his front teeth was pushed down a bit.  I'm still just sick about it.

So, he can't walk unless we're holding his hand, he can't have his beloved bottle, he has to eat a soft diet (so basically he's back to baby food), and he is MA-AD about it.  All of his best tricks are off limits for now, like climbing up the slide in the backyard, and diving off the couch head first.  We just carry him around most of the day, or put him in the playpen with toys.  He's always been able to drink well from a cup, but he's been boycotting them for the most part this week.  And he's decided baby food is completely lame.  Two more weeks of this, and then we have his follow-up appointment where he'll get his little braces off and hopefully get the ok to get our lives back to normal.

Here's the question of the day:  Why do kids do all kinds of crazy things and not get hurt, and then one day get really hurt not doing anything crazy at all?

Post-op day three.  No pics of the first day - we weren't at all in the mood.  The swelling had already gone down a ton.