Monthly Archive for August, 2009

We had our first emergency-ish injury last Friday. Nothing too serious or even remotely life threatening but it was still probably the most serious injury one of our kids has had to date. I got the call at work that Lily had been jumping up and down and had bitten her tongue pretty badly. I could hear her crying in the background which was just heartbreaking. I called the doctor’s office and the nurse told me that they rarely do stitches in the tongue and to give her a popsicle and call them if it continue to bleed for more than an hour. I called Jason to let him know what was going on and then called Kelly back to tell her what the nurse had said and let her know that I was on my way to see Lily.

I don’t think anything could have prepared me for seeing Lily’s tongue that first time. I felt my entire body body wince when I saw the gaping gash on the left side of her tongue about a third of the way back. No measurements were taken but I would guess that she bit almost half way through her tongue. Immediately I decided that I would take her to the doctor. I called the peds office on the way out of the neighborhood and asked if I should bring her to them, PromptCare or the emergency room. They said to bring her to them so they could check her out. Got in right away to see the nurse practitioner who agreed that it was a pretty bad cut. However, she said that the mouth heals very quickly so it rarely requires stitches. We left with instructions for Motrin and soft, cool foods. Lily was being so tough but was still having trouble holding back her tears. Every time she took the bloodied washcloth out of her mouth she cried and when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror she welled up again.

As we were leaving the doctor’s office I called Jason to give him an update and also called Kelly to tell her I was just going to take Lily home. We both agreed that if that injury didn’t require stitches we didn’t want to see one that did need stitches. I can’t even imagine.

Got her home and she ate a lot of ‘go-gurt’ (yogurt in little squeeze tubes) and some mini pancakes. We watched Tinkerbell and then she fell asleep on the couch during the first part of Sleeping Beauty. Her mood improved amazingly throughout the evening. She even asked to go for a walk after dinner. More pancakes and yogurt for dinner.

She slept great and woke up in a pretty good mood. I can’t believe how much better her tongue looked on Saturday morning. The cut was still bad but it’s not as gaping as it was on Friday afternoon. I would say it was almost 50% healed. Amazing! It continues to slowly improve but it does seem to have a long way to go yet. Hopefully it will be mostly healed by the end of the week? I have no idea how long it will take.

Of course, I had to document the injury… Link below if you want to have a look. This picture was taken not quite 24 hours after the injury.

Lily’s tongue