We bought Mara a new nightgown yesterday, but she was having a hard time getting it on thanks to the flowy material that made it all princess-y. As she was trying to get off the couch to have John help her put her nightgown on, she fell face first into the coffee table. By the loud thud she made, we thought she hit her head until blood started pouring out of her mouth.
It took us a while to figure out what was going on – that she had gouged her gum above one of her top teeth. I'm not one to typically run to the doctor/hospital for every single thing, so I had John call his sister, Kendra, as soon as we spotted the source of the blood. We then called the nurse line and waited for the nurse to call back.
We finally heard back from the nurse at 10:15 pm – a little more than an hour after she fell and hurt herself. The nurse thought it would be best to go ahead and take her to the ER since she could have also sustained a neck injury based on how she fell. We were already prepared to head there since her mouth still hadn't stopped bleeding. We were also a little concern about how hard she tried to go to sleep about 30 minutes after she hurt herself. There was also concern that at least one of her teeth might have been knocked loose. We tried to look ourselves, but she wouldn't let either one of us do much with her mouth. The most we could tell was that she cut her gums since we could see her tooth above her gum line. We told her that if we took her to the hospital she would have to let the doctor look in her mouth, and she was OK with that.
We made it to Plano Presby a little before 11 pm and checked in. It took a little bit to get her in for the initial evaluation, but then they said she would get a room shortly. That shortly ended up being almost 30-45 minutes later because a car accident victim came in and bumped Mara. Around midnight, Mara finally fell asleep in my arms while waiting to get her room. Since she was asleep, they just had us lay her in the bed to wait.
(Yes, I took pictures. :) Mainly because I thought Mara might be disappointed in not actually getting to see the ER room after all the waiting she did – and so patiently too.)
A physician's assistant came in and took a look at her. Apparently beside the gash in her gum, she also tore her frenulum (the little flap of skin that attaches the gum to the inside of the lip). I bet you are trying to feel that with your tongue right now, aren't you? :) Luckily, she didn't knock any of her teeth loose in the fall.
There wasn't anything the PA could do about the injuries since they were inside the mouth, and the PA was afraid of trapping bacteria and making it worse by stitching it. Instead, we were sent home with a prescription for ibuprofen and an antibiotic. Mara also has to be on a soft diet for the next week because we don't want anything to reinjure her mouth.
She seems to be doing well now. She has a huge fat lip, but she's doing OK.
(Poor girl is trying to smile in the second picture.)
However, we can definitely tell when the ibuprofen wears off as she becomes very cranky. We'll probably still take her to school tomorrow so we can get some stuff done around the house, but it will be for an abbreviated day.
On a side note, John and I got to watch the first 15-20 minutes of Bee Movie. It looked really cute, and I think we'll eventually get it so we can watch the whole thing.
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