Fat lip

Poor Emma did not have a good day yesterday. Her cold had her coughing when she tried to nap so she did not nap for more than 45 minutes. That meant that she was running on empty for most of the day. By late afternoon she was pretty tired. Just when I left the room to get her a kleenex for her booggies she fell off the very short chair, richoceted off the wall onto the floor, and jammed her top teeth into her bottom lip. I came running because I could tell that her cries were not "normal" cries- something was obviously wrong. In my haste I almost ran over Susan. I scooped Emma up and instantly became frazzled because of the blood that was pouring out of her mouth. The kleenex in my hand helped keep the blood from saturating us on our way to the kitchen sink. I'll spare you the gory details. Let's leave it that the rug needed to be cleaned, and Emma's shirt, pants, and my jeans all needed to be soaked.

Emma squirmed for the entire 15 minutes that I attempted to hold a cloth-covered ice cube to the inside of her lip. Susan looked online for helpful tips, and then I finally called my mom (who is a nurse). Susan called Steve and told her to get home ASAP, and then we called the doctor's office. The urgent care nurse (or whoever answered the phone) was not very nice. In fact, her greeting was so unintelligible that I asked her to slow down and repeat herself. (Was her 22 month old crying, bleeding, and was she personally having the shakes from the whole experience? If that was all true then she should not be answering the phone to talk to people who were also experiencing all of that and just wanting some advice for how to proceed. Jeez.) Anyway, the bleeding stopped and the gash was not all the way through her lip so we stayed home and had dinner. After about 30 minutes of being coddled, iced and examined Emma was back to being a toddler. We were hardly excited about her returning to the scene of the accident; Steve kept a vigilant watch until dinner was ready. Emma's swollen lip didn't keep her from devouring dinner or dessert, and she was a brave girl when Daddy rinsed her mouth out with warm water after she finished eating.

This morning Emma woke up happy. Aside from the protruding lower lip on the right side, the bruised flesh and the horrid looking wound, Emma seems fine. I think that us adults are more concerned with her injury than she is. Does it look like it's healing? Does that look like puss to you? Is it bleeding again? When will it look better? Just normal paranoid thoughts and questions. We'll monitor the process and as long as Emma doesn't have a fever or signs of an infection it is all good. At least until the next accident. No wonder parents tend to age prematurely! I just may be completely gray by the time I am 40. Yikes!