Thursday, June 20, 2013

He's so blessed. The scar isn't too bad, now that the stitches were removed yesterday. The doctor is pleased with how it looks and his teeth are meeting nicely. The challenge remains on how to creatively burn off little boy energy for the next 2 weeks until the bones finish healing.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Face Plant in the Cement. ( not recommended.)


A movie or going and playing at the skate park? In retrospect ( hind sight is 20/20 huh?) I shouldn't have encouraged involving Lucas and going to the skate board park.
Uncle Reggie ( an ER nurse) went along to snap some action shots. As they pulled out the thought crossed my mind, " I bet somebody comes back hurt simply cause Uncle Reggie is here..." Maybe a half an hour later I heard the van pull in. Hmm... That was a quick trip. In stumbled a sobbing Lucas daddy's sweat shirt clutched in his hand pressed tightly against his chin, blood spattering his clothes. A quick glance led me to believe stitches. Wasn't sure we could put that 1 1/2 inch long gash back together here at home. Well, since we had an ER nurse we were gonna try. Laying him back and getting out supplies I noticed that his jaw was not sitting right. Maybe dislocated? I didn't know. We decided to take him in to ER for an x-ray to rule out dislocation or broken bones.



Notice how his chin has been pushed in?
 The doctor was fairly certain it wasn't dislocated mainly cause he was talking, but decided to take and x-ray to be certain.The x-ray did indeed reveal there was no dislocation, instead there was a green stick fracture on the left side up near the head of the joint. The doctor ordered a CT scan to rule out any internal bleeds. Bleeding was minimal. Surprisingly it showed a second break running perpendicular to his chin- right between his teeth on the right side
.
About that time, we had  "knock" on the curtain. And who should walk in but a fellow from the skate park who had ripped up his shirt for Lucas when he connected with the cement wall.  After Lucas was whisked away this person had fallen separating his shoulder. He was headed for surgery. Whew, did it look nasty and painful. Uncle Reggie asked both Lucas and the skate boarder if they'd consider taking up kite boarding as water is more forgiving than cement. The skate boarder declared that once he heals up he's gonna go back and do it some more. ( shudder).


Stitching.
 Lucas was so brave- never cried nor fussed while there. Uncle Reggie helped focus him on other things while his chin received 9 stitches. (I was walking the hall trying not to pass out or lose my supper.)

I gave him a little tyenol at home and tucked him in about 12:30 AM. He slept till I woke him at noon the following day to get some food and water into him before taking him into the oral surgeon.

Nine stitches and over three hours later he's ready to go home.The oral surgeon took a panoramic x-ray, measured how far he could open his mouth. Looked in his mouth for visible bruising, measured the length of the gash. He said if Lucas had been an adult he'd have had to have his jaw wired shut. But thankfully all he has to do is not do rough things,  eat only soft foods. He's on some antibiotics cause of where the break was and also the chin split. I'm praising God it isn't any worse.  Its almost like he's a baby again. The blender and food processor are a must for him at this time.
Oh and for the record he had on all the protective gear when this happened, helmet, knee pads, elbow pad, and wrist guards.