Last Wednesday, Megan came home from school and went right for the bowls of candy on the counter. I had separated out their Halloween candy into different bowls and she wanted to see them. On her way off the counter she slipped and bit down hard on her tongue. She started crying hard and tried to walk towards me in the front room (her eyes were closed from crying so hard so she kept bumping into things). I noticed the blood right away and took her to the sink. I had Tyler bring me a stool for her to stand on so the blood could go into the sink. I then checked inside her mouth to see where all the blood was coming from...it was her tongue. She had bitten down on it and had a huge hole in it.
I told Tyler to run across the street and get Max. I wanted him to see her tongue and to confirm what I already knew (we were going to the ER). Max came right away and said yes I did need to go. He told me he'd stay there with the other kids so that I could take her to the ER.
I called Margie on my way to the hospital to ask her to come to my house and take care of the other kids and to relieve Max. She, of course, dropped everything and came right away. She is a saint.
Megan was being very brave on the drive to the ER. It took me longer to get there then usual, which was super frustrating for me. We finally got there and parked the car. I took her in and got us signed in. There were a lot of people in the waiting room, so that wasn't very good for us. But they got us signed in and did her vitals pretty fast. They then had us wait in a certain area where we didn't need to get another form of screening.
I had called Tony after Margie and he was on his way home from work. He came straight to the ER and was there with us for most of the time. Megan did so good while we waited to get called back into a room. I let her play my phone and that seemed to help keep her mind off her bloody mouth.
They finally called us in and we waited for another 10 plus minutes for the doctor to come in. He did come and he was really nice. He said that they have a corn rule when it comes to holes in the mouth. Since we could totally fit a few pieces of corn in her hole, the doctor recommended stitches.
He told us that he would have to give her a shot to put her to sleep and then they would put in the stitches. She started crying at the word "shot." She really was so brave through all this. The nurse got us a room and we were able to start the process.
We got Megan changed into a gown and the nurse got her a warm blanket to get snuggley in her bed. The nurse then put the monitors on her and showed Megan what all lines on the monitor meant. She was so sweet to Megan.
Megan was so chill until it was shot time. She started crying and actually moved while the nurse was doing it so she ended up getting poked twice. She didn't like the oxygen thing in her nose so they left it out and watched her closely.
She went to sleep fast after the shot. Her eyes were still open and she still moved around quite a bit while she was under. The doctor put two tongue depressors sideways in the edge of her mouth to try and keep it open. She is very strong and kept trying to bite down making it hard for the doctor to put in the stitches.
The doctor did a really good job stitching up her tongue even though she kept moving so much and it was so deep. He did give her shots of pain meds into her tongue before he started. The whole thing looked so painful. I was so proud of her and how well she took everything that was thrown at her this night.
After they were all done they just let her rest. The nurse watched her pretty close for a while and then just let her slowly wake up. They said she needed to take a little drink and be able to stand up before she could go home. It took her until 9:30 that night before she could do that and get discharged.
I stayed until about an hour after the stitches got put in and then I left to go get the kids from Margie's. I took the kids home and put them to bed. They were all worried about Megan and it was super sweet of them to ask about her.
Tony picked up some dinner for us on his way home from the hospital and got Megan a Frosty. She thought she wanted it but really didn't. She stayed up for a little while but then finally went to bed. She was super tired and lucky got a good night sleep.
I thought for sure she would sleep in and then want to stay home from school. I was wrong on both. She woke up before me and then said she didn't want to stay home and really wanted to go to school. I gave her some pain meds before school (just in case) and then let her go.
I told her teacher what happened and she said that she would let me know if she had any problems. I then checked on her at lunch time and she was doing fine and wanted to stay (did I tell you how brave she is?)
Now it's over a week later and she hasn't complained one time. She says it doesn't hurt and hasn't had any problems eating or drinking. The tongue seems to be healing well and she is doing awesome. The stitches are still in and doing their job. I am so proud of my brave little girl!
