So one morning I get back home after a morning of running errands and shopping without kids, (aah, pure luxury) and the message light is blinking on the answering machine. It’s Noah’s handicraft’s teacher calling to tell me that he fell, and there is blood everywhere, and she isn’t sure if he should go to the doctor or the dentist because she thinks the teeth might have been damaged. Yikes!
I raced up to school, and found a poor pitiful little boy, whimpering with his head down on a table. He had a face full of bloody tissues and his clothes were covered as well. It really did look pretty bad. He saw me and started crying pretty hard. I understood completely. When I fell and cracked my chin on the metal bleachers in high school, I was able to hold it all in for a good half hour until my mom was able to come get me. But the second I saw her, I started bawling my eyes out and didn’t stop for at least 2 hours.
It seems that during break, Noah went running up the tiled stairs in his socks, no school slippers. He slipped and fell face first, whacking the edge of the stair in the process. He was actually pretty lucky he didn’t knock out all his front teeth, although he still shivers when any of us talk about it, so it must have hurt pretty bad.
I picked him up and carried him to the car. Two little girls in his class came with me, carrying his shoes, jacket, and backpack. When we got home, I put him on the couch with a blanket since I knew he was still in shock, and let him choose a movie. I also got him fresh toilet paper as there was still lots of fresh blood coming out.
The pediatrician’s office had just closed for lunch, and wouldn’t open again for a couple of hours. So I called the emergency doctor line to ask if I needed to take him to the hospital. The man I spoke with said that you could wait up to 7 hours after the accident and still do stitches no problem. So I waited and called as soon as they opened again.
I hadn’t tried to clean off any of the blood as I was afraid of hurting him and possibly making the wounds worse. They did that at the doctor’s office and were very gentle. Fortunately Noah’s teeth were absolutely fine, it was all his nose. Well, actually the skin just below the nose was cut very deep and his left nostril was completely detached. Yuck, huh?
They decided to use super glue rather than stitches, which is less invasive and actually creates less scarring for facial wounds. I told Noah that is what they used in America when I cut my face open as well. Made him feel slightly better about it all. The doctor told us to come back in a couple of days, when the swelling had gone down, so they could take an x-ray and see if his nose was broken as well. Noah got some good drugs as well. 🙂
I kept him home from school the next day because it had been a big shock and he was still pretty shaky. Also, thanks to hydrogen peroxide his clothes, socks and shoes ended up getting completely clean, no stains.
By the next day, I was afraid that he really had broken his nose. His eyes were pretty bruised, just like in all the nose-job after photos.
But when we went back to the doctor and had the x-rays taken, Noah’s nose was fine. Hurray! I didn’t want my little guy to have to undergo any surgery, and was really nervous about it. He was having trouble breathing, however. So the doctor looked up there and saw a giant clot blocking the airway. We got some spray to squirt up there a few times a day, and eventually Noah was able to blow his nose really hard and get it out.
He looked like he had gotten into a bad fight for quite a while, and even now, two months later, his nose is still extra sensitive if someone bumps it or pushes it accidentally. But it could have been much, much worse. Also, he now ALWAYS wears his school slippers. 🙂