Since Josh was born 8 1/2 years ago, we have paid no visits to the Urgent Care Clinics or Emergency Rooms for any of our kids. I figured this couldn't last forever. Odds are against us on this one with having 5 kiddos. Today, our luck ran out. Poor Jessie. Every time she rides her bike, I think she's going to get hurt. She is such a daredevil and rides super fast. I try not to bother her about it too much. She doesn't listen anyway when I ask her to slow down a bit. Oh well. And then today...
I was inside helping Charlotte finish eating a snack, Peter was in the garage working on a project and the kids were in the front riding bikes and playing with their friends. All of a sudden, Peter heard someone crying. He listened a moment to make sure it wasn't just playing around. It didn't take long to verify it was a real cry needing some attention, so he hurried outside to see what was going on. As he was heading out, he heard someone say they were going to get her dad, so he picked up the pace and when he saw Jessie he ran right over to her. Fortunately, our neighbor down the street had seen what had happened and ran over to Jessie immediately, picked her up, and had already started bringing her home. Jessie had been riding her bike. She decided to turn, but did so way too sharp and crashed to the ground. When Peter got to her, her face was covered in blood. She had hit pretty hard on the lower half of her face. Peter brought Jessie inside and he got her cleaned up. She had a pretty sizable gash inside her lip that looked like her teeth may have cut all the way through, so we called the doctor. It was too late to see our doctor in the clinic, so we were told to go to the Urgent Care Center.
Peter took her there, where they determined that while the cut did not go all the way through, it was too big to leave alone, so stitches were needed.
She was a champ for the first stitch, which was on the outside. Apparently she wasn't completely numb and felt it as they took care of that part. She didn't cry out, but Peter said her eyes got super wide, so when they tried to go inside her mouth to take care of the rest of it, she was having none of it. Finally, they suggested that Peter should take her to the ER where they could fully sedate her so they could safely finish the procedure. As Peter climbed in the car to take Jessie to the ER, he called our dentist, because the doctors had also wanted to get some x-rays done to check out her teeth. He was just a couple minutes from his office at the time. He said he could take care of the x-rays and the stitches in his office right then. He didn't even have to put her all the way under. He just used a local anesthetic, which was effective enough she didn't even feel the needle with the more thorough numbing medication. Jessie allowed our dentist, who is also a friend of ours from church, to take care of the stitches inside her mouth without any problem. Well, almost no problem. When he used the suction tool to get the blood and saliva out of her mouth while he was working, it startled her and she jumped when she closed her mouth on it. Funny, I never thought of it as startling, but I guess when you don't know what's about to happen when you close your mouth, it could be a little unsettling.
After the whole ordeal was over, Peter took Jessie to Jamba Juice... she can't chew anything for a few days while the swelling goes back down. We thought she should have something special. But, her mouth was so numb she couldn't drink it. Bummer. When she got home, Peter gave her a few spoonfuls, but she was so tired, she just wanted to go to bed.
It was a tough day for her, but there were several blessings here. Peter was home when this happened so I was able to take care of the other kids while he took care of her and gave her a blessing. Ryan, our dentist, was able to take care of everything they couldn't handle at the urgent care center, without further waiting time at the ER, and the x-rays showed her teeth are fine. They were back home less than four hours after they left. Jessie's brothers and sisters and friends were all so concerned about her that the whole time she was gone, they were making cards for her and doing detective work on the crash site to figure out what had happened. When she is awake enough to understand, she will feel very loved by all that everyone did for her today.
