Our ER Run...

Ok so our kids are very calm and cautious for the most part. We have NEVER expreienced broken bones, or have had deep wounds...(knock on wood). So last week we were all in the living room winding down from the day of events. The boys were playing on the game cube, as the girls were cheering and watching away. Many of our mini blinds have broke, so we have pieces here and there around our house hoping to fix it sometime. So my kids have been playing with the plastic mini blind poles. And seeing that they haven't done anything dangerous with them I decided what the heck let them play with them, it makes them happy, right?

So Liahona was playing with one of the plastic poles that night as we were watching the boys play their game. She had it on her head, then on her feet, then in her mouth. The next thing we knew she was making these gagging sounds and had her hands around her throat like she was choking on something. (And for those that know me I HATE HATE HATE the choking thing.....) So I started talking in a loud voice, "Are you choking, Are you choking?" And she didn't respond for mintues and I kept repeating myself as I got louder and louder, getting all the more nervous of not knowing what happened. She finally squeezed out the words while still keeping her hands around her neck, "My throat, My throat!" Eric quickly came over by then and looked in her mouth. Blood was everywhere inside, it was hard to know what damage had been done. We got her to drink some water so we could see more clearly, which only made her scream in pain. 

We decided to take her to the ER, since all the doctors offices and urgent care places were closed for the evening. THe ER was completely busy that night, they couldn't get her seen for many hours. And it was already 9:30 when they got there. And Eric had to be up at 4:30 in the morning for school the next day. And at that point Liahona had finally calmed down, and was very tired; probably from being so worn out from all the crying previously. So we decided that they should come back home and we would call the doctor's office first thing in the morning to get her throat checked out. All night long she was crying and was in pain, we felt really bad for her. Since Eric is a Nurse he knew that the ER really wouldn't be able to help out much anyways, because they were not a ENT doctor and would be able to do anything without ones approval, and one would not be around to help until the morning anyways. The ER would only give us some meds to help with the pain. And we already had medicine at home anyways.

So after a LONG night of helping Liahona to be as comfortable as possible with all the pain in her mouth, we got up first thing in the morning to see the docotor at 9:00, and of course they refered us to the ENT specialists. Of which we had to go striaght from the doctors to this ENT appointment. Dragging all my other kids with me I was pleased with how well they all behaved. At this point Liahona had not eaten or could drink anything, the pain was still too intense. The ENT doctor finally was able to look in  Liahona mouth, and it was now 11:30.   He was able to deterime what exactly happened:  The plastic pole ripped the archway that connected to her uvula. Ripping not only the right side of the archway, but also part of her uvula. Making the the rest of her uvula to hang down really low. The options that were given were to: either stitch the archway back together to pull back up her uvula, or to just let it heal naturally which could take up to 3weeks. And if we went with the natural healing way and if her uvula was still too long after 3 weeks, then we would have to schedule a surgery to trim it. We decided to go the way of the fewest surgeries, and have her mouth heal on it's own.

She started to eat and drink again within a couple of days from the accident. And now she is feeling much better. She says the only time her throat hurts is when she coughs and yawns. So we are in good shape! To think it could have been much worse if behind her uvula was damaged!?!? Thankgoodness it wasn't!!! Sheesh!!!