Fat lip.

During dinner last night, Bella lost her balance and took a tumble off her chair, smashing her face into the edge of the table and landing on her head on the floor. I swooped her up in about half a second, but the first question out of my mouth was "Ed, is there blood????" Now, I know I'm a nurse, but geezus, I'm an OB nurse!! And let me tell you, the thought of seeing blood come out of my child is possibly the worst thing ever. I knew I had to look in her mouth to survey the damage, but all I could see was blood...everywhere. And she couldn't catch her breath because she was crying so hard, and I was worried that she was going to choke (she was eating dinner so of course she also had a mouth full of food). Finally, after putting some pressure on her lip, I was able to look into her mouth. I was soooo glad to see that all of her teeth were still intact, none broken, none cracked. However, there was one monstrous gash on her lower lip, so deep in fact, that I was certain she would need a stitch or two to hold it together. We gave her a few popsicles to help with the swelling, but everytime she tried to talk her laceration opened up and started bleeding everywhere again. So, just to be sure, off we went to CHEO to have it looked at by a doctor. The first doctor said: "Oh yeah...it's pretty bloody" (and this was about an 1.5 hours after the incident). She thought it was going to require some handy work to fix the problem so she had her senior colleague take a peak at it. The senior doctor said that it should heal well, and that they hardly ever stitch mouth lacerations because it's a mucous membrane and those tend to heal so well.

She actually slept well through the night and woke up this morning with a super-duper fat lip, but it appears to be healing well. (It looks pretty gross on the inside though, a process they call granulation-yuck!)

And now, a few photos.

I have decided to call this Bella's 'Angelina' look. What Bella doesn't realize (or understand) is that people pay big bucks to have lips like this!!

Bella being a goof this morning. This is her 'pouty' look.

All this to say that I know this is just the first of many bumps and bruises to come. And if there's anything I've learned, it's that I am a total wimp, and that I would totally suck as a Pediatric Nurse, Emergency Nurse, Trauma Nurse, ICU Nurse, etc, etc, etc. Best to stick with what I do best.