Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know the story. Thank you all for your kind tweets and messages.
I would like to preface this post by saying EVERYONE IS OK, but I certainly was worried for a minute or two.
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Oh, the irony.
I had just tweeted this when I looked out the window to see a car in the driveway and the mother of one of Emma’s friends carrying Sarah up the walk. The girls had all been sledding. Something was wrong.
Sarah was still wearing her snowsuit, but she was holding her face and crying. There was blood.
The story unfolded quickly. It turned out that Sarah slipped and fell on an icy part of the hill.
I was a bit stunned and didn’t know what to do. Her lower lip was incredibly bloody and swollen. There was a gash on the inside of her lip but I wasn’t sure if we needed a doctor to see it or not. I called Mark. At some point it was decided I’d take her to the clinic. As it turned out the clinic wasn’t taking patients. The lady at the front desk took a look and recommended we take her to the hospital.
And that’s how we ended up at the Queensway Carleton between 3:00 and 8:30 p.m.
Sitting in a hospital waiting room is a pretty miserable experience. We arrived there totally unprepared for a long wait. No books, no magazines … all we had was a Golden Girls marathon – and ourselves – to keep us entertained. All I had was a pen and a small notebook and a phone that was quickly losing juice. We doodled, played 20 Questions, tic tac toe, hangman etc. We discussed and wrote out top ten lists which I will have to post at some point because they’re too cute not to share (like “top ten ice cream flavours” and “top ten places we want to visit”).
The girls were great. Emma was very patient, and Sarah was good, even though she was pretty freaked out about the idea of getting stitches. As it turns out the inside of her mouth will heal without medical assistance. A clean slice on the outside of her lower lip only required a bit of medical-grade superglue to hold it together.
As far as I can tell she must have curled her lower lip around her lower teeth when she went down, with her upper front teeth chomping down on the outside of her lower lip as she hit the ground.
She’s gargling with hot salt water twice a day. Her gums are bruised but the teeth don’t seem to be loose.
On the way home from the hospital I stopped at a gas station to buy a loaf of bread and a bag of milk. I was supposed to have done some grocery shopping yesterday afternoon but I was busy holding a wet facecloth to a swollen lip for most of it.
Wow. What a long day. And it continues! Today we need to:
- take a trip to the emergency dentist once I figure out who’s on duty for the New Year’s Eve shift
- find a new snowsuit for Sarah, as hers fell apart in the wash
- meet some Deadlines and complete some Actual Paid Work that needs to be done today
- do some friggin’ GROCERY SHOPPING, so we don’t have toast for dinner again.
Gah. Wish me luck. Happy New Year indeed!
But first, coffee. And yes, it is the elixir of the gods. Hallelujah.
