Ouch

Last week I was upstairs working while Owen was downstairs taking a nap. We live in the very basement of my dad's house, there are three stairs to get to the main basement and then the stairs leading up to the main floor. I was waiting for Owen to come up like he always does and suddenly I heard him crying. I thought maybe he woke up grumpy or had a bad dream . I went downstairs to get him and he was on his way up the main stairs crying. I picked him up and his mouth was full of blood. He said between his sobs that he fell down the little stairs in mommy's room. We went into the bathroom to get him cleaned up and I asked him where he was hurt. He said his lips. We started to wipe up his mouth and I couldn't figure out where the blood was coming from. I asked him to open his mouth and I didn't expect his tongue to be open with a wide gash in it. With my amazing deductive reasoning skills, using the rug burn looking scrape on his chin and the hole in his tongue, I realized he must have fallen down on his chin and bit through his tongue. He was almost over crying until I looked at his tongue and the horror stricken look on my face did not help matters.

We got ready to go to yoga and to meet Greg. He kept crying and he was so scared, I am sure from my face and not anything else. We met up with Kristi on the way to yoga so that she could tell me he was ok and to assure me that his tongue was not going to fall off. She was prepared and didn't frighten the poor little guy out of his skin as did his loving mother.

We got to yoga and I asked Angie to come look at the partially severed tongue. She smiled at Owen and if the look I gave Owen was anything like she gave me, I will eternally be sorry for putting him into shock. Greg and I knew he would feel better if he could play at the park outside my yoga class so they headed over to the swings. Meanwhile, inside, Angie asks if anyone is a nurse, she is horrified. They all say no but the consensus was take him to the doctor as a precaution to prevent infection. I had never thought of that. I ran outside to tell Greg to take him to the clinic. I explained ever so nicely to Owen that I wanted him to go to the doctor. He was swinging and this was not what he wanted to hear. He asked me where yoga was. I told him inside. He pushed my arm and told me to go inside, that it was cold outside. Thoughtful right? Okay, thanks for the concern little O, wink wink nod nod to Greg and he assures me they will go.

Greg calls after class to tell me they are on their way back. The doctor said infection was likely and gave us an antibiotic, told us not to have solid food for two days and to watch it for change in color. Owen did not understand the liquid diet. He wanted everything but anything he tried resulted in his tongue being bit down on again. We kept telling him that he couldn't eat certain foods because it would hurt his tongue.

The next morning it had closed itself up - it is true what they say about the tongue healing fast, one minute I am worrying that the tongue could fall off and the next minute you would think I was nuts for considering the doctor. Owen told me the other the day he would eat some mashed potatoes for dinner. He took one bite and said "Owen can't eat potatoes, make Owen tongue hurt". Smart little cookie.