Noah went to the ER

We just got back from a nice walk and Noah walked inside the house. He tripped over our welcome mat and he fell right into the corner of our futon. He started crying pretty hard so I rushed over to pick him up and all I saw was blood gushing from his mouth. He has a high tolerance for pain (thanks to Nathan) so when he cried like that I knew he was badly hurt. Meanwhile, Erdy was on the phone with work stuff since he is on call this week. I yell for his help to get me ice pack and napkins.

When I took the napkin off, I saw a huge gape. I felt sick to my stomach. It looked so scary. His bottom lip was completely cut open. I had Erdy call Kaiser to talk to the advice nurse. Noah was crying so hard that Nico woke up and they were both crying. Erdy's phone was ringing off the hook. I couldn't even hear the nurse on the phone! Erdy and I were in panic mode. Talk about chaos.

We took him to the emergency room with the advice of the nurse. The first doctor that looked at it said he definitely needed stitches and that they would need to sedate him. We were brought to a room and a resident doctor took another look at it and said the same thing. Finally, the "real" doctor came in and examined him well.

We were really lucky. He had a very very tiny space that wasn't cut so it didn't run pass his lip. Had it been cut all the way, it would have been more serious. The doctor would have liked to give him a couple of stitches but given the situation and his age, we all decided against it. He said it would heal on its own in a couple of days even though it looked horrible. Sedating him was too complicated.

Through all this Noah was well behaved and fully cooperated with the doctors and nurses. You wouldn't think anything was wrong with him until you looked at his face. He is such a trooper. I thought this would be the end of thumb sucking since it would hurt...apparently not. He continues to suck his thumb and it hasn't affected his eating habits! All is well.