Breann
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive November 2007:
Breann
Did I miss a post about your ds? I am so sorry to hear about his jaw.  I hope he heals quickly. (((Hugs)))
Thanks Conni. I didn't post too much about it, just in one of the other threads.
He crashed his bike (bike, as in bicycle, not motorbike or anything like that) on Friday afternoon. I took him to the ER because his lip was cut up pretty bad and I was afraid that there was a chunk missing.
Once we got to the ER and the doctor examined him, we were sent to x-ray. Then we were told that his jaw was broken. It's broken in the "joint" area. It's right under the ear where you can feel that that's where you jaw is opening and closing. The little ball socket thing in there broke off. We were sent to a children's hospital, and they did surgery to set the bone in place and wired his jaw shut so it can heal properly.
I was a blubbering mess/nervous wreck. My DH was able to take a couple of days of work, so he was able to stay at the hospital with us. We were there from Friday night until last night.
We are home now, and he's on a liquid/puree diet. He's doing pretty well with it, but he gets so sad and frustrated that he can't eat regular food. We are just trying to keep the food topic kind of low key. We aren't eating meals at the table anymore for the time being. We don't want to make it any worse for him than it has to be.
We go back on December 3rd to have the wires removed.
Thank you so much for asking. That really means a lot.
WOW! Is he in a lot of pain? I hope he recovers quickly! How is he *liking* the pureed food? Anyone I've known who has had their jaw wired ended up losing some weight, so if you think that's an issue with your DS, you might try some milkshakes, etc.
I'm so sorry, that's no fun at ANY time, but around the holidays, it's really a bummer!
Breann, I'm so sorry. Poor guy. I know my kids would be so bummed to not be able to eat real Thanksgiving food.
OMG!!! Your poor ds!!! & poor Mom!! (((HUGS))) Thanks for sharing. I pray he heals quickly wth no problems. I can't even begin to imagine what he feels like. Poor guy!
I am happy to hear his surgery went well and he is home recovering. As opposed to being in the hospital for Thanksgiving. It can be so tiring to be in the hospital.
Bless your hearts!
OMG, I'm so sorry to hear this! What rotten luck. As Conni said, it's good that he'll get to be home with you and his family for the holiday but what a terrible time for it to have happened. You and your ds will be in my prayers.
Surprisingly, he's not in a lot of pain. He was on morphine in the hospital for the first couple of days. Once they stopped that, to try and switch him to tylenol, he never complained of pain. I was worried that he just wasn't telling us that he was hurting. But, the doctors said that some kids have a pretty high pain tolerance. I was in pain just LOOKING at the poor little thing.
He's not all that keen on pureed food He has had us blend him up all kinds of things to try. It's just not that appetizing once it looks like pudding. He gets pretty sad when things don't turn out like he's hoping for.
Thanksgiving wasn't as bad as I had been anticipating. He was able to have some mashed potatoes and gravy. He was actually putting them into his lips with a spoon, and then sucking them in through/around his teeth. He also had some pudding and some sweet potatoes. Then he tried some pumpkin pie too. We just tried to stir everything up really good so that it was more "runny" than normal. He didn't complain too much. But he did say that he wants grandma to make another turkey after he gets his "braces" off. So, we will have another mini Thanksgiving in a few weeks 
Thank you so much for your sweet thoughts and prayers. That means so much, and I know that it will help him too. He's such a little trooper.
Breann, what an awful thing to have happen - and right before the Thanksgiving feast.
I would caution, though, that you check with the doctor about how to try to keep his teeth clean while he is wired up. Maybe a good mouthwash a couple of times a day - especially after eating.
Good that Tylenol is managing his pain for him. Do expect him to become grumpier and less patient as the day for getting the wires off gets closer. And, be really grateful there was a good ER team, so that they didn't stop with just the obvious. I know he's miserable now, and you are miserable worrying (and probably feeling a bit guilty - that's what moms do, sadly), but if they hadn't caught it he could have had some really bad days until you went back for a double-check.
Bless his heart, your poor son Breann. I think it will be so nice for him to have a mini-Thanksgiving! He sounds like he's a real brave boy.
My heart hurt for you when you describe how you were feeling in the hospital. I would have felt the same. I'll keep your son in my prayers. I hope Dec. 3rd comes quickly!
Hope all goes well and he gets to have his mini-Thanksgiving celebration.. You will both be in my thoughts..
Awwww! Give DS a big hug from us! Bless his heart (and yours too)! Sounds painful and just plain ol' no fun with all of the holiday eating. Hope he's on the mend soon.
Oh my, right before the Thanksgiving feast, too. Glad he will get a second go at dinner after the wires come off.
Just curious, did he have a helmet on? My daughter hates wearing hers, and I have to admit I even forgot to have her wear the other night when we went for a walk/ride together. Seems like even a helmet could not stop that type of break.
You are all being so sweet.
Ginny, he has a prescription mouth-wash that we have to use with him 4 times a day. It was difficult at first because he was so swollen that he couldn't shut his lips. Now he is able to close his lips, so he can swish it around a lot better.
We have a suction machine that we use a LOT. It's kind of like what they use at the dentist to suck out the spit. When his face was swollen, and he had a hard time controlling his swallowing and such, the suction machine was a lifesaver. He would drool constantly. He is doing better with that now too.
I DO feel guilty, because I wasn't outside with him when it happened. He had just went out about 10 minutes before, and his sister was out there. They play outside all the time. Just another day. Then I heard him screaming terribly. He's never screamed/cried like that before. The rest is history.
Dana, he did NOT have a helmet on. That is a constant battle here. He will put it on if I tell him too, but lots of times I don't catch him in time. This particular day, he and his sister were outside playing in the back yard. They weren't playing on bikes, just playing. He just happened to hop on his bike and make a run around the back yard real quick and that's when this happened. I think that's the hard thing about helmets. If kids are going to go on a "bike ride", then we remind them of their helmets. But if they are just out playing, it's so easy for them to hop on their bike for a second and end up hurt.
Even though he landed on his chin, the doctors said that a helmet could have made a difference. The weight of the helmet could have made his head land different, etc. Of course we can't say that it would have prevented the injury. We'll just never know.
Breann, stuff happens. When Callie was 2 she went running through my mom's, it was Easter Sunday and she was all dressed with the pretty little, no traction, dress shoes on. She went head first into a end table and split her head wide open. It took five stitches to close it up and I was a wreck.
When Emily was a little over a year, just started walking, she fell on my toy poodle and he attacked her. He bit her several times, she has five clear bite scars on her face. I was a wreck in this case too. Sam, the poodle, ended up at the vet and she ended up with five butterfly bandages on her face.
When Katie was 2, she and the other kids were up watching tv on a Saturday. She was jumping on the couch and just as I woke up hearing her jumping, she fell. Smaking her face on the the coffee table. She cut clean through her upper lip. She has a 2 inch scar, that runs along the right side of her upper lip. That one was the worse, she bit clear through, you could see her teeth, the skin was just hanging. Terrible..
When Emily and Katie were 3, Emily walked in front of Katie while she was swinging and Katie kicked her square in the eye. She ran around with a huge black eye for months.
Then when Emily and Katie were about four, Katie came down off the top bunk on top of Emily's head and she bit clear through her tongue. Blood every where and she wouldn't even let the ER doctor touch her. It needed to be stitched but he didn't want to put her to sleep to do it, so I had to use mouth wash (burns) on a cotton ball three times a day and after each time she ate to keep the wound cleaned.
OH.. When Dillan was almost 4, we were going on vacation and we were boarding our dog. We went to leave the vets, the gravel was thick, Dillan went running, stopped really quick and busted the back of his head open. While I watched.
Then when he was 6 Callie chucked a rock and hit him bellow the eyebrow on his face. She didn't do it on purpose, she just has bad aim.
One day he was riding his bike lost control and even with a helmet on her had road rash all down the side of his face, arm, side and leg.. That was terrible.
My nephew, at 10, jumped off a diving board backwards hitting his chin on the board, even though he knew the jump was against the pool rules. He bit clean through his face/chin right bellow his lower lip, bit through his tongue and busted his adult, upper two front, teeth. The life guard had to drag him out of the pool and I rushed to go get him, it was a day camp type program. He is 13 now, lost one tooth and the other one is scheduled to be pulled. So at 13 he has a partial plate.
Kids get hurt, that is what they do... Don't second guess yourself. Accidents happen and we have enough to feel guilty about, we can't bare the burden of things that were out of our hands. Your DS sounds like he is healing well and you sound like you are doing the best you can to care for him. What happened before the accident, when it happened, was out of your control. Your little man will heal up and he needs to get back on that bike. Although my kids would beg to differ, you don't have eyes in the back of your head and you aren't psychic. No one is to blame and he will go on to do something else, mark my word. As I said, kids get hurt, that is what they do. If they aren't getting busted up, they aren't living.. LOL
Continued prayers for you both. And a HUGE HUG to you..
Thank you so much Bobbie.
OMG, Breann! I'm just catching up here and I can't believe all this. It must be so hard on him (and you). Keep us posted and we'll all celebrate the day he can eat "real food"!
{{{Big Hugs}}}
No problem Breann.. Like I said, if they aren't getting busted up they aren't living..
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