Drake scared us to death mid morning on Christmas Day! We had not even had a chance to clean up all of the mess after the Christmas presents were opened....we managed to pick up the wrapping paper but the toys were scattered everywhere! I was not feeling very good so I had laid down for a nap.....soon to be woke up to my poor baby boy bleeding really BAD! My husband does not handle blood at all and came and got me fast and said Drake has been hurt pretty bad and I need you. I of course was half asleep but when I saw all the blood I got a little nervous and panicked! I actually handled it better than I thought I would......we grabbed ice, and a wet wash cloth to help stop the bleeding. I immediately looked at his teeth.....they were all in tact, then I looked around his lip, roof of mouth, etc.......could not find out what happened?? All I knew is he fell while holding this long tube from the marshmellow shooter gun in his mouth.
I was SO close to taking him to ER but I finally got the bleeding to stop. He definitely was in ALOT of pain that afternoon. He is a very good baby and hardly ever cries so I knew something was bad wrong. it was a rough night that night but between my mother in law and me we took turns rocking him and giving him pain meds... Tylenol alternating with Motrin but he would NOT take his bottle (which concerned me because he always does when I offer).
He woke up the next morning with a fever of 101.8 ......That morning I called our Pediatrician's office and they got us in fast. We saw Dr. Payton who was WONDERFUL! He immediately looked in his mouth and found out it was a major tear in the back of his mouth....(I also finally got to see and it scared me after I saw the trauma) He told me worse case he would need a stitch but they would have to put him to sleep to do this so I started worrying. He told me he wanted to call Dr. Lance Manning who is an ENT and consult him to see what he recommends. He said he has the equipment to look at his throat better than he could so we got in that afternoon. I worried myself all day until our appt at 3:50. Dr. Manning took a look after I told him the story and I'm pretty sure he was suprised to what he saw! He asked me has he had a bottle this morning? and I said yes.....he wanted to do surgery immediately but since he had taken his bottle (for the first time since that night) he wanted us to be at the Jones Center at 6:00 a.m the next morning.
Cody was at home with the older kiddos and I started crying then.......I was just like not my baby boy?!? Dr. Manning told me it was a real bad tear in his soft palet. He assured me everything was gonna be fine. He was seriously who I needed at that moment because I had a sense of peace about it all and knew God was going to take care of my sweet baby boy.
The surgery went very well according to Dr. Manning and he was SO thankful it wasn't any deeper than it was. Drake was very sleepy coming out of anesthesia and slept on my shoulder for about 45 minutes. He woke up and got a little fussy but later settled down and gave us a smile;) My sweet mother in law was at home keeping Reed and Anna Grace so Cody and I could be with Drake. We are so very blessed to have her in our life. She is absolutely precious to me and never hesitates when I need her. (My mom was with my sister because Olivia (my sis's daughter) was having her tonsils out the same morning)
We came home after Drake's surgery and seriously you could barely even tell he had surgery....I did keep him on Tylenol alternating with Motrin on schedule. We go tomorrow for our follow up since we had to reschedule the first appt due to being out of town. I feel everything will be fine but continue to pray for him as well. It definitely makes me watch what he puts in his mouth from now on, but even Dr. Manning told me......you can't be there every second Joni. Accidents just happen sometimes. Drake has been a wonderful trooper and I thank God for watching over him through it all!
