An Eventful Lunch Date

For the past couple of weeks, Marcus has been working at a satellite cancer clinic that is just 3 miles down the road from our house. Last Friday, I took the kids up to the clinic to meet Marcus for lunch. I picked up McDonald's because the morning had been hectic and I hadn't had time to pack a lunch for the four of us. We had just settled down in the conference room and started eating our food, when Ethan, who was climbing up and down off a 1-foot ledge behind Marcus's chair, let out a scream. Since Marcus and I were looking at each other and talking, neither of us saw the point of impact. Marcus stood up, scooped Ethan up, and held him with Ethan's back against Marcus's chest (Ethan facing out). I blurted out, "He's bleeding!" Marcus said "Where?" Then Marcus saw the blood pouring out of Ethan's mouth, so he cupped his hands to protect the carpet of the conference room. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Marcus's cupped hands quickly filled with blood and the blood was overflowing onto the floor. I grabbed napkins and then a burp-rag from the diaper rag to try to staunch the flow from Ethan's mouth, but he was too writhy and upset for us to figure out where in his mouth to put pressure, so we just kept soaking up the blood. At one point, his mouth filled up with so much blood that he choked on it and it started coming out his nose as well. It bled for a good 10 minutes. When it finally stopped, we did our best to clean the blood from the carpeted floor and from Marcus's white dress shirt and tie, while Caleb contentedly finished off the ice cream sundae that the rest of us had no appetite for.

Ethan wouldn't let us get a good look under his upper lip until the next day. After Marcus examined it, we understood why there had been so much blood. It looks like the impact tore the frenulum of his upper lip, and then some. There was a raw-looking indentation that was large enough that we were immediately concerned that perhaps we had made the wrong call and he should have had stitches. Marcus called his friend who is a pediatrician, and he reassured us that very rarely are stitches done in that area because it heals quickly (due to the increased blood supply) and because there are no cosmetic concerns for an injury inside the mouth.

It's been 3 days now, and his swollen upper lip looks tremendously better. Sorry, no pictures this time. I did have my diaper bag camera, but it was all just too hectic to get it out this time.

Monday
Blueberry pancakes (made with wheat flour & fresh blueberries)
Strawberries
Goldfish
Turkey deli meat
Whole wheat crackers
Rainier cherries (fresh)
Homemade lasagna
Green beans sauteed in olive oil