Trauma on the Mountain!

A warning before you continue on this post: it contains some graphic pictures of an injury to Lance, so if you're a little squeamish, you might want to skip it.

Last Saturday, our whole family was up in Northern VA. Lance was spending the weekend with his dad and George and Jude and I were spending the weekend with George's family to celebrate his and his mother's Birthdays. That morning I was babysitting little Mason so Laura and Tyler could go to the temple together and Lance was mountain biking with his dad. I talked to Lance right before he left for the trail and knew he would have a great time. He's a good biker for being only 5 and has done this course with his dad at least once before, maybe twice.

At 10:30 a.m. I get another call from Scott. Lance fell on the course and Scott was driving him to Urgent Care. From what I could gather from Scott, Lance had fallen off his bike, face-planted, and cut his lip pretty badly. Bad enough that Scott thought he might need stitches. The part that worried me most, though, was that Lance kept trying to go to sleep in the car and Scott had to keep talking to him to keep him awake. I got off the phone and immediately asked George about it and he said Scott needed to take him to a hospital, not an Urgent Care. I called Scott back to pass it on and was told by Scott that Urgent Care wasn't open and he en-route to the hospital anyway. I hung up and waited anxiously for an update. A little bit later Scott called and said that Lance wasn't tired anymore and they were going to watch him to make sure he hadn't injured his head while they waited for a plastic surgeon to come and fix his lip. I was pretty relieved!

I still has Mason and Laura and Tyler weren't back yet, so I told Lance I would meet him at the hospital in a little bit. Laura came back around 11:15 and I hopped in the car and drove to Fairfax Hospital. I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked in the room. I opened the door and found a content Lance talking to some nurses and his dad. He turned to me and smiled and I felt a little sick. It honestly looked like half his lip was hanging off his face.

I held it together, though, and gave him a hug and then checked his pupils to make sure they were reactive and round. You know, like a good nurse or a paranoid mom.

His front tooth was impacted and a little crooked where it went through his lip, his gums were cut up and bruised, and he had some abrasions to his face and leg. Lance was thankfully wearing a helmet when it happened so he was spared any further injury to his brain.

Apparently he was pretty upset when Scott brought him into the ER (no surprise--not only was he hurt, he's a little dramatic to boot), but had calmed down and when I got there was enjoying some TV and lots of attention from the nurses.

I was there for probably about 30 minutes before the Plastic Surgeon came. Because the cut was on the lip, the staff felt it warranted some extra expertise and I was grateful. They used Ketamine to put him under instead of Propofol (the medication they used when he broke his arm) which bothered me. George had voiced his concern before I left the house about their use of Ketamine and how it affects kids. I told the nurses and they assured me that they used it all the time and it was perfect for kids. I grudgingly said okay.

Basically, ketamine puts you into an out-of-body experience. Lance was awake the whole time, but staring off into the distance. His eyes would twitch but other than that he didn't respond to much stimuli. It was unsettling and the student nurse that was there with us almost fainted during the procedure and had to excuse herself from the room. After the stitches were in, Lance slowly came out of it. His first word was "Mom?" which melted my heart (he does love me!). 

The whole "waking up" part took probably 15 minutes and was nasty business. Have you seen David After Dentist? It was exactly like that. Most of what Lance said for the next 15 minutes was, "Is this real life? Am I dreaming? I feel funny. Mom? Mom? Are you real? I want to hug you. Are you real?" It was really sad. He started crying at one point and wanted to hug me to make sure I was real. Ketamine apparently does that to you, it makes you feel disconnected from your body/the world.

He finally woke up most of the way and gave me and his dad a thumb's up.

He was a trooper.

After the stitches.

Once he could sit up and walk on his own, he was discharged. He was so excited to ride in the wheelchair on the way out and actually thought they had given it to him. When we got to the car, he innocently asked where the wheelchair was going fit. :)

 

Outside the Emergency Room.

This is what he will be wearing next time he goes mountain biking. He's had it for a while, but it was so hot that Scott decided to wear regular bike helmets on Saturday. Live and learn, I guess.

And here we are a week later. You can't even really tell anymore, can you? Kids heal so fast!

And to end, here is a video Lance's dad put together of their bike ride last Saturday. He actually fell right at the end of the ride when they were on flat ground. Go figure. His dad put him on his bike and pushed him and carried Lance's bike about half a mile to get back to the car. But before that, they had a good time.