I Love My Lips!

Thursday, the first week of school, Avery gave us quite a scare. I was home painting our outside doors and porch trims (taking advantage of a cold front that had come in) when I got a call from school. The lady said, "We have Avery here in the office..." Immediately my mind starts thinking, "Oh no, what did she do?" But then the lady continued, "She had an accident in the cafeteria at lunch. She fell off her seat and bit through her bottom lip." I immediately called Wes who was just finishing up with a youth minister's meeting in Sherman. I told him to rush to school. I needed to at least change my paint stained clothes and wash the paint off my hands.

Thankfully, we live about 4 minutes from school. I felt much better when I saw her. It seems like you always imagine the worse. She was sitting in the office whimpering a bit with some Kleenex over her mouth. The office staff recommended I take her to the minor emergency clinic first. As I was pulling out of the school parking lot, Wes arrived and followed us. The receptionist at the clinic quickly got the doctor to come look at Avery. She reassured us that she could glue it, and that it would be no problem. About 5 minutes later Avery was being cleaned and then quickly glued. She was a trooper through it all.

As we were leaving the room, I felt extremely light headed and weak, like I was going to pass out. I told Wes who quickly motioned me to a chair. Then, of course, the nurses and doctor start coming to my aid. I was thoroughly embarrassed! But, I knew if I got up I would pass out. I passed out once in high school on a mission trip when I had been out in the heat to long and didn't drink enough, so I knew the feeling. They moved me to a room and had me lie down. They gave me some crackers and water. I think it was all the excitement from everything that happened with Avery, and the fact that it was 1:15 and I had not had anything to eat or drink since breakfast. Plus, I had been doing all that painting. Anyways, I felt pretty ridiculous. After 10 minutes or so I felt much better and was able to drive home.

Poor Avery's lip swelled up pretty bad. The outside did not look too bad. The cut where a bottom tooth went through was about 1 cm wide, but then it was really red for about 2cm past that. The inside of her lip looked very bad. It was all mauled up from her teeth. She is lucky more teeth did not go through. She had to gargle salt water or peroxide several times a day for a good week and a half until it healed up inside.

Eating and talking were hard for several days. You would think soft foods would be good, but harder foods were actually better. She drooled a lot because it hurt too bad to close her mouth, so soft food would just run out of her mouth. She couldn't suck on a straw because it hurt her to bring her lips together. Needless to say, we went through lots of napkins and laundry. She was tough though. She went to school the next day. The other students were sweet and caring to her. Now she just has a little red dot under her lip that I am sure will disappear soon.

I did not take pictures until a few days later because I didn't want to make her feel like some sort of freak show.