My little Tanner bug had his first trip to the ER (it was also my first trip to the ER as a mama). He was at the babysitters while I was out shopping with David's mom. We were only gone about an hour when Melissa called to say that Tanner had pulled himself up to the file cabinet and fell back on his bottom. He bit his tongue and it was bleeding.... a lot...... She said it had been about 15-20 min and it wasn't slowing down. We came home and I snuggled my little TJ. I called the pediatrician after about an hour because it was continuuing to bleed. She told me just to put him down for a nap and hopefully it would clot. I kept checking on my little bug and he was sleeping so peacefully. He woke up 2 hrs later with blood crusted across his face. He sat up, saw me and smiled, and bright red blood continued to pool down his chin. It had been about 4 hrs since the accident. I called the doctor again and she wanted me to take him to Primary Children's. I told her I wanted her to look at it first before I drove all the way to Salt Lake. I quickly bathed him and got him in the car. As we were pulling out I heard him throw up (Dave's mom was in the back with him). I threw the car in park and jumped out. I knew the sight wasn't going to be pretty. He was covered in black, coffee ground colored emesis. So sad! I started freaking out with the amount he had just vomited. Brigitte ran inside to start the bath as I was stripping off his clothes in the driveway (sorry to any neighbors who had to observe the bloody scene in our yard!) He was getting so pale and lethargic. I yelled to Brigitte to just come out to the car because we didn't have time to bathe him. As we drove to Layton I pleaded with Heavenly Father to help stop the bleeding and keep my baby boy safe. I didn't realize how much blood he was swallowing. I felt like such a bad mom that I had just put him in his crib to let him "sleep it off." When we finally arrived at the doctors (I was seriously out of my mind, why didn't I just go straight to the ER?) little Tanner was so white. He didn't have any color left in his lips. His ears, and nose were also completely white. I was crying and just praying that my baby would be ok. Right before we got to the reception desk he puked again! all over both of us!! It was seriously such a mess! Once the doctor saw Tanner she told me she was calling the ER, and she wanted me to walk over there. She looked at his tongue and it had FINALLY stopped bleeding.....5 hrs later! The medical assistant came with us. I was shaking so hard, I could barely fill out the paperwork. Once the nurse brought us back she took one look at Tanner and switched gears. She took us to a trauma room and then 4 nurses came flying in getting him all hooked up to the monitors and started poking on my little man. It took them 4 tries to get the IV in and labs drawn. I couldn't believe all this was happening over a dumb little tongue bite! Needless to say, after a CT scan, fluid boluses, a visit from the ENT, and an expensive bill later he is home and healthy! Words seriously could not express how grateful I was to see him become my smiling and AWAKE little Tanner again. I never EVER want to experience something like that again....... I do realize I have 2 boys, so the likelihood of that is small. Dang!
7 years ago