our first ER trip

Last night's birthday celebration didn't end as planned.  After dinner, the worried parents were speeding to the emergency room at Evergreen.  Gracie was nipped on the upper lip by Mac.  This little girl is brand new this morning and playing outside in the sunshine.  Quite the turnaround from last night.  When we left, the tissue hanging from her lip left us concerned as to what we were going to find once it was all cleaned up. 

After evaluation by the emeregency room doctor, it was decided that the laceration was jagged and deep enough to warrant calling in the plastic surgeon.  His jeans and t-shirt quickly gave him away that our little matter had taken him away from his family.  Oops.  He spent a good fifteen minutes deciding between sedating her there and suturing the laceration or taking her to the operating room for a more involved procedure.  He wasn't sure if there was missing tissue-which would make suturing more difficult.  With the risk of infection from a dog bite and not knowing for sure if tissue was missing, he decided to sedate her and suture the laceration. 

A few months of healing will determine if a surgery will be needed to further give us the result we are looking for.  Apparently, upper lips are very difficult to "put back togther" for many reasons. 

All in all, our little girl was so brave.  She didn't cry once at the hospital, said "thank you" to each and every nurse after her sedative injection, applying the heart monitor patches, and even smiled when the plastic surgeon took the "pre op" picture.  For me, the most difficult aspect was seeing her sedated.  The "lights are on but no one is home" and odd sounding breathing was just about enough for me. 

We all feel absolutely awful, to say the least.  The surgeon tried his best to validate my feelings but also informed me that he has done thousands of lip laceration repairs from a family dog bite.  He said these wounds are always on the midline of the face, on the nose or mouth.

We'll see in a few months if she will need surgery.  He was quite pleased with the result last night as he was able to maintain the natural curvature of the lip.  Her midline is off a bit due to the missing tissue but once the swelling decreases we will further be able to see the results.
Thank you to the wonderful care at Evergreen.  The stars must have been aligned for us as we were told by several doctors and nurses last night that the on call plastic surgeon was the best they had. I truly believe that after watching his methodical behavior and thought process. 

I know this was the first of many trips to the emergency room....especially with two boys on her heels.

We're off to play in the sunshine and enjoy the attention and gifts that an ordeal such as this brings!

 Before..definitely not detailed enough.

 During the procedure

This morning.