Mandible

Look closely at this picture. What stands out to you???

If you noticed her puffy left cheek, then ding ding ding you are the winner.

THAT my friends is what a baby broken jaw looks like.

Yes, BROKEN JAW BONE.

How the???? (I'm sure is what you are thinking)

Well, she was riding her bike yesterday, tipped over and skinned her chin on the sidewalk. Or at least that is what we thought was her only issue.

Fast Forward to this morning around 5 a.m. when Hyrum suggests I take her to the ER due to her swollen cheek and the inability to open her mouth but a small bit.

So I do

And we Wait

And wait

and get a CT scan

and wait some more (all this time I'm being tortured by Dora The Explorer with the super twin babies who fly)

and I go and get a breakfast burrito (delish)

Then the Doc comes in and says (with a wide eyed shocked sort of face) "She is a superstar--her mandible is broken"

He says superstar because she is on NO pain meds. I repeat NO PAIN MEDS. And she's not really complaining, other than not being able to chew.

He says that she is only the 2nd child he's seen with a broken jaw in 30 years of being a doctor and he's not quite sure what the exact protocol is--he has to make phone calls.

So make a phone call to Hyrum and he decides to come home from work(he's better at this stuff than me anyway)

So I wait some more, I take a little nap after I trade Dora for Martha Speaks.

Then Doc shows up and says that he has got us in to see a surgeon at Banner Desert and we need to go straight there.

So I stop by home and pick up Hyrum and we go straight there.

We get right in. The doctor listens to the story (and asks if she was wearing a helmet to which I quickly blurt YES) then shows us the CT scan of the break and explains where it is--on the back part of the jaw by a sort of U shaped joint. You can see the horizontal crack. He explains how it occurs. Then he says that he needs to check her to determine the coarse of action.

He jokes with her and makes her comfortable then looks at her jaw, checks her bite and then tells us the best news of the day which was, "She doesn't need her jaw wired shut"

He explains more details and says that because she is so smart and able to follow instructions that he is just instructing us to put her on a soft foods diet. He says that as long as she doesn't chew on anything hard (like apples) or chewy (like steak) that her jaw will most likely stay in place and heal within 2-3 weeks.

(SIGH . . . RELIEF)

He asks us if we have any questions. Hyrum asks "She sucks her thumb--is that a problem?". He answers no. And I get his attention quietly (as Josie is not really looking at me nor him) and I motion to tell her to not suck her thumb.

He kind of laughs and looks at her and says, "NO sucking your thumb."

And then we leave.

And buy her ice cream

and WHATEVER else in the world she wants

Because she's 5 years old with a broken jar and is still

a freaking SUPERSTAR.



(I wanted a picture of her with her bear from the hospital and she said no, and ran away from me and plopped her butt down here. So I came in and tried to coax her into a shot and she said, "No because you'll show your friends" So that explains her uncooperative face. And she was right--I was going to shot it to my friends.