Poor Eli!

Poor Eli was riding his bike home from school with a couple of his younger brothers yesterday and apparently the front tire came loose and fell off his bike as he was crossing the street. He and his bike flipped over, and he landed on his face. We're very grateful he was wearing his helmet, which took the brunt of the force and protected his head (the helmet didn't fare so well, left with a crack a few inches long across the part of the helmet that had covered his forehead).  And we're also grateful for his good brothers who were quick to act and who were thoughtful of their brother: Isaac riding home to get help, Courtland staying with Elijah, and Kolby who came upon his brother a couple minutes after he fell and stayed with him, then helped get his bike and backpack into the car and later into the house without being asked, and who helped me with dinner while I helped Eli. (Camden would have surely been a great help too, but he was at a friends' house when it all happened).

When I pulled up my tough little guy was just weeping as he sat on the curb, such a sad sight. I was grateful that his brothers helped get everything into the car so I was able to just sit with Eli and give him hugs for a few minutes, and then bring him home.

Lijah scraped up his face, and had road rash on his chin, upper lip, hands, and knees. And his two top front teeth broke -- one horizontally straight across leaving about 1/3 of the tooth remaining, and the other one broken diagonally across the tooth. Although we searched, we never did find the pieces of his missing teeth. 

I called the dentist and sent him photos, and he said there were no exposed nerves and got Eli scheduled to come in this morning for X-rays and bonding the teeth. 

Then I took Eli to urgent care yesterday evening. They were nervous about the fact that his helmet had cracked, and he had developed a black eye on his right eye (even though he didn't hit that area on the ground or on his bike), and he was acting pretty sleepy while we were there, so they sent us to the ER at Children's Hospital to be safe.  They said we'd probably need a CT scan, and the urgent care only had the ability to do an X-ray.  And the PA at the urgent care was so thoughtful -- she offered to refund our copy since we had to go to the ER too.

The fellow at Children's checked him out and she was going to order a CT scan as a precaution to rule out a skull fracture, but when the attending came and checked him out she ruled out a skull fracture or a facial fracture. And they weren't even worried about a concussion at that point.  He didn't end up needing a CT scan or an X-ray, and after 1 hr in urgent care and 3 hrs in the ER we headed home for a late dinner at 11pm, then a shower, cleaning out the wounds, and bandaging everything up (14 bandaids!), and finally bedtime at midnight.

They told him to tell us right away if he threw up or felt sick to his stomach, or if his eyes started to hurt or feel strange when he looked from side to side, or if he got a runny/stuffy nose.  And he needed to avoid hot or cold drinks until they can do something about his teeth. 

I told him to rest and try to sleep in this morning before we went to go to the dentists' office.  He caught up on some rest, and Camden made him a special get well card, and then we headed to the dentist.

They took an X-ray, and then the dentist did a great job of bonding his two front teeth.  I don't think anyone would be able to tell they aren't actually his real teeth now.  He said there's always a chance of the teeth dying in the future, but with kids the teeth do sometimes survive and there's a chance the bonding could last long term.  Otherwise we may need to consider crowns or veneers if the teeth ever do die, or possibly once he's 18 or 19.  Until then, the dentist said he will be checking and making adjustments to the bonding at least every year.  I'm amazed at how great they turned out!  (The $780 dental bill wasn't easy to swallow, but then again I had done some brief research online to see what to expect for the cost and it seems like it was a very fair price for the work he had done).

I stopped by the Del Sur Bike Shop to get his bike fixed, and they said that part of the axle was missing (probably got lost in the fall yesterday) and they replaced that for me and got everything tightened up and back in good working order.  They said that there wasn't anything wrong with the bike, but the quick release axle on the back tire was a bit loose and the little handle wasn't facing the correct direction, so they said that if the front tire had been like that it could have come lose from hitting a bump.  They even offered to have me bring Eli into the shop sometime so they could show him the right way for those quick release tires to be in place, since they said you're supposed to check them every time before riding a bike.  And they didn't charge me anything for helping me out with that today.  Such a great place!

The best thing today was that once the dentist had finished, Eli said his teeth didn't even hurt anymore.  He was acting perky and making jokes, and was ready to head back to school.  (I, on the other hand, am ready to take a good long nap after all of this excitement).  We're counting our blessings today!