I am sitting on the couch across from my Wife that had a bad bicycle accident today. She got cut off by another rider. She did a face plant over the handle bars. We were in the ER for 3 hours, It’s amazing that she is not in worse shape. 120 lbs of her landed on her face. She did not scratch an elbow or knee. Did not even scratch her helmet. Three point landing on her nose, upper lip and chin. Her lip somehow got the worst of it.
She is home now, As the day progressed, the swelling went up and the bleeding never really stopped. Drip. Drip. She takes blood thinners for a congenital problem. After another 2 hours of me trying to keep her cuts from bleeding it finally has stopped. I put another butter fly bandage on her upper lip, That fixed that I think. And it seems that we finally got the fleshy part of her lip to stop bleeding. She has had a little food, And can drink water. I’m trying to make sure she re and keeps hydrating.
She is starting to get a bit of rest. I see REM, and then a slight snore. A beautiful sound.
Sorry to post such a stream, I must stay awake, and quiet, close and keep the lights low so my wife can sleep.
So, I sit and watch. Check to make sure she is not bleeding and wait. Dawn. That’s the next step.
Thanks. It’s stuns us both really. Face first on asphalt. No other nicks or scratches. Well some bruises on her legs are showing up, but that is it as far as can be seen.
Not a broken jaw, or nose or even a chipped tooth. Her upper lip and nose seems to have taken most of it. I have been spreading anti biotic ointment on her chin trying to get the asphalt grit out.
I suspect I’m getting a little punchy from lack of sleep, and the adrenalin I’ve had today. I did have a thread earlier about how to get blood out of clothes. That worked out well.
Crazy thing is, I tend to be a bit silly sometimes and love to lift my wifes spirits. But at the moment, it hurts for hell for her to smile or laugh. And well, the blood that comes with opening up the wounds. That’s a bit of a problem too.
Hopefully, When she wakes the bleeding will really be stopped. Or, I suspect its back to the ER.
If she finds chewing painful, I suggest SlimFast, in either the can or as a powder. If you mix it up from the powder, do use the blender, and do put ice in it. And WalMart has a pretty good generic version of the canned stuff. WalMart may be evil, but it does do some things right. Your wife probably doesn’t need to lose weight, but the SlimFast is pretty complete, nutritionally, and if she can’t chew, it’s better than just sipping soda and chicken broth.
I also suggest ice packs, for pain, swelling, and to slow down the bleeding.
Oddly, chewing is not a problem at all. It’s just getting food into her mouth. She and I talked about this, and I mentioned to her that knowing that we would both now be a little pressed, that I might pick up a pizza, but then seeing her mouth, did not suggest a pizza.
I suggested food. She recommended soup. Turns out that soup really sort of sucks when your lips are a mess. Ya sort of got to try to pour it in. The pizza I could have cut up into little tiny pieces. Live and learn.
We do now have lot’s of soup that I brought home. She can kind of do a straw, and I may blenderize it. Also have a couple of chicken breasts we cooked up the other night. They will chop up into real nice small pieces.
Thanks for the suggestions and thoughts. My Wife was sort of stunned that chewing is just no problem. If her swelling does not go down quickly, I’ll probably pick some up some Slim Fast for nutritional value.
Patty, my wife has been doing ice on it. We will do more. The good news is she has a good book that she has just really started to get into. Though it will hard for her to sit around when summer has finally hit. She is training for her second IronMan race that comes up in November. Her ‘official’ training would have started Monday.
Last night I had to put a piece of paper towel on a leak on her inner upper lip. Sort of what guys might do with a shaving cut. Don’t really know how to describe the spot. But last night it simply would not stop bleeding. Looks to me like her teeth took a chunk out of it.
Just a few minutes ago, we where able to very carefully remove it with wetted q-tips and Patty pushing on it with her tounge. It bleed a tiny bit more, and stopped and is forming a scab. Still a little bleeding from behind that hole. Mostly looks like abrasion. Or really just a very aggravated area from her swollen lip. I cut some gauze that the hospital gave us and coated one side of it with bacitracin (also given to us by the hospital) and got that in place.
I’m really really sorry to hear that. It must have been terrifying to be a witness to seeing your sweetie get hurt. And it’s horrible when someone you care about is hurt and you can’t fix it immediately; you want to take their suffering on yourself instead, but you can’t. Sounds like she has all the help and care she needs anyway.
I was in a bicycle accident myself on Thursday night. The girl I was cycling with wobbled into my handlebars, lost her balance, and fell off in front of me. I inadvertently ran over her hand then fell off myself. She has grazes all over her, a huge bruise on one of her hips, her right hand is blue and swollen so she can’t work (she doesn’t get sick pay), but worse, after it happened I could see there was some kind of hole in the middle of a huge scrape on her elbow, which she dismissed at the time - I think she was in shock. She texted just now to say the hand is feeling better but the elbow worse. I think she’s in danger of infection, and a nurse she knows says she may also have chipped a bone. I feel indirectly responsible, even though it wasn’t my fault, so have compensated her for her lost pay. There’s not a scratch on me.
The Bacitracin will help to keep the gauze from sticking. Also, there are gauze pads that have a non-stick surface on one or both sides that are excellent wound dressings.
As for the SlimFast or other liquids, you might take a funnel and sort of pour a little liquid in at a time. Sort of like that college stunt with beer, only healthier. She does want to be careful not to swallow when the liquid is pouring in, and just swallow when she has a mouthful, with no more pouring in. I’d be concerned about her getting enough fluids, especially water, if she’s having problems getting it in herself. Also, warm salt water seems to help heal mucus membranes, without disturbing the scabs too much.
Patty is able to drink water OK. It’s a bit of an effort though. She’s an athlete and knows how important that is.
We have a neighbor that is a Nurse Practitioner. She gets back from Denver this evening. I am going to invite her over to look at Patty for either tonight, or Sunday. Actually, her husband is also a trained nurse. I’m going to call him this morning and ask him to stop by. We are a little concerned about the dressing on my wifes lip. With all the blood, it’s getting pretty ugly.
Patty is up, and ambulatory. Completely lucid. The twist of all of this has been the blood thinners that she is on. It’s damn hard to stop any bleeding. It seeps.
Argh, poor lady. I did a face plant off of my bike into a gravel alley about 8 years ago (my own mistake, no vehicles or bikes involved). Luckily I was wearing my helmut, but the right side of my face caught most of it. I had to go to the hospital and get stitches about an inch below my right eye. I now have an inch long scar that my husband loves. He was there with me and helped me get home, then to the hospital. We laugh about it now.
Sorry to hear about that, hope she makes a speedy recovery. I was surprised to see the NHTSA data on accident injury location; The jaw and surrounding area was one of the prime spots. That’s why I got a full face helmet for the motorcycle.
EmAnJThe one that cut her off did not stop, but my Wife thinks he was pretty young. Not that that’s an excuse. But there were many other riders that did stop. And she was biking with a good friend. I got the phone call at work from our friend and picked my Wife up. Then my wife called while I was in route. I just told her that I’m real glad she told me what a mess she was in. It sounded like just a bloody nose at first. I hadn’t known that she would need to go to the hospital until she called again while I was in route.
Sorry that sounds so confusing. Still no sleep.
Anyway, our neighbor (trained as a nurse) stopped by and said that from what happened my Wife’s prognosis is what he would suspect. He wants to send his wife (the nurse practioner) by when she gets home. But he did alleviate most of my concerns. Never hurts to get somebody from the outside looking in.
Well, at least the bleeding has pretty much stopped. It still is leaking out in some places, and that’s what really had me worried. And, I just couldn’t stop it.
I want to thank everyone for their concerns and advice. I needed some support last night while I watched over my Wife and the SDMB did that.
Sorry about your troubles - glad to hear she’s coming along as expected. Always tough to see your loved one injured. Try to get some sleep, you’ll feel much better.
Makes perfect sense to me. A couple of months ago, my mom and I went out for a walk around the neighborhood, and she did that thing where you catch your foot on something, take a few quick steps to recover, and land on your face anyway.
She chipped a tooth, scratched and bent her glasses, bonked her nose and bit through her lower lip.
We walked home, she took a shower, washed her bloody clothes (lots of blood) and went to work. At which point she figured out she’d bitten through her lip and was urged to go to the dentist. Dentist sent her to the Oral Surgeon (down two floors and across the hall) who put stitches inside and outside the lip. Mom went about her usual routine (including haircut and ordering blinds for the window) the rest of that day.
Then the next day, she collapsed in a heap and stayed there for a while.
She’s fine now.
During that time, eating cold stuff was good. Soup was bad --warm food was not good, plus she made soup with a tomato base, not good, plus spices were not good. She ate shakes from half a dozen fast food places, and lots of yoghurt. Anything smooth and cold.
Lost 2-3 pounds that week, and so was offered the chance to provide tips at Weight Watchers. Um, fall and hurt yourself and then don’t eat anything but shakes for a few days?
I went OTB yesterday. I was going fast and tried to hop a root, but didn’t pull up enough. My chest broke my fall. I can’t imagine doing it on pavement.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. If she’s still having problems getting food into her mouth I’d second the recommendation of shakes and smoothies. I’ve been in a similar situation before and my little $25 immersion blender was a lifesaver - you can do all kinds of milkshakes, throw in fruit, yogurt, etc. Also good for blending soups so she won’t need to use a spoon (there’s tons of great cream of X recipes). Plenty of good stuff can go through a straw.