The little red circle shows where the break occured on my upper left jawbone. I had a nasty fall on Friday, Dec 3, which resulted in a couple of chipped teeth, cut on my chin, and a broken jaw.
It happened around 11:30am. Megan was sitting in a chair in the kitchen and I was combing her hair. (Quit wondering why it took me until 11:30 to comb my daughter’s hair. Shush…I’m telling my story.) While I was walking from the right side of the chair to the left side my toe caught on the chair leg and I lost my balance. In that second it took to fall I was thinking “Janae get your arms up!” But I still lacked the strength to break the fall and landed on my chin.
As I lifted up my head, I could see the blood start to drip onto the tile floor and heard Megan in the background repeating, “I’m sorry mommy!” I tried going into mom mode by saying, “It’s not your fault Megan, I tripped by myself. Will you go get me a towel from the kitchen drawer?” She ran and got a towel for the bleeding. I then asked, “Meggie, will you now get me the phone so I can call daddy.” She brought me the phone. Jeff’s office is about a mile from our house was able to get home quickly.
After our friend and neighbor, Andrea, came over to pick up Megan, Jeff and I went to the E.R. The Dr. put 4 stitches inside the laceration on my chin to pull the muscle together and then 10 stitches on top. The x-rays didn’t show any broken bones so they did a CT scan. This time the fracture was visible in the upper left jawbone.
The person we need to meet with next is the plastic surgeon. He actually called here today saying he can meet on Wednesday. He reviewed the CT scan and said there is a chance that the brake can heal without my jaw needing surgery. It may take two weeks to know if this is an option so we have to wait and see if my jaw realigns as the swelling goes down. If I do need surgery and my jaw is wired shut, then there is a chance that I would also need a feeding tube put in (because of potential ALS related problems). A glimmer of hope is good enough for me, so I’ll hang onto that. I will post an update when we know more.
I describe the pain as a dull ache but whenever I swallow it hurts because the motion moves my jaw. Yawning is quite painful. I can open my mouth wide enough to fit in a spoon, but if I can use a straw to slurp up food that is preferred over a spoon. I am so happy that I can still speak!
People have been so kind in offering help and to bring by soup and food. When Amy and Angie showed up this afternoon with an amazing blender I thought I might cry. (A happy, appreciative type cry.) This blender can probably puree a computer if it wanted to. I will be doing a lot of blending over the next few weeks.
It happened around 11:30am. Megan was sitting in a chair in the kitchen and I was combing her hair. (Quit wondering why it took me until 11:30 to comb my daughter’s hair. Shush…I’m telling my story.) While I was walking from the right side of the chair to the left side my toe caught on the chair leg and I lost my balance. In that second it took to fall I was thinking “Janae get your arms up!” But I still lacked the strength to break the fall and landed on my chin.
As I lifted up my head, I could see the blood start to drip onto the tile floor and heard Megan in the background repeating, “I’m sorry mommy!” I tried going into mom mode by saying, “It’s not your fault Megan, I tripped by myself. Will you go get me a towel from the kitchen drawer?” She ran and got a towel for the bleeding. I then asked, “Meggie, will you now get me the phone so I can call daddy.” She brought me the phone. Jeff’s office is about a mile from our house was able to get home quickly.
After our friend and neighbor, Andrea, came over to pick up Megan, Jeff and I went to the E.R. The Dr. put 4 stitches inside the laceration on my chin to pull the muscle together and then 10 stitches on top. The x-rays didn’t show any broken bones so they did a CT scan. This time the fracture was visible in the upper left jawbone.
The person we need to meet with next is the plastic surgeon. He actually called here today saying he can meet on Wednesday. He reviewed the CT scan and said there is a chance that the brake can heal without my jaw needing surgery. It may take two weeks to know if this is an option so we have to wait and see if my jaw realigns as the swelling goes down. If I do need surgery and my jaw is wired shut, then there is a chance that I would also need a feeding tube put in (because of potential ALS related problems). A glimmer of hope is good enough for me, so I’ll hang onto that. I will post an update when we know more.
I describe the pain as a dull ache but whenever I swallow it hurts because the motion moves my jaw. Yawning is quite painful. I can open my mouth wide enough to fit in a spoon, but if I can use a straw to slurp up food that is preferred over a spoon. I am so happy that I can still speak!
People have been so kind in offering help and to bring by soup and food. When Amy and Angie showed up this afternoon with an amazing blender I thought I might cry. (A happy, appreciative type cry.) This blender can probably puree a computer if it wanted to. I will be doing a lot of blending over the next few weeks.
