I saw her fall. One minute she was pulling herself along on the wall - her first time roller skating. The next minute she was going down. I could only see her shoulders and head because the walls surrounding the rink were so high. So, when her head slipped below the ridge of where I could see, I knew she'd come back up in tears. She'd already fallen a few other times and landed right on her backside. (She's not like her mama - she doesn't have enough fluff back there for it not to hurt.) So, I knew when she got up, she'd be crying.
So did Rick. That's why he headed her direction to pick her up off the floor. However, by the time he could bring her the 15 feet to where I was sitting her face looked like this:
Yep - that goose egg (with the blueish hue) appeared in less than 30 seconds. One second is wasn't there and then WHAM - it appeared. I was convinced she'd broken her cheekbone or jaw bone or maybe cracked her eye socket.
I could tell she was hurt pretty bad because she kept telling me her head hurt and she wanted to go home. Ugh ... a sickening feeling for a mom. Hate it!
I wanted to take her to the E.R. immediately. However, Rick is nothing if he's not sensible and level headed. (Well, most of the time!) He's had multiple players break bones and/or get concussions so he began looking at her eyes/pupils and drilling her on phones numbers and math problems. He's the one who thought to put ice on it immediately. He's the one who told me not to let her go to sleep. It's good to know somebody was thinking because all I wanted to do was vomit.
We ended up taking her home and watching her closely. Other than the normal complaints you would expect from hitting your face on the floor, she was behaving normal. So, we gave her a little ibuprofen and everyone went to bed. I got up 86 times during the night to check on her and fully expected her to be in my bed at some point, but she actually slept great.
However, the next morning when she got up, it was more swollen and it had begun to turn her eye black. At this point, Rick said it was time to go see the doctor. Well, I had every intention of taking her to the doctor, but when we stopped by our chiropractors office to grab some supplements for Craig that we'd run out of, he offered to take a look at her. Considering we trust this man implicitly, he's a fellow believer, and he always opts for the "less is more" in regards to treatment and my pocket book - I was more than willing to let him give me his opinion before I took off to the clinic.
He did all the normal examinations - checking her pupils, asking her to relay information back to him, pressing around on the area gently to feel what he could. However, he then surprised the hound out of me when he grabbed a tuning fork. He explained that before x-ray machines were invented, that doctors would test for broken bones using a tuning fork.
Here's why/how it works: The doctor slaps the tuning fork against his hand or thigh making it vibrate. He then holds the end of it against the part of the bone believed to be broken. If it is indeed cracked or broken, the tuning fork will vibrate the broken piece causing significant pain. If it is not broken, there is no pain (other than what is already there from the original mishap).
He tested each inch of her cheek bone and even her eye socket and Julie simply looked at him each time he touched her face with the fork. Needless to say, within two minutes we were fairly certain that the girl had not broken any of the bones in her face. He also shared with me that if the cheekbone was broken in two that her face would be sagging on that side (not to mention that she'd be in alot more pain). So - really we were just checking for a hairline fracture or crack. He shared with me that if we had gone to get an x-ray, that hairline fractures usually do not show up for 8-10 days. So, the hospital/clinic would have wanted to do a CT scan of her head to look for breaks/cracks. Can you see where this is going?
I realize the hospital has to protect themselves by making sure that they don't miss a broken bone (especially in a face); however - I ask you ... If her cheekbone had a hairline fracture, what would they have done for her? You can't cast it. You can't wrap it.
Fracture or not fracture - the treatment would have been the same. Ice it. Take it easy. Eat some ice cream. (Okay - maybe the Dr. Mom in me added in that last bit of treatment.)
So, instead of a $1500 bill for an x-ray and doctor attention and then a $3000 bill for a CT scan not to mention whatever else they could add on .... I was able to determine whether or not my daughter had broken her face with a simple (and age old) technique that was no more than the cost of my current copay.
I love me a good deal and I love the lack of radiation in my daughter's face! Now if we could just get her face to quit turning such pretty colors:
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