Broken Nose

Two nights ago, as I was on my way out the door to Aaron's Parent-Teacher Conference, Ryan, the most accident-prone 4-year-old you've ever met, had an accident. (You may remember the "running with the lightbulb, falling with it on the hardwood floor, and having glass surgically removed from his hand three months later incident.)

According to witnesses, he jumped off his bed, landed on his tippy toes, and from there fell flat to his face. He split his lip - again - (he split it last week from bedroom stunts, too), and had a bloody nose. He was inconsolable for about 15 minutes. (That never alarms me - he's often inconsolable when I don't allow him to play the computer, too.)

When I'd gotten home from the conference, he had cried himself to sleep. The next morning - yesterday - he woke up with a swollen and badly bruised nose.

When I was a kid, like in 6th grade, I broke my nose. The doctor told us then that two black eyes means a broken nose. If you hit your nose hard enough to give you black eyes, you've done broke your nose.

Ryan has bad bruises on both sides of his nose, and a black eye on one side. It looks terrible. It's swollen enough to make him not look like himself. I have no doubt that he broke it. Noses are very easy to break.


My friend who used to be a PA told me that they won't do anything for Ryan until the swelling goes down. My mom reminded me that nothing can be done for a broken nose. But, now I've decided to take him in this afternoon - if something can be done to prevent an ugly nose bump like Josh and I have, I want to do it. Poor Ryan - his face used to be so perfect. I get sad everytime I see his nose. I told him this and he said, "Oh, honey - That's ok. Just read your book and then you don't have to see my nose."