Story of a Broken Nose

Yeah, I broke my nose.  I know, you're thinking how the heck did a pregnant woman break her nose? I'm wondering the same thing haha.  Well, it's kind of a funny story that I thought I'd blog about so that I can remember the details so here goes.

My sister, Kristy, called me Monday morning to see if I wanted to go with her and her kids and also my other sister's kids to Trafalga.  She was watching my oldest sister's kids while she was away for girls camp.  I thought, sure I'll go to help and James will have fun playing with his cousins. Plus we have a POAP so it was free!

We got there a little late and they were on the bumper boats so we watched them do that.  After that, my sister informed me that they had an 11:00 laser tag game and had also scheduled an 11:30 as well.  We were going to take turns taking the kids since the two youngest kids weren't old enough to go.  We watched Zach on the go-carts and then let the little ones play in the toddler section while we got ready to head up to our game.  My sister's little girl was crying so we decided I would go with the others for this first game.

all the kids hanging on the chain link watching Zach on the go-carts

The game was fine all until the end.  We were all obeying rules such as "no running" etc but somehow I still managed to hurt myself.  I swear only I could do that.  So here's how it happened.  I'm embarrassed to admit it but I just have to preface, it was dark, ok??  I was crouched down in an alcove and thought someone was after me so I abruptly turned and quickly headed into a dark hallway...or so I thought.  Nope it was a wall! Yep, I ran into a wall...

When I hit, the first thing I thought was Oh my gosh, I really hit that hard.  Wow, how embarrassing.  I hope no one saw me. Luckily and surprisingly no one was around.  It was a pretty full game.  Then the pain hit.  My whole mouth and nose hurt.  My first thought was, Did I bust my teeth? So I reached up to assess the damage.  Phew, my teeth were still there.  Then I felt the blood start trickling out of my nose so my hand went up to my nose.  Yep, bleeding and wow did it hurt!  Great.  Can't hide my stupidity now.  Now I have to find the exit while trying to contain the blood.  Luckily the game ended so I headed to the exit.

I came through and feeling like a complete idiot, I told the worker I had a bloody nose and asked if she had a tissue.  She did not have one nearby but told me there was a bathroom out the exit and down the stairs. Um, I'm not going all the way out there with blood all over my face and hands.  That'll bring lots of attention.  Also my younger nieces and nephews needed help with getting their vests off.

We were still in a dark room so I thought ok, I will hold my nose and can get these kids out of their vests and out of here and hopefully no one will really notice.  Wrong.  Of course my sweet nieces and nephews were asking "Shell, are you alright?"  I told them I was fine.  By then my oldest nephew had come out and I asked him to go down to the bathroom and get me some tissue.  A couple grown women coming up to me saying, "Oh my gosh, You're nose is bleeding!"  Uhhhh really??  Yep, that's why my hand is covering it.  Thanks.  I just waved them off and told them I was fine.  After the fact, I do appreciate their concern.  I was just so embarrassed and didn't want attention.  My nephew came back up with a tissue and we snuck out.

We got out into the light and my sweet six year old nephew wouldn't leave my side and was so cute wanting to hold my hand (which was covered in blood) and kept asking, "Shell, are you ok?"  I looked at him and was shocked by what I saw.  I immediately asked, "Jacob, you're asking if I'm ok!?  Are YOU ok?"  He had a huge goose egg on his eye and it was already black and blue.  I said, "What happened!?"  He just shrugged haha.  I didn't even hear him cry during the game.  What a brave kid! Later my sister found out from him that he ran into the back of someone's gun.  Just a bunch of clumsy's we are :)

Here is his shiner that day.  This pic doesn't even do it justice.  

And by the second day it was even worse!

We were getting a lot of stares, ha I'm sure between me and my nephew, we looked like quite a sight.  What are the odds that there would be injuries from the same party, in the same game that weren't even related?  I had them wait outside while I went into the restroom to wash up.  Luckily my bloody nose had stopped at this point.  When I went back out, they had found my sister who mouthed to me across the facility What the heck happened!?  Haha I felt like everyone was staring at us.  I was mortified.  I filled her in on all the happenings and then the pain really hit and I felt light headed and sick to my stomach and had to sit down.  I kept laughing though.  It really was funny. She suggested I go get it checked out.  We both were really concerned that I may have broken my nose.

I sat for a minute and made sure I was ok to drive then grabbed James.  He was so sad we had to leave early.  So was I.  Luckily he didn't realize I had been injured.  I didn't want to bring any attention to it so I wouldn't freak him out.  I had forgotten to get ice at Trafalga so I stopped at a gas station to get some and called to set up an appointment with my doctor.  I also shot Carson a text.  He was working.  It read, I very well could have broken my nose...Call me when you can.  He called me right away.  After getting back in the car with ice and James seeing me put it on my face, he became a little concerned.  He kept asking, "Momma, what happened?"  the whole drive home.  I would tell him, "Momma just ran into a wall.  I'm fine."

When I went in to see my doctor, he evaluated me and I got some X-rays.  He looked in my nasal passageways and said that my septum may be deviated.  He couldn't tell if it was that or just swelling but that it was definitely swollen.  In fact it was completely closed off.  No wonder I couldn't breathe out of my nose.  So he said he would look again after the swelling had settled.  We looked at the x-rays and sure enough there were two breaks on my nasal bone.  Luckily he said they were aligned and he wouldn't have to set it.  Oh man, was I glad.  I was so worried about that part!  He also said I shouldn't see any bumps on the bridge of my nose after it heals.  When the swelling goes down, then I'll know for sure.

Here it is on the day I injured it 

(my upper lip was swollen too but luckily went away that evening)

So luckily my healing consists of ice and pain meds and making sure nothing bumps it because then it could easily get out of alignment.  Hard to do with a two year old :/  but so far so good. Hopefully it'll heal on it's own and go back to the same ol' nose I'm used to.  If my septum is deviated, it may mean surgery.  Let's hope not.

I'm surprised it didn't bruise as much as I thought it would.  I'm grateful for that and grateful that I'm not disfigured haha.  The first two days were pretty painful.  I never realized I crinkle my nose so much when I talk until it hurt to do so.  I was also so stuffy from all the swelling and a little "nasaly" sounding when I talked.  Sleeping was also a little rough between waking up because I couldn't breathe or the pain and also the pregnancy factors but it was definitely better than I thought it would be.  By now, about four days later, I actually feel pretty good.  I don't have to take anything for pain and the swelling has improved.  So now it's just a matter of letting it heal and being careful.  I can handle that.  I will go back to my doctor to have him check it again in a few days.  Hopefully everything will look ok and no surgery will be needed.

I guess it's time for me to take it easy.  Really though, that game was not that risky.  I'm just clumsy haha.