Damon's Freak Accident

Here's sweet little Damon. He is just over 16 months old now. He is walking around, and in the stage where he likes to get into everything. Well, now that it is starting to warm up a little bit, his new favorite thing is to be outside. So yesterday, when it was time for Blake to get home from school, I decided I would take the kids for a walk down to the bus stop to wait for Blake's bus to arrive.  It was a nice day, and I was chatting with Mindy (one of the other mom's at the bus stop), while Damon was enjoying walking around in some weeds that are along side of the road. Suddenly I hear Damon start to cry, and when I look over I see this...

sticking out of Damon's nose!

Damon had fallen, and landed just right, so that this stick went up his nose. My first reaction was confusion. I thought, "Is that stick really hanging out of his nose?" My next thought was, "Oh my goodness, there is a stick hanging out of Damon's nose!"

So I run over to him and start to take it out, thinking that it probably just poked into his nose a little bit. But to my horror, as I pull on it, it doesn't just come out quickly, it had gone up his nose anywhere from an inch and a half to two inches. So here are a couple of pictures so that you really get the full visual of what took place...

Here is a comparison as to about how big this stick is. This is just a regular size butter knife next to the stick.

(This is not the actual stick. Mindy and I searched for the other stick, but couldn't find it. The actual stick had blood on it. This one is very close to the size of the actual stick, but the actual stick may have been a little bit bigger.)

Here is the size of Damon's little nose.

From the top of the stick, to where my fingers cut it off, is approximately how far the stick went in.

And here is the little nose next to the now huge looking stick!

I was HORRIFIED! And I am pretty sure Mindy was too. I scooped Damon up in my arms, and ran him home as quickly as I could while he screamed into my ear. Once I got him home, I immediately called Terry at work to ask him what I should do. We decided that I needed to first try to calm him down so that I could figure out if he was actually injured or not. Once he was over the initial crying, he pretty much turned right back into being his normal self. His nose never really "gushed" blood. After pulling the stick out, his nose only bled like a normal kind of nose bleed. And throughout the day a little bit of watery blood would come out. But other than that he seemed just fine. He was a little extra fussy throughout the rest of the day, but really, who wouldn't be after having a stick shoved up their nose. In the end I think we got VERY lucky. He seems to be doing just fine today, and his nose isn't bleeding anymore. I CRINGE thinking back about it, but at the time, I think I just jumped into "super mom mode" and took care of the situation. I was really more sick about it last night, than I was at the time of it happening. But I just can't help thinking how luck we are that it didn't turn out worse. Could you imagine if it had hit his eye!!! I'm cringing just thinking about it! Anyway, I am happy to report that he is alive and doing well.
Here is a picture I took of him this morning admiring his little gun...

I sure do love my little guy!!