Tongues Aren't Supposed to Look Like That!

Having kids, boys especially, is not for the faint of heart. Because, you see, sometimes they decide to nearly bite their tongues clean off.

Give a boy a tree and he'll find a way to get himself a pretty disgusting injury and knock four teeth loose.

I am thankful that we have people in our church who work in the medical profession. Because, you see, with the amount of bright red blood pouring out of my son's mouth last night, I would have rushed him to the nearest ER as soon as I'd taken a good look at his filleted tongue. Thankfully, my friend applied enough pressure to slow the bleeding. She got a good look at it (several millimeters deep and sliced in a different direction inside than it is on the top). She texted the doctor she works for. Her husband texted the doctor he works for. And we were sent home with instructions to feed him a soft, smooth diet until it has healed.

The mouth is a wondrous thing. The bloody, bruised slice you see in the picture already has a white film over it. It looks ten times better, just twelve hours later. The swelling, however, is still substantial.

"Calm down, Mama," a friend told me last night as fifteen or so people gathered around my son to watch his wound bleed profusely. "Deep breath. He'll be fine."

"Oh, I'm not freaking out," I told her. "It's just disgusting and it makes me want to throw up."

And I wasn't freaking out. Because I have two boys and I figure this isn't even close to the worst thing I'm going to see.