And now in plain English: On Tuesday, I was at work in front of the chemistry building at Utah State University. A coworker and I were loading a truck with items we had picked up to take back to the Surplus department where we worked. There were three greasy and heavy metal pumps that we attempting to put in last. I lifted one of these by this sort of wheel thing that was attached to the top of it. Unfortunately for me, this wheel was not as secure as we thought it was, it popped off the top, the pump fell, or remained where it was, and the wheel flew up and smacked me in the face just below the mouth.
This is the part where I am not as sure of the details. My coworker later told me that there was a noise that sounded like someone took a bat to my head. I was stunned for a minute and there was some pain all throughout my lower jaw. I seem to recall that I set the wheel down and made some attempts to get back to work. My coworker said something to the effect that I needed to get stitches. I wondered at that and put my hand up to my chin and felt the wetness and saw blood covering my palm when I took it away. I let him finish loading while I went inside to the bathroom to get wash my hand and get some paper towel to control the bleeding.
We travelled back to the shop and I told my boss I was going over to the Health and Wellness Center to go get whatever help I might need. While I was there, a woman overheard us, took a look at my wound and told me she was pretty sure I needed stitches.
I walked over to the Heath and Wellness Center which is just south of the Surplus Store and a kind lady took me to the back where she did a quick examination. She threw away my blood soaked paper towel and wiped away most of the blood from my wound. She said that even though the cut was deep it probably wouldn't need stitches, it might need to be glued, but probably not stitches. She asked a few questions and took a look at my gums and teeth since I mentioned some pain there. The gum around one of my teeth looked horrible, it was a purplish grey and looked like part of it had a tear in it. The inner part of my lip was also bruised. She said that there was possibly some severe damage to a tooth and told me that I should go to the InstaCare clinic since they would be able to treat me better so I wouldn't lose the tooth.
I walked back to my car and drove there. I filled out the necessary paperwork while I waited and I notice a peculiar thing about the blood on one of my hands, the blood made a smiley face! Here is a picture of it:
I took it with my cellphone, so the quality is pretty poor, but I enhanced the second one a little with PhotoShop so you can more easily see where the smiley face is. There was more blood on my hand than you can tell from either picture, but you get the idea.
When I was finally able to see the doctor, he asked me about exactly what happened and then checked the wound on my face. He examined it and told me that it seemed to be holding together well enough that it would not need any stitches or glue. He then examined my gums and teeth and told me that gums are pretty resilient so it would take care of itself. He tapped and wiggled most of my bottom teeth and discovered that they seemed to have taken the shock pretty well.
The diagnosis was that I was okay. The prescription was that I just needed to keep an eye on my injuries to make sure that they didn't or don't take a turn for the worse. I would need to be careful around the cut on my face so I was told not to shave around that part for at least a week or until it heals completely, hence my scruffy, slightly beardy appearance. He also told me to put neosporin type stuff on the cut to make sure it doesn't go septic on me.
It has been about three days since it happened. I used some ibuprofen for the first day or two for the pain but it hasn't been bad for awhile, in fact, for the first several hours after it happened, most of my lower jaw was just numb, and most of the pain didn't set in until the evening. I don't think my cut has been infected, but occasionally it will leak a little bit. The first day and a bit it was blood, now it is a slightly amber liquid.
The worst part has actually been within my mouth. That is where most of the pain has been, and for the first day it was quite uncomfortable to eat. Every time I brush my teeth I have to be careful around that area. I have tried to brush it very softly, but each result ends in red bristles on my toothbrush and pink toothpaste when I spit into the sink. There has been a constant taste of blood in my mouth since it happened. The first while it was really strong, now it is still there, but not as noticeable. Either that or I have just gotten used to the taste. In Fact, on Thursday I woke up with vampire morning breath. I woke up with that nasty morning breath taste, but combined with blood.
The cut doesn't look too bad right now, so hopefully it will heal without a mark. One of my younger sisters asked me the other day whether it will scar. I don't know. But if it does, I'll have a nice set of scars on my chin. One on the bottom and the other about an inch below the lip. I've included this picture so you can see. It is not a very good one due to the lighting in this room and due to the fact that it was taken just a little while ago with a webcam. The cut is also a little obscured because of the glare on the neosporin stuff.
