Grand Duchess' Dog Bite Story

A lot of my blog readers (okay, all of them) are my friends on Facebook. So this low-down is nothing new. However, it has come to my attention that sometimes I have lurkers on my blog that don't get on Facebook that often. (SHOCKER!!!)
So, for them, here is a little low-down of the happenings in the Royal Household this summer.

About a month ago we took a little trip to Denver to visit my mom & dad & to take Mr. Fantastic to the temple to do baptisms there (his first time). It was an amazing experience for him. He had forgotten all of his batteries for his CI (AND the charger) back at home so he was without sound for a majority of the weekend, this included while we were at the temple. After the baptisms were over, we went out in true Royal fashion to eat some brunch. It was pretty good. I think we went to Perkins - nope, Le Peep.
Anyway.


Grand Duchess playing by the pond before dinner on Saturday evening.
 

Later that evening we were cleaning up from dinner. My sister, her fiancée, his 2 kids, my brother, & my parents (along with Popeye and all my kids) were all there. As we were cleaning up, Grand Duchess (who is now 4 1/2, can you believe it?!) walked over to Sarge (my brother's dog) and called him a "smart cookie".  Apparently Sarge didn't like that because he then bit her. None of us saw it. She came running over to me crying & I saw blood. Everywhere. I noticed something in her eye. Thinking it was a piece of wood & that she had been hit by a stick on accident by one of the kids, I reached up and was about to touch it when she yelled out that the dog bit her. It wasn't wood. It was flesh.
I grabbed some napkins off the table and applied pressure. There was so much blood that I couldn't tell to what extent the damage was. I called for Popeye to get some oil - but he didn't have any. So we started to track down my dad who was the only other priesthood holder in the house. Eventually he was found and a healing blessing was pronounced on her. She was blessed that her eyesight wouldn't be compromised but that with the help of the doctors she would be made well again.
My brother was so upset (rightfully so) and all I could do was hug him & tell him that we weren't mad at him, that it wasn't his fault & that Grand Duchess would be just fine. We then rushed to the ER.
There, they cleaned her up a bit & saw that half of her lower eyelid was missing and had a rather large gash in her cheek. There were some superficial scrapes in between the two wounds.
They didn't have the essential equipment needed to operate on her so they sent us to Children's Hospital. (We love Children's hospital!)

Resting before heading to Children's Hospital. Luckily her eyes were closed - her top lashes hide what's missing.
 

There, they doped her up on morphine and she was able to get some sleep. At 7:00 the next morning we got her ready for surgery. The doctors were so nice and clear on everything they were going to do to her. They wheeled her away & I went downstairs for breakfast. This was the first time that I cried. It was the only time I cried, too, for that matter. I was alone with my thoughts and worries (Popeye had gone back to my folks' house to help tend the kids) and the enormity of it all weighed heavily on my Momma Heart.

90 minutes later the surgeons came out. It was a success. He cut a small incision on the outside corner of her eye and pulled the good eyelid across concealing most of the damaged area. He then sutured the rest of her eye (in the inside corner) to form scar tissue so that they wouldn't have to graft from behind her ear. They also put a tube in her nasal sinuses, looped it up through her top tear duct & down through the bottom tear duct then back into her sinuses. This will keep the lower tear duct from closing while it heals - it's kind of like an earring - keep it in for a while then the hole will be there forever. We'll take the tube out in a few months or so. He also stitched up her face - 8 stitches, I believe. I was so relieved!
I got Popeye on the phone and told him to make his way to pick us up. By the time he got there, we were ready to be discharged. I didn't know what it looked like because she had a patch taped to her face.

Heading back to Nebraska.

Once home, we had to put eye drops in 4 times a day and ointment on the incisions. The tape was pretty nasty to keep peeling off her face, so I got some self-adhesive ace bandages and wrapped her eye patch onto her head. She was a little pirate. :) She was such a trooper.
Now we're home. It's a month later & it's been a crazy ride for us. There have been numerous phone calls, an emergency trip to the local opthomologist & a lot of sighing and praying. Her patch is off now. She popped some stitches in her eye and it has healed a bit differently than when we were first released from the hospital. I can see the tube in her eye, the tear duct is no longer on the inside corner but on the lower lid. I'm hoping the doctor will call me within a week to schedule a follow-up appointment to see if he wants to do anything about that.

Can you see that red line on her eye line? That's the popped stitches. You couldn't even see that before.

On top of that, we're moving - again. But I may have said something about that in my last post. Needless to say, we'll be cramped and we will be putting a majority of our things in storage.
Popeye has been testing with Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) and Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP). Last week we found out that MHP is starting his background investigation and he just completed his polygraph exam with MSHP. A few other agencies that would be nice to work for have opened up their hiring process again, so I should expect him to start filling out more applications this week.
Hmmm...
Yep - that's it for now.
Carry on.