Black eye

[rmncwrtr]

Anyone know of something other than ice and Motrin that will help ease the swelling of a black eye?

 

My 9 yo got hit in the face last night running from 2nd to 3rd base. Luckily no concussion, but boy, is it nasty looking. It hurts just to look at. The ball hit on his cheekbone. It's scratched/cut at the point of impact. He's supposed to dance on Saturday up in Seattle. Rocky Balboa does Riverdance.

[Mtguide]

Unfortunately not a lot more that can be done now except to let it heal up on its own. You might ice it a couple of times a day using an ice bag or a bag of frozen peas, for about 15-20 min. at a time. Put a small cloth pad or gauze pad over the eye so that you're not icing the eyeball itself.

 

Since he's so young, by Saturday the swelling should be greatly reduced, if not all the way down, but the discoloration will persist, gradually clearing up, for about 10 days. Keep the cut area clean to make sure it doesn't get infected. He may have a bit of a contusion on that cheekbone, not just a bruise of the surrounding tissue. It might also be a good idea to have an eye doctor(opthamologist, not optometrist) check him out just to make absolutely sure that no damage was incurred to the eye itself.

 

By Saturday, it shouldn't be near as painful to the touch as it is now, although it'll still be tender; but you might be able to carefully apply a little makeup to the area so he'll be cosmetically OK to dance.

 

Finally, Motrin is not recommended for children under the age of 12 due to possible side effects. Children's Tylenol is far safer, pediatrician standard treatment, and will also work better to reduce the swelling.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Mtguide

[rmncwrtr]

Thanks, Mtguide! This is new ground for me.

 

I think we'll have to wait and see how it feels for Saturday. He jumps around a lot with the Irish dancing, and if it still hurts then I don't want him to do it.

 

Our pediatrician told us last night to give him Children's Motrin so I'm going to assume that's safe though I think we actually used kid Advil. The last time we tried Children's Tylenol, he threw up and I think he'd rather get hit in the other eye than have to take that stuff again!

[ivan]

i remember my big brother getting hit in the face w/ a fastball when i was 6 - grossiest thing i'd seen in my life at the time - the area around his eye was the size of a damn grapefruit!

 

god i loved baseball

[Mtguide]

Your pediatrician knows your boy better than I do, so if he says the Motrin's OK, that's what to do.

 

Your comment about "Rocky Balboa does Riverdance" cracked me up. Actually, if he wasn't just 9 years old, it'd be perfectly appropriate--just another stout Irish lad kickin' up 'is heels after a grand night at the pub, don't ye know.

[rmncwrtr]

You're probably right, Mtguide.

 

At last night's game (my son wasn't allowed to play, but coach wanted him there), he saw a friend on the other team who wasn't playing because he had a black eye, too. Same eye as my son. Turns out his dad, who played professionally, was working on his son's catcher skills Sunday, but the kid wasn't wearing a mask. They ended up spending Mother's day at the ER. Bet that went over well with the mom

 

Guess we're entering a new phase with my son so I'd better get used to it. I just wish it would have waited until after our ski passes expired since I'd planned on taking the kids skiing this week. Oh, well...

 

[ivan]

you could just have a helmet ducktaped to his head or make him a bubble-wrap outfit?

 

getting ridiciously hurt all the time is the fun part of those ages 5ish to whenever you stop drinking heavily. as a wee lad i recollect stitches/er visits from:

- a kid jumping off a diving board and sinking his two front teeth into my skull

- racing a kid, me on foot, him on his bike - he veered into me and we fell in a jumble and his bike-peddle removed most of the flesh from my kneecap

- calling my big brother a cocksucker or something like it, shortly after i got the last set of stitches out - he chased me down and wailed on me, and in the process reopened the whole knee injury for another round of stitches!

- taking an elbow to the mouth in baseketball, which led to a fun root canal

- snapping my pinky in half making a tackle in a football game

- setting a patrol flag on fire at boy scout camp, then setting myself on fire trying (in vain) to put it out

 

and maybe my favorite: falling off my bed backwards onto an old-school radiator, slicing two neat parallel lines into my scalp that i still have to explain every time i shave my head! the fun part of that was hiding in the bathroom for 2 hours putting roll after roll of tp on my head, hoping hte bleeding would stop so my mom wouldn't beat the holy-hell out of me for making us miss church

 

at any rate, get ready for a whole lot more of this shit! (and did i mention i had the fewest number of bizarro accidents out of my 2 other brothers?)

[rmncwrtr]

Ouch, Ivan! I'm going to hope nothing like that happens to my little guy.

 

I don't plan on bubble wrapping the kid, but I didn't have a brother so this boy stuff is new to me. We've been very lucky so far with him. The girls have winded up with all the stitches and sprains.

 

I just got home from a no-so fun day. He was having some different pain in his eye so we went to the doctor which led to an x-ray at St. Vs, a visit to the opthamologist and then back to St. Vs for a CT scan. I'm sure not feeling the love for Little League right now.

Edited May 14, 2009 by rmncwrtr

[sobo]

At last night's game (my son wasn't allowed to play, but coach wanted him there), he saw a friend on the other team who wasn't playing because he had a black eye, too. Same eye as my son. Turns out his dad, who played professionally, was working on his son's catcher skills Sunday, but the kid wasn't wearing a mask. They ended up spending Mother's day at the ER. Bet that went over well with the mom

I'm familiar with that story line; happend to me, too! Although my dad was never a Major Leaguer, we did practice my catching skillz at home while I was in Little League. Dad warned me he was gonna burn one in, and I taunted back as a 10-year-old boy would. Well, ol' Dad wung a fastball at me and it got past my mitt. Biggest black eye I've had in my entire life, and I've had quite a few. The way I went down he thought he'd killed me.

 

Anyway, Mel, what you really need to do is come up with a great cover story, cuz everyone at the Irish Dances is gonna think that you beat Finn to make him dance so damned good. They aren't gonna fall for the "Little League" story. :noway:

[Mtguide]

One hot summer day in Fort Worth when I was 10, my 2 younger sisters and I were playing softball with some neighbor kids in the back yard. I was batting, and my 8-year old sister was pitching. When I swung, I hit a line drive right at her, which hit her smack in the forehead; she fell backwards, putting her right hand out to brace her fall. She squashed a big bumblebee under her hand, which stung her on the thumb. She jumped up screaming and crying, ran around trying to shake the bee off her thumb, and cut her foot on the hose sprinkler. Then she wet her pants, and still crying and screaming, headed for the back door to go inside. The rest of us were all just laughing fit to kill.

 

My Mother, hearing all the screaming, had gone running to the back door to see what the trouble was, and was just opening the screen door as my sister got there. My sister ran right into the edge of the screen door and knocked out a front tooth. This all happened in maybe less than about a minute or so.

 

But alas for my poor Mother, the day was yet young; about two hours later, after lunch, the same bunch of neighbor kids and I were across the street in their backyard, sledding on pieces of cardboard down the inclined bed of an old 50's pickup their dad had made into a trailer. The floor of the bed was the old oak plank kind with metal strips between the planks. About my third slide, I slid off the cardboard and rammed a six-inch sliver as thick as a pencil deep into my right butt cheek.

 

God, I will never forget how that hurt; as I went running back home crying, my Dad was just turning into the driveway after taking my sister to the dentist to get her tooth looked at. He took me inside and got the pliers to pull it out, but it wouldn't come. Mom called the doctor, who came(this was back when they used to do house calls) and even he had a very hard time with it. He finally managed to get all but about an inch of it out, and had to give me a shot of penicillin to forestall infection. My butt was sore for days. I carried that piece of wood in my butt for years till I think it finally was absorbed. And this was only the second week after school let out for the summer.

 

As we sat at the supper table that evening, my sister sitting there with a big bruise on her forehead, a swollen thumb, a fat lip, a missing tooth and a big bandage on her foot, and me sitting on a pillow, my other sisters started giggling, and pretty soon we were all laughing. Dad looked across at Mom with a grin and a twinkle in his eye and just said, "Oh well, it's a sign o' life...".

[ivan]

okay, this is officially now a fun war-story thread!

 

i learned a painful lesson in middle school: don't play baseball w/ a basketball my friend pitched it in, a bit over my head - i wacked it as hard as i could and got a classic newtonian, equal n' opposite reaction - the ball went flying even as the bat bounced back, full speed, into my forehead! i spent the next week explaining to folks when my evil twin was trying to grow out of my skull to conquer the know universe

[G-spotter]

The old school black eye cure is to press a raw steak to it.

[sobo]

So that's why they call 'em ribeye steaks, huh?

 

Jeezus, I crack myself up...

[rmncwrtr]

I thought steak was just something they did on TV.

 

I did find one home remedy in case this ever happens again. I was in No. PDX last week after Crossfit Kids. A woman came up to us when she saw my son. Told me that if you cut a raw potato in half and stick it on the black eye, it'll take the swelling down. We were on our way to Seattle after that so I never got a chance to try it.

[sobo]

...A woman came up to us when she saw my son. Told me that if you cut a raw potato in half and stick it on the black eye, it'll take the swelling down.

Calling catbirdseat... calling CBS. Brian, respond please.

[RuMR]

RMNCWRTR,

 

get used to it...the staff at our local ER knows our boys on a first name basis...everything from stitches on the back of the head from backflips to close to the diving board, to broken arms, to split chins, to dislocated fingers, etc. etc. etc..

 

Luckily my boys are jabbermouths spraying about their "war wounds"...otherwise, i'm sure CPS would be calling us...

 

Come to think of it...i was as busted up (arguably, just as much now as then) as they were when i was a kid...live hard, play hard and pass the bandaids!!!

 

 

BTW: Saw your post on helmets...

Edited May 27, 2009 by RuMR

[rmncwrtr]

BTW: Saw your post on helmets...

 

Yeah, still better me than one of the kiddos. They found the whole thing a big adventure though the ambulance scared my youngest. But I did get a reprieve on surgery today and a pink cast that the girls think is very cute. My son, however, can't understand why I didn't pick blue or the dinosaur one

[ken4ord]

When I was growing up I ended up doing a lot to myself and survived. Here is some of my earliest injury memories:

 

* Ripped my wrist open on my slide trying to slide down it standing up 7 y.o.

* Brother threw a sand dollar and cracked the back of my head open 10 y.o.

* Chasing after my brother I broke my nose the first time by running into a 4 x 4 sticking out the back of truck 11 y.o.

* Gave myself a rope burn across my neck after clothes lining myself

* Broke my nose a second time running through a hole in the fence but didn't duck enough and hit a 2 x 4 that was part of the fence 12 y.o.

* Got my font tooth broken when I was sucker punched 14 y.o.

 

The list goes on and on, it just part of growing up. I expect Simone will follow in her fathers foot steps. So far nothing serious black eye from running into a table, bloody nose walking into a glass window and numerous scraped knees, but she is still only 2.5.

[RuMR]

sucks when you're a klutz, don't it?