Dog Bite

A couple days ago Nyah and her friend, Taylor, were playing in the backyard at another friend's house. I was inside chatting with my friends. The girls were trying to play with the friend's dog. Nyah says she was trying to get the dog's toy to play with it, when the dog bit her on the face. Taylor was bitten on her arm when she tried to come to Nyah's rescue. 

Taylor was wearing her winter coat and it has a few holes. Her arm is sore and bruised. Nyah's face has bruising and swelling on the side, a couple scrapes, and one deeper cut. When I was able to look closely, I figured she'd need a stitch or two. The cut isn't very deep, but it was gaping some and it's in the middle of her face. So into Insta-care we went. Oy.

We were fortunate to have a doctor who almost went into plastic surgery, so she'd done 4 plastic surgery rotations and knew how to do some fancy under the skin stitches to minimize the scarring. Because it's a dog bite, Nyah also had a tetanus shot and gets to take antibiotics for the next week or so. Her glasses took quite a beating as well - thank heavens she was wearing them - there are 3 gashes in the glass where the dog's teeth struck and they were mangled. 

All fixed up. 

Unfortunately, it's Nyah's preferred cheek to sleep on, so it keep getting bumped and bleeding. I don't know if the stitches are going to work or not. They aren't tied or knotted - to minimize scarring - and they will pull right out. The tape is holding the stitches tight and in place. However, this morning we had to re-tighten the stitches and replace some tape. I'll pull out the stitches in 3 more days so I hope it heals enough to be okay. 

How is Nyah today? Overall, she's doing good. She hasn't been able to sleep well the last couple nights. She's been icing her cheek so the bruising and swelling have gone down. I bent her glasses back into a workable shape, but they are under warranty so they will be completely replaced. She's not too happy with all the extra attention, but wouldn't dream of missing all her clubs and activities. 

I'm so tired of hospitals/doctors/waiting rooms I almost super glued it. I'm going to learn how so I can in the future. Or I'll take a suture class? Lessons on YouTube maybe? It's obviously a life skill I need. 

P.S. Because I know people will wonder, our friends are trying to find a new home for their dog. The dog was being a dog - protective of her property. She's older and was probably agitated for a number of reasons (helicopters, strange people walking around, strange kids trying to play with her, and so on). The dog has never bitten or been aggressive towards children before, but they don't want to risk another incident- they have 6 kids of their own. If they can't find a suitable place for her they will probably have her put down. Very sad.