How I Dislocated My Jaw at the Water Park

When you have a wild and crazy mom-and-kids getaway, you don’t anticipate you are the one who will potentially be injured.  Am I right??

A few weeks ago on Groupon, I spotted a hot deal for a stay at the Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  If you’re not familiar, this is a hotel with an indoor water park attached.  We had stayed at this location a year ago, and had a great time. (You can see all this property offers from my highlights post Inside Peek at Great Wolf Lodge Colorado Springs.)

Hmmmm… 5 per room. 5 water park bands included.  Me and my 2 kids, plus my sister-in-law and nephew = 5!   IT’S A COUSIN VACATION PARTY!  Now that’s an affordable and crazy-fun Thanksgiving Break trip made in heaven!

So we decided to book a room, and share it.  At the thought of having three wild children all in the same room, I had moments of questioning the wisdom of this plan.  My son and  nephew are both energetic first graders.

There were early moment like this.

 

And this.

 

But all things considered, they were really well behaved.  🙂

Our intention was to really enjoy the included water park facilities, and let the kids spend as much time as possible there.

Having stayed as a guest before, I knew which slides I liked.  And which ones I avoided.

However, on this occasion (and in the absence of their braver father to accompany them) I caved to peer pressure. My kids talked me into trying the Mountain Edge Raceway.  This requires you to lay on your stomach on a foam mat, and slide down head first.

Was I excited about this?  Not really.  But how bad could it be?

First run.  Actually pretty fun.  But then you arrive at the slow-down, flat  stretch at the end of the slide.  And you hit a HUMAN BODY SPEED BUMP.  I get it… it’s to slow you down.  But it’s brutal.

So that little jolt kindof sucked.  But of course, the kids loved it (because their bodies are made of pliable rubber) and they begged to go again.

Hold My Diet Coke

Did I listen to my little inner voice?  The one saying “That bump at the end is too much.  You don’t have anything to prove… just refrain.”

No.  No, I didn’t.

We get back in line with our rubber mats, curled at the front like a toboggan.  See, I mention that little design detail because it’s about to become relevant.

Fun fact about me:  I don’t enjoy getting water sprayed in my eyes.  Contact wearers, can I get a witness?

So this time when I’m in the final stretch, and water is spraying into my eyes as I start to slow down, I tuck my chin to my chest.  Big mistake!

I hit the speed bump, and the top curled portion of my mat rammed up into my chin.  I felt like I had been sucker punched.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Now would be a good time to mention, I love Great Wolf Lodge and the water park.  I do feel their slides are safe.  And that’s saying something, given some of the scary incidents at some water parks in the past year or so.

Just don’t tuck your chin to your chest, when riding the Mountain Edge Raceway.

You’re welcome.

So back to my injury.  I stagger off the slide, carrying my mat.  Man, that hurt!  I can tell it messed with my jaw, and the right side immediately began to hurt.  Followed shortly by a headache.

The bummer was, it really took the wind out of my sails.  This was the first afternoon of our arrival.  I ended up spending the rest of the time at our poolside table, watching the kids play.  Which is not a bad way to spend time.  Still very relaxing and fun!

Wait… I Can’t Chew

If you plan to stay at the Colorado Springs Great Wolf Lodge, you need to know:  their food is EXCELLENT!  I met the head chef on an earlier media tour, and they’ve made concentrated efforts to serve extremely tasty, healthy, allergy conscious foods.  They have a few different on-site eating establishments to choose from, and they are all really good.

That meant I was excited for our much-better-than-average pizza we would be eating for supper that night at Hungry Like a Wolf!

What’s interesting is I didn’t realize how messed up my jaw truly was, until I tried to chew.  (If you’ve personally experienced a jaw injury, you probably saw this coming.)

Starving, I took that first bite of hot, steamy cheesy pepperoni pizza.  And pain SHOT through the right side of my face.  Actually, I couldn’t even bite on the right side… my teeth didn’t meet together anymore.

Hooooo-boy.  Sure enough, I had dislocated my jaw.

Not so fun!

Doctor, or No Doctor… That is the Question

Emotional from low blood sugar, and my inability to eat the savory pizza sitting right in front of my eyes, I get teary eyed and begin to panic.

Tracking down a doctor (Dentist? Chiropractor? ER? Who the heck knows where I should even go??) in a strange town, during our short getaway vacation, is NOT how I wanted this to go down.

I begin to work with my jaw, experimenting with putting pressure on it.  It seems like if I push against the joint, the pain lessens slightly, and my bite improves a little.  I do manage to eat one piece of pizza, using my left side, while pushing on my right jaw (up by my ear).  Cause I’m tenacious like that.  And also I love food.

After calling my husband, he was able to consult with a paramedic coworker.  The final verdict was I likely had a subluxation of my jaw.  If I could stand the pain, I probably didn’t need to seek medical attention until I got back home.

That’s what I wanted to hear.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Happily, each day saw a little improvement.  We spend the ENTIRE next day at the water park.  I wasn’t up to par, had a headache, and was in some pain.  But I really did have a good time sitting at our table, reading a book and snacking on soft stuff.  The kids would occasionally check in, and were having a blast.

When I ate, I’d hold and put pressure against my right jaw joint.  It seemed to help, and I feel like it was slowly working it’s way back into place.

Nobody else got hurt.  Yaaaaay!!!  Although my sister-in-law did almost give herself a heart attack on the Wolf Tail.  Silly girl.

Overall, a fabulous trip!  Colorado Springs is a gorgeous area with lots of terrific family things to do (for ideas, check out my post 5 Winning Reasons to Visit Colorado Springs).  And DO NOT miss a trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  It’s truly one of the best.

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