My younger daughter gave me a rather enthousiastic hug this evening - the top of her head collided with my mouth and the result is a split inside top lip. It is not a huge cut but it is right in the middle of my lip and, at the moment, quite swollen.

I have got an all day wind-band rehearsal on Saturday and Sunday. In just over 24 hours, will it have healed enough for two days of intensive oboe playing?

Oh no! If the swelling goes down and you still have a cut, would you be able to use some of that "plastic/liquid skin" to protect it, either from splitting further or from getting infection in it. I'm not sure if you can use that product on an inner lip though.

I suppose it might help to talk as little as possible to avoid opening the cut up

What a shame

Eek, poor you. Try to move your lip as little as possible, keep it moist with Vaseline or similar and keep your fingers crossed. Maybe some ice to keep the swelling down? Lips do heal pretty quickly, but you may have an uncomfortable weekend ahead...

I'm not a medic and haven't used the stuff in ages so not sure if you're supposed to get it in open wounds, but certainly remember Orajel being a lifesaver to completely numb toothache pain (think it's active ingredient is Benzocaine which is an anasthetic. You can get it in most chemists, so I'd ask the assistant if you can use if for any mouth pain if it becomes unbearable...
http://www.orajel.com/

Other than that, not sure if something like Bonjela would do the same thing?

As long as you leave it alone - (easier said than done!)- the inside of your mouth heals extremely quickly. During my misspent youth I had my lip pierced and I can honestly say it healed within days so I'm sure you'll be fine. An antibacterial mouthwash will help.

I think you just about summed up my weekend.

The external swelling had gone down but I couldn't tuck my top lip in properly and by Saturday afternoon the cut had opened up again. This morning it required considerable will power to even put the reed in my mouth and a rather embarrassing number of false starts before I managed to get more than one note at a time out of it.

hi sorry to hear your lip is sore i suffer from a cold sore only now and again thank god but always before something important they can be covered with a clear patch they are called compeed sold in boots they have healing cooling stuff on them i played a gig at the weekend with one on i play flute and it really helped hope you recover quick

monkey flute