Hospital Visit

For a house of four boys, we've never had a broken bone, a trip to the ER, or even stitches, until Saturday.

Simon was running into the house to take a turn playing Wii Saturday morning when there was some sort of malfunction with the flip-flops he was wearing and the steps he was climbing. He jumped up screaming and jumping. He jumps up and down when he gets hurt. He often will exaggerate too, so I looked up, decided he was indeed hurt, but the intensity was hard to tell, and ran to him.

There was blood all over his chin. I grabbed him to make him stop jumping and laid him across my lap, trying to soothe him. His hands were all over the place and I couldn't really see the wound. As I was calming him I cupped my hand under his chin to catch blood and looked into his mouth; expecting to see missing teeth. Everything was intact and no blood. Merely a face wound.

I sent Eli for a paper towel and Noah for a real towel that I was about to use. Jesse was distraught talking about "Blood, Si crying. Blood." Tim was there with me at that point and I asked him to look at Simon's chin while I worked on calming him down. Tim said, "It's pretty bad." I didn't think much about it and then he said, "Do you want to take me or me?"

I looked up quickly, "It's that bad?"
"Yeah, I'd say."
"Okay then! Pull the car around." Tim ran off and I asked Simon who he wanted to take him to the hospital. He said me. I had Eli run in and grab my purse.

Tim and I carried him to the car and had Eli help hold the papertowel under his chin in the car on the way. We live two miles from the hospital, so it was a quick drive.

I carried him in to the ER and told the nurse we thought he might need stitches. He was no longer crying and was being very good. The nurse asked to look at his chin and agreed that, indeed, he would need stitches. She gave us some wipes to clean up the blood. I got his face and hands and some of my hands clean. Then we went to the triage room where they weighed him and asked a few questions. I carried him everywhere and Eli was the official purse and sweatshirt holder.

They took us back to a room and after a couple of minutes the PA came and looked and said he might need a stitch on the inside and probably four on the outside. She explained what she was going to do. After she left I explained it all to Simon, and he got this little worried look on his face that just broke my heart. He eyes started to well up and I know he was scared (I was too), but I put on a brave face and reassured him, and walked him through it again. He laughed a nervous laugh.

As he stood on the bed, they got a pillowcase and had him slip his arms into it with the pillowcase around his back-effectively immobilizing him from bringing his arms forward. Then they wrapped him in a sheet like a mummy. He was very agreeable. Then we laid him on the bed and they shined a bright light on his chin-and eyes so they covered his eyes with a towel. He was still very agreeable even though he couldn't move or see.

I sat at his lower body and talked to him and stroked his legs. One nurse held his head and the PA got the needle with the numbing and stuck it right in the gouge on his chin. He screamed and writhed around. I about freaked out! Then I realized I was the Mama and I kicked into the soothing tones, reassuring him and keeping his feet from moving too much. She really dug around in there-it made me uncomfortable and even now remembering it, I can't hardly take it! Eli couldn't watch that part either. Poor kid!

Then once that kicked in he was the perfect patient while she stitched him up. He got two on the inside and six on the outside. When she was done he started to get anxious to get unwrapped, but it had been a good 20 minutes so I don't blame him!

He was a trooper! I said I was going to take a picture of him but he wouldn't let me. Then Tim said he'd take a picture of his chin, you know so Simon could see it too, and he agreed to that of course.


They should come out tomorrow and I'm hoping that goes much smoother!