E.R. Visit

Well, nearly 4 years with children and no injuries or accidents requiring a hospital trip. That's a pretty good streak when you consider how often kids fall down, bump heads, jump off things, etc.

Arabelle was running around Sambo's legs in the church social hall yesterday evening, tripped, and hit her forehead on the table leg. I was talking at another table and Jared was not looking right at her, so we weren't sure what she hit until today. We thought it was the chair, but that didn't make sense with the injury.

All I heard was Arabelle crying and Jared yelling, "Katie! Hospital!". In hindsight, it all seems a little over dramatic and funny. It was scary then though! I got to her and Sambo was holding her with the handkerchief over her forehead. He moved it and all I saw was a hole in her head. Ouch. Poor baby.

I ran to the kitchen to get a bag of ice and started crying at that point. I was opening every cabinet in there looking for the ziploc bags. On a normal day, I would be able to go right to them, but I couldn't think at that moment! Mrs. Tammy got one and gave it to Connie to fill with ice. The only thing I remember saying is "She's got a hole in her head!", which again, sounds funny and over dramatic in hindsight. :)

We got her in the car seat and the ice pack on her head for the ride. All the while, she's crying about missing Team Kid (the Wednesday night kids' program), not getting to play on the playground, and "missing all the fun". That's where I made promise #1, that we'd go to the church playground to play on Thursday.

Every time we got to a red light, Arabelle would completely stop her monotonous whining/crying and stay "Are we there yet?". She'd also randomly stop crying and ask in the most normal voice things like "Am I going to get a bandaid?" or "Do they have stickers there?".

First View, in triage. It wasn't a big cut, but DEEP! I was fairly certain this would require stitches. It didn't look like anything that glue would fix.

We got there, had a piece of gauze taped to her forehead, and was sent out to the waiting room for a good little wait. She had settled down by then and was just being herself. She was already tired from the long day and it was getting close to bedtime at this point, but she was happy.

We finally got called back, seen by the RN, then the Dr. The RN brought in some Lortab elixer and Motrin for her to take, in hopes she'd mellow out a bit before being sewed up. She never actually said much about it hurting, but I know it had to have. Luckily, they had a TV in there with Disney Junior and she kind of just zoned out on that while we waited.

To give some perspective, this happened around 6:20 and they started sewing it up at 9:30. 

The medicines started working and she got a little silly on us. I took this one and she told me to "send it to everyone I know!". ha!

This was as much of a smile as she'd give. You can see how deep in looks here.

They came in around 9:30 to stitch her up. She was NOT happy about that. I had already told her they were going to sew it up and it was going to hurt, then made some more promises. #2, pancakes for breakfast and #3, a pizza picnic lunch.

They swaddled her in a sheet, so arms in and wrapped up. One RN at her head, holding it steady and one on her legs. Jared and I were right there by her side. The lights were really bright and she didn't like that at all either because it was too bright to open her eyes. She kept asking where we were, so we'd have to pat her and tell her which side we were on. 

Obviously, she screamed and cried, especially getting the lidocaine shots. This made it bleed a ton, so her hair ended up being streaked with blood. :( She was hollering "Please stop!", "Please can I get up!", and "I don't like this!" over and over. Poor girlie. She was being so polite though. ha!

After the 2nd stitch, she had calmed down a bit and was just asking to get up every few seconds. Once they were done, she was SO happy to be unwrapped and finished. Some antibiotic ointment and a bandaid, and we were on our way!

All done!

We survived! 

We got home a little after 10, washed her hair out, and we all crashed. She was sooo sleepy. I thought she might go to sleep on the way home, but she couldn't stop talking. :)

She slept fine and didn't say much about it today. Of course, we changed the bandaid and cleaned it up a couple of times, but she tolerated that well! She picked out some bandaids at Dollar General (Neon colors! Blue, green, & purple). I made good on my promises and she had pancakes for breakfast, we went to the church playground this morning, and had a pizza picnic on the front porch. :)

She'll get the stitches out next Tuesday at her pediatrician's office. Bo has his 2 yr check up that day as well, so we'll just do both appointments at the same time. 

Bo spent the night with Sambo and Leigh Leigh and had a great time. I am SO glad they were able to just take him and I didn't have to worry a bit about him. 

So, it was not a fun E.R. trip, but I'm so thankful we were there for such a minor injury. I'm so glad she didn't hit her mouth and mess up her teeth or have a concussion. 

Hoping we don't have to go back there any time soon!