It Was Bound To Happen

Thursday morning was my second time at the Emergency Room for Simon.  He and Joseph were taking turns jumping off my bed onto an ottoman - mostly while I was occupied pottying and taking care of Clara and not watching.  When I finally turned around to tell them to stop, Simon was perched on the edge of my bed.  I said, "Stop!" and he looked at me and took one final swan dive - right into the end table that was next to the ottoman.  As soon as I saw that, I knew he had gotten hurt, so I gasped and ran to him.  Then I saw blood start to pour from his forehead.  Then I was really getting nervous!!!  I whisked him in to the bathroom to try and see what had happened, and by this time he already had blood all over his face and hands and it had dripped on my sweatshirt, a couple of drops on the floor, some in the tub... My mind was racing as to what I needed to do and how I would do it (with three small children).  I told Joseph to get me the phone and I called my father in law to come over right away.  THANK GOD for my father in law!  I don't know who I would have called if not him b/c I needed someone to come over quickly and he only lives five minutes away and is generally always available. 

I cleaned off Simon's hands and face in the mean time and found that the bleeding subsided on its own pretty quickly.  I then thought I had time to call my doctor's office to find out where would be the best place to get stitches at 7:30am.  Fortunately the lead doctor of our family practice always returns the after-hours calls within a few minutes.  He recommended the emergency room over the urgent care (which is very close to our house), so off we went.  I decided that it would be best for all the kids and my father in law to go together.  I called Michael before we left to let him know what had happened.

Once we were at the ER, Simon was pretty much acting like his usual self, literally running circles around the chairs, climbing on benches and furniture and jumping off... which I was doing my best to keep him from doing as my nerves were already shot and I didn't want any more injuries!  But he is a quick little 2 year old and I was at one point even chasing him with Clara strapped to my back to try to catch him and slow him down!

Fast forward an hour or so, we finally got to "triage."  After another hour, we finally got into a room.  After another hour, we were finally able to go home!  There does not seem to be much urgency at the Emergency Room!  I wish I had just gone to my doctor's office instead and waited for them to see me first thing!  (Although I'm not entirely sure if they would have done that or not.  I plan to ask next week when I go in to get Simon's stitches out.)

In order to put the stitches in, a nurse first applied numbing gel, which stung upon application.  Then she applied another dose of numbing gel about 10 minutes later.  Then the NP applied another dose of it 15 or 20 minutes later.  They swaddled Simon up in sheets to keep him restrained during the procedure, but the the NP disappeared for about 10 minutes after that happened so that while Simon accepted the swaddling at first, by the time the NP came back, he was ready to get out and THEN they had to pin him down and hold him to put the stitches in.  He screamed and cried the whole time through that, which was very hard for me to tolerate, but I didn't have much choice in the matter!  Once it was all done and Simon was freed and given a small football toy, he was back to his old self running around and trying to kick and throw the little ball and play games. 

He got five stitches on his right eyebrow to close the gash.  I am thankful for hard brow bones that protect precious eyes and I wonder if God gave us eyebrows to help hide the scars that a segment of the population will inevitably get from similar accidents? (I too have a scar on my right eyebrow from a similar incident that happened when I was small.  One of the nurses at the ER on Thursday had one too...I'm thinking we probably all know someone who has a head injury scar!)  Fortunately Michael took it all in stride and said right away, "It was bound to happen."