So yesterday we had our first wonderful experience of admitting a child into the Emergency room, the first time either of our children has stepped foot in a hospital, let alone be a patient!
Elisabeth fell against the (non-padded) mini-trampoline and gashed her forehead--a common occurance, I'm sure; No big deal for experirenced moms. Big deal for young mom who has never had medical problems with children and lacks the wherewithal for discerning what an emergency is or isn't!
But I was calm and handled the situation well.
First let me tell you, we had a couple of trial-runs several months ago when Elisabeth was in her "eat everything off the floor, including small peices of transparent tape" (which apparently stick to the throat and don't go up or down). A couple times I had to call Rychen, panicked as she struggled to breathe, but she invariably ended up coughing up the tape before driving off to the hospital (another witness of the wonderful human body! She produced mucous to grab the tape and coughed it out). Anyway, this one time when we were headed to the ER with the choking, Rychen Parker was just freaking out. With his anxiety (and fear of death) he couldn't act rationally, and didn't follow our simple instruction to
get in the car now! So it was a very stressful event on many accounts.
As "luck" would have it, the day before yesterday Rychen P. was asking about emergencies, and we had a talk about it. I told him "You never got hurt when you were little. But Elisabeth has a very different personality than you, and pretty soon she will probably hurt herself and need to go to the hospital," and explained that it's OK, we just need help from doctors, and that his job would be to get the phone and get his shoes on.
Not 24 hours later, I was scooping up a bloody, screaming Elisabeth, and gasping at the gaping wound in her forehead. I said calmly and firmly to Rychen P. "This is an emergency. Please get the phone, we need to call Dad. Get your shoes on." Somehow with my hands full of a screaming baby, blood on the kitchen counter, counter-pressure, and trying to offer her the breast, I told Rychen simply "We have an emergency, can you come right now?"
By the time he arrived, Elisabeth wasn't bleeding anymore, and she was calmer (apparently she had been screaming only because I was holding her down with the washcloth firm against her head). But there was certainly a gaping wound on her forehead, and I was getting queasy, so we headed off to the ER (in no rush, but with her in my lap nonetheless!) I didn't even think twice to hold her in my lap, with my mothering instinct, but Rychen was a bit self-conscious having other drivers see us like that. When a police man drove alongside us, I actually felt relieved to have an authority close-by!
Anyhow, we got to the hospital, parked, walked in calmly. By this time Elisabeth was happy and playing like nothing had happened. Except, oh yeah, her forehead was wide open. But apparenlty a wide-open forehead doesn't call for much urgency in the ER, even on a slow Thursday afternoon. By the time we got registered and were asked "When did this happen?" it had been an hour after the incident! Rychen P. was getting antsy, I was hungry, and I do admit, I felt silly hanging out in the ER with my child, in need of medical attention, playing happily about. I began to question why we were there and how necessary it was.
When I was a kid, we were playing at a pool when a surfboard suddenly flew out of the water (from the bottom of the pool with a teenager on top) at a velocity I didn't particulary care for, headed straight for my face. I had a wide gaping would in my chin. There was no panic whatsoever, the adults quickly lay me on a bench, did first aid, and applied the magic Butterfly Bain-aid. No biggie. All better a few days later. Experiences such as this, you now understand, are one big reason why I am so unfamiliar with hospitals (Personally, I have been admitted once in my life--in third grade when I broke my arm and needed a cast).
Also, I was a witness last year to a similar event, when my Father-in-law cut his thumb extensively and rushed to the ER, then casually returning an hour later after giving up the wait, and fixed his own thumb with superglue!
So, knowing that Butterfly band-aids and/or superglue were sometimes good alternatives to stitches, knowing that this happened time after time to my siblings, but nevertheless inexperienced as the authority figure making the judgment call of when those appropriate times would be, I casually approached the lady at the front desk.
"Do people sometimes walk out of here, after having been admitted?" yup.
"Cuz I was thinking... This probably isn't really as big an emergency as I thought it was...."
I asked her what she thought. She told me she's not allowed to give medical advice (which means, she's not allowed to tell people their services aren't necessary!)
But she did tell me that we could try it and come back if we want, and we could even just go to Urgent Care, which is a lot cheaper. Thank you, kind woman! Sounds like a great idea. There would be nothing to lose, so let's just give the $2 box of Butterflys a try first, and if we feel the need then we will go to Urgent Care.
After all of this, I called my parents for the first time. Just to make sure I wasn't stupid. My mom casually says "Oh, yeah, we did that ALL the time with you guys!" my Dad, somewhat less-casually gives me the actual run-down of what exactly needs to happen to dress/treat a wound yourself. Thank you, boyscout. Got it :) My mom said stitches are a good option too, and might reduce scarring, but she had always figured that would be less important than the trauma of having stitches. Knowing Elisabeth would need general anesthesia (and the low tolerance I would expect from her), I quickly agreed.
Walgreens, priesthood blessing, butterfly attempt (easier said than done, when it comes to a wiggly 18-month old!), 2nd butterfly attempt once she was asleep, and I think we're good. I went to bed early, exhausted, light-headed, and weak (I'm one of those people who lose my lunch upon dealing with any sort of wounds or needles). Rychen and I marveled over the way God gave this experience to us. Everything worked out so that he would be available and ready to leave the office; the no-small coincidence that I were already dressed with shoes on; the talk I had with Rychen P. the day before; the Holy Ghost being with me the whole time (I would have been freaking out); and even answering my little prayer for Elisabeth not to touch her banaids and to sleep well through the night. I do believe it was a blessing God gave us, because now we are more familiar with hospital protocol (and where the hospital is, and where to park) because I know this girl will give us much more grief in the future!
Today all looks well. We'll see! I am still nervous about it re-opening, so I am keeping her calm and sedentary as much as I can (we used a band-aid on an open wound with her before, but it was very slow to heal because it kept re-opening everytime she bumped it). Pray for speedy recovery :)
