Friday, April 10, 2009

That ER trip I was telling you about

I knew Sunday was going to be rough. I'd stayed up until 3:00 am that morning reading - I told you I was crazy - and I had a feeling I wasn't going to get away with it. We were getting ready for church and I had all of my dresser drawers open as usual, and Evan was being rowdy as usual. He tripped and fell, and his face landed right on the sharp corner of a drawer. I think I knew instantly that we weren't going to make it to church.

He hit the corner of his eye, and it wasn't really a big cut, but it was oddly configured so we headed to the ER to be on the safe side.

The ER was crowded, so the three of us were stationed on a gurney, in the hallway...for FOUR hours! They decided the cut needed one stitch to avoid a nasty scar. My son, staying still enough for stitches - impossible! First we had to hold a numbing agent on the cut for ONE WHOLE hour, which of course meant he couldn't move around much. We didn't even have a tv to distract him. It was a miracle, but he was great and sat still. Then we waited for what felt like an additional hour for them to clean out the cut. This basically consisted of them spraying his face with water for 15 minutes while we held down his thrashing body.

He screamed and screamed about how he wanted to go bye bye (yes, very heartbreaking,) and I'm sure the entire hospital heard him. After that, he crashed so hard, that the doctor decided to try to stitch him while he was asleep. They still couldn't find a room for us and since they didn't have a good light source, they got a flashlight from security.

It went a little something this...Jeff laid down, holding my sleeping son. The nurse held his head. The doctor came at his face with a needle, and I was left holding a stupid flashlight so she could be proficient with that needle. It was ridiculous. Of course, he woke up. But, luckily he was disoriented enough not to completely hulk out. His eyes focused on me and he kept asking me to tell him "hi" in this desperate and confused voice.

It was beyond awful.

But, then it was over, and we had lunch in the cafeteria.

Yeah, it was a stupid idea to stay up until 3:00 am. With a toddler, you never know what the day will bring, and responding to that on 4 hours of sleep isn't easy, but I'd asked for it!

3 comments:

morgan said...

wow! i'm sorry all of that happened! that sucks that the ER was so crappy! i'd be pissed! i hope he's ok to look for eggs tomorrow! ;)

Lauren Stahl said...

The time I had to take Nat to the ER we sat on a gurney in the hall as well. I was pissed and hope to never go back to that ER...I don't think I could have handled a flashlight used to stitch up my kids face I would have freaked on the staff.

Holly said...

oh my goodness. heartbreaking indeed! I feel for ALL of you :(