You were jumping/wrestling on your bed with a friend last Saturday and you fell back (were pushed back hard?) and hit your head on the head of your bed. You must have hit hard and just the right (wrong) spot. It probably hurt pretty badly and you instinctively reached back.
And that's when the freak out started. Blood, and lots of it. Head wounds bleed A LOT.
We heard a blood curdling scream, and you ran to us downstairs.
I quickly asked Daddy for one… no… two towels
One for you to put your forehead on the counter (softer that way) and one for the back of your head. I pushed your head down and put the other towel on the back of your head. I asked your Daddy to hold it after I got you all set up. Your Dad held then held towel for a minute and I took a couple of peeks. It wasn't that big of a gash, maybe 1+ inch. But, we know from experience that head wounds go to the ER. And it was going to need something to close it up….
So a call the friend’s Mom to pick him up, grab a few snacks. (You never know how long it will take at the ER, if it’s not an “emergency”, then I highly recommend grabbing something to snack on to bring with you. If it’s an emergency – call 911 or just grab the car keys. Snacks are the last thing you should think about). And we are out the door. (of course with my camera too).
We arrive at the ER and walk right in (not busy at all this particular Saturday afternoon at ~4pm). The staff and nurses & Docs are amazingly nice and so great, some of them even say what happened to them when jumping on their bed when they were 5 (broken arms, broken fingers, gashes in other places, etc). I think this makes you feel better, your not the only one.
They put some numbing liquid on it for a while. They ask the usual questions about loss of consciousness and nausea, no and no. Mental state, normal. They rinse it off and we all take a good look (well, the Doc, me and your Dad did – not you). I ask the Doctor – Is it deeper that you thought? (all the while thinking please please please - don’t say that it was down to his skull in front of my 5 year old, pretty please?) It was deeper than we all thought. Thankful he didn’t use the “s” (skull) word.
It was down to your connective tissue covering your skull. Yikes!!!!!
That is what you were worried about on the way to the ER. That “bad” bugs would get into your skull and/or that your skull was broken and you were going to die. In fact, you kept asking me those questions over and over. I had to hold you and calm you down for the whole car ride (in the back seat of the car with me holding the towel against your head unbuckled the whole way – gasp!).
We had the choice of stitches (have to shave your hair around the wound) or staples. We chose staples. Way quicker and no shaving, no real benefit over stitches on the back of your head.
You were brave, but it did hurt a bit even with numbing injections. Four staples and some discharge papers later and we were outta there in ~ 1 hour.
Super fast and friendly staff and everyone at the ER. Thankful for good healthcare and snuggles.
No more monkeys jumping on the bed!
WARNING: If you get queasy about wound pictures – this would be the time to not scroll down.
P.S. The staples have now been taken out and he has a little scab back there, but the wound looks great and healed perfectly. All to be covered up by his hair, no scar in sight.
Putting the iodine on it.
After the stapes were put in, they pulled some of the hair out of the staples so it didn’t get stuck in the scab/staples.
The freshly stapled “wound” with the staples and Neosporin. He was very interested in seeing what it looked like and wanted me to take this picture so he could see it.
Sara was the usual fantastic helper. Very supportive of her big brother (I mean…. Monkey).
1 comments:
Yikes! Not looking forward to that aspect of parenting! Glad Alex is okay, and that the ER visit was relatively painless (at least for Mom, Dad and Sis!).
Post a Comment