With a Crash and a Bang.....

Last night, Andrew made his first visit to the ER as a patient (he has been several times as an observer). I guess he thought that being treated for strep throat and starting a new allergy medicine was not enough adventure for the week.

He was playing some sort of pretend game where he was required to run full speed away from the bad guys who were chasing him. Unfortunately, he did so wearing just socks on the hardwood, while looking over his shoulder to check for previously mentioned bad guys, and grossly underestimating the distance from one end of the hall to the other. All of this resulted in a rather forceful crash head first into the wall and door frame at the end of the hall after he lost his footing.

First sound: thump
Second sound: Andrew, wails
Third sound: Lenna, "I didn't do it! It had nothing to do with me!"
Fourth sound: Mom, deposit baby on couch, rush down hall, expecting hole in wall and bumped head and instead finds son with blood running down his face
Fifth sound: Lenna, "He's bleeding! He's bleeding! He's actually really hurt this time!"
Sixth sound: Mom, "Crap! He's gunna need stitches." (I know, not my proudest mother moment. I should have been much more compassionate. That came later after we survived the first 30 seconds in crisis mode.)

By this time Lenna was crying louder than Andrew ("He's going to the hospital! He's going to get a shot! He's bleeding all over the bathroom!"), he was sobbing because he didn't want to go to the doctor (No concern over the head injury or gaping gash, just didn't want to go to the doctors office again), and Rebecca had enough of the sofa and wanted to be part of the action, so she started crying as well. I was so glad Mike was home, or I think I would have started crying, too.

We were able to stop the bleeding pretty fast and just held it shut with a band aid. I had to convince Mike he needed stitches, not just a band aid. He even called from the car to make sure I still thought he needed to be seen. I felt slightly vindicated when he called from the hospital and said he was getting two stitches. I would have felt like a typical paranoid mom had he just been given a butterfly band aid and sent home.

Here is the result:

And finally, a happy shout out to the pediatric ER at MCG. They were seen by a triage nurse in about 10 minutes, waited less than an hour to get back to a room, and were given a stuffed animal to hug, a popsicle, and a DVD player with Veggie Tales to keep Andy distracted while they waited and did the sewing.

So much better then when I made the mistake of taking Lenna to the ER on base, where we waited an hour to see the nurse, were sent to Xray, then waited six more to be told to go home and come back in the morning, because it would be at least three more hours before the 1 doctor on duty got around to seeing the 6 yr old with the broken ankle.

So there is our Sunday night adventure. Here's to a great week!