Three weeks ago, on Tuesday, January 22nd, Jake was starting his first day of basketball. This meant he wouldn't be home until 5:20 and wouldn't be able to watch the kiddos for me while I took Cooper to Tae-Kwon-Do (because Jared works until 8pm on Tuesdays).
In anticipation for the ensuing crazy evening, I made a crock pot dinner that the little kids could eat at 4:45 because we had to leave the house at 5pm in order to get Cooper to the dojang by 5:30 and then...the three little kids and I would have to wait in the car for another 40-45 minutes because there's barely enough room for 6 parents (let alone a woman and her 3 young children) to watch the class and of course, with the dojang being 20-30 min. away depending on traffic, there's no time for us to drive home without having to turn around and drive right back to pick Cooper up.
So...as I'm packing up the diaper bag and getting the last bit of things arranged before calling the kids into dinner, I walk through my kitchen and into the family room. As I walk past our couch, I notice my little monkey man (JJ) up on the small table by the family room window. (This kid has been climbing things for months...he's fearless and frustrating! We finally got smart and put the chairs up on the tables and counter to eliminate the ease of his perching, but on this particular day, there was a rogue chair on the floor that had been missed and JJ found it).
In that split second that I saw JJ up on the table, my first thought was a calm, "Oh, JJ. Not again." And I took the three additional steps to set something down or pick it up before going to retrieve him. On my way back to get him, Cooper came into the room to tell me something and pulled me into his conversation. I stopped to make a point and then before I knew it: *CRASH!* JJ had fallen off the table. He obviously leaned into one of the chairs on top and because the chair was not very heavy, it slid right off with him tumbling after.
I ran over and scooped him up. At first I didn't see any blood...I was looking in the upper half of his head region. Eyes, nose, head--all okay. Mouth?...full of blood. Oh no. He must have cut his lip open. I rushed him to the sink and as I worked to dab the area with a paper towel, THAT was when I noticed the huge gash in his chin. My heart sank, my pulse started to race and mommy guilt swept over me. This would require stitches. But where will I have to take him?
Jared works late on Tuesdays, so I told Cooper--all ready to go to Tae Kwon Do--to jump in the car, and maybe we could swing him by his class since it's not too far from Jared's office, though I told him not to count on it. I really needed someone to watch the little kids for me. It would take too long to get them ready to go, plus they'd be hungry and tired and it wouldn't be fair to them. My friend, Terrisse, whom I hadn't seen in many weeks, had just left a voice mail for me within the hour as I was preparing to go. Her number was the first one listed in my "recent calls" box so she was the one I called for help. I was so grateful that she and her little boy came to my rescue.
I was very upset with myself and that my baby was in pain and suffering because I didn't get to him right away. As soon as Terrisse pulled up, I was backing the car out and telling her from my lowered car window that she could leave as soon as Jake got home...there was dinner on the counter for the kids and to help themselves also.
And we were off to go to Jared's office...in 5pm traffic. I think we sat through 3 or 4 light cycles at 209th and TV Hwy. JJ had stopped crying long before we got to the office. He was such a trooper!
When we got to the office, JJ was very eager to see Jared. Jared has sutured up Calvin before, but that took 4 adults just to hold him down and the depth and width of his injury was minimal compared to JJ's. I hoped Dr. Hicken would be able to do it, but I wasn't holding my breath. Turns out the doc had to leave right when we got there due to another obligation but he said he'd feel much better if we went to the ER anyway because there may have been trauma inside his mouth as well.
So that meant, Cooper's class was out of the question and the three of us headed to St. Vincent's ER--in 5:30 pm traffic. I was really grateful Cooper was with us because he rubbed JJ's head to comfort him and tried to wipe up the blood gently from JJ's mouth. (Unfortunately, he got blood on his super pristine white testing uniform).
I've never been to St. V's before so between the dark, my nerves and traffic, I had to turn around 3 times before I made it there.
That ER was packed! I was rather stunned to see that many people were in the ER on an early Tuesday evening. We arrived around 6pm. We checked in and then waited. And waited. I held JJ while he laid his head on my shoulder. We walked and waited. And I realized all of a sudden that I had a full bladder and no one to relieve me of JJ so I could relieve myself. Oh well. It would have to wait along with everything and everyone else.
Poor Cooper didn't have a book or anything. He did great though. Didn't complain or anything. We scraped together some change so he could get a snack out of the vending machine and eat it on the opposite end of the ER so JJ wouldn't want some too.
Around 6:45ish, Jared texted me to say he had seen his last patient and was going to go home to check on the other kids. Terrisse had contacted me shortly before that to tell me the kids were doing great. She was kind enough to stay longer so Jake could work on homework without the other kids being a distraction to him before she went home. I texted him back as fast as the phlanges on my right hand would allow and told him I could really use his support here at the hospital...that--and I really needed to go potty! He said he'd be there and to text him if we got called back before he arrived.
And we did. We got escorted back to the Children's unit of the ER around 7pm. Our nurse (Kristy?--I can't believe I forgot..I only looked at her name for hours on the white board in our room) got the scoop on the incident and was really great. She said she'd let the doctor know we were ready so he could do a quick look over to see how to proceed. Before the doctor came in though, Jared found us. JJ lunged out of my arms to him (which is pretty normal so that didn't make me feel any worse than I already did). And I was FINALLY able to empty my bladder.
(Even after busting open his chin, JJ is still so happy and smiley.)
Dr. Schutt is young and also very personable. He felt the best course of action would be to sedate JJ so they could get a good look around and not be rushed. So that's what we prepped for.
But it took an hour and a half before they got started. We were all really tired. JJ was perfectly content to be in our arms and the nurse turned the TV on for us to help pass the time. I think...they were mostly waiting on the medication to be processed at the pharmacy. And...they were uncharacteristically busy according to the charge nurse.
A little before 9pm, after hooking JJ up to all the different monitors, they laid him down and plunged two very long and thick hypodermic needles in his thighs. I was standing 5 feet away and they were BIG from that distance. He didn't cry long though thanks to the meds. We decided that I would stay and Jared would take Cooper out. Coop didn't want to be around when JJ got his stitches and Jared was on-call and needed to check his phone to make sure he didn't have any messages.
That sleepy medicine was pretty fast acting. It was seriously less than a minute before JJ went kind of limp. As I walked over to him, his body was perfectly still and splayed across the exam table, but his eyes were WIDE open. It was so freaky to look at. I asked, Jenny, the older nurse who was assisting if he was okay. She said yes, it was just the medicine taking effect. Then his eyeballs started to move around a little and his mouth was gaping open. I could only think...what if he's in this paralyzed state but is really screaming inside and he can't move? That's everyone's nightmare, right? I verbalized this and the nurse assured me that he wasn't scared and wouldn't remember this at all. I thought he was going to be asleep...as in: EYES CLOSED, but they weren't. I didn't like it. Not one bit and I found hot tears brimming in my eyes. If only I had gone to get him off the table when I first saw him. I thought back to that split-second decision and I distinctly remember I didn't feel any urgency except to finish what I was headed to do and go back. Accidents happen, but still...I wish they didn't happen on my watch.
I sat down next to him in the chair (hospital policy) and rubbed his leg and foot under the blanket. He kind of twitched. I didn't want to disturb him but the nurse said that it would be comforting to him. Despite his very relaxed state, he still had Jared's office pen clutched in his right fist. Jenny didn't want him hurting himself with it and pried it from his fingers. Then she left the room and came back with a big white teddy bear and gave it to me to hold for when he woke up. I leaned forward on the bear to support me as I stretched to reach up and stroke JJ's little foot.
Dr. Schutt came in shortly after and got started. He asked if I had medical experience (when he was talking to me and Jared, Jared said he was a family practice PA and was familiar with the drug they'd be using to sedate JJ). I said, if so, it's only by association since Jared is the PA and his dad is also a physician.
The doctor examined JJ's mouth first. Despite the small chip in JJ's right front tooth, he said the front teeth felt solid, but that we'd probably want to follow up with the dentist to make sure there wasn't any trauma done to the permanent teeth in the fall. JJ's top two teeth cut his lip from the inside (you could see the teeth marks) however none of the cuts went completely through the tissue...thank goodness. JJ also gouged a small pencil-eraser-sized hole in his soft gum tissue below. The doctor even showed it to me. He hoped to suture it up though didn't know if it was critical to do so.
He stitched up JJ's chin first. Of course, because JJ hit the edge of the fireplace, it was an irregular cut. But it was closed with 7 stitches. JJ had another fairly straight line cut on the edge of his bottom lip...exactly where lip liner would go. I don't know how that happened, but he got 3 stitches there.
While discussing what happened, Nurse Jenny assured me that it wasn't my fault. This is just evidence of a very active, healthy little boy and that it probably wouldn't be my last trip to the ER. She reminded me to be grateful that he wasn't always sick and not able to do those things.
When the doctor found out I had 5 kids and JJ was the baby, he seemed pretty impressed. He said, "Wow, you certainly have it all figured out with that many kids." I responded somewhat cynically, "Obviously not if my baby is falling and hurting himself." He said, "Most parents are pretty upset and freaking out, you're very calm and in control and it makes a big difference to everyone here in the ER. Kids can pick up on that fear and high strung emotions." Okay, I'll give him that. I was fairly calm on the outside even though I was kicking myself on the inside.
While working on the inside of JJ's mouth (the doc did end up closing that small hole), JJ started to moan in pain. HOW? I was quietly alarmed by this. I guess the sedation only works over so much of the body. So the doctor administered some lidocaine to further numb the area.
Total stitch count: thirteen! More than his two other brothers combined. 13 stitches in 2013. No more!! And fortunately they are the dissolving stitches so we wouldn't have to hold him down to take them out.
Jared and Cooper came back in around 9:30pm to check out the repaired baby on the exam room table. And then Jared took Cooper home so he could get dinner and go to bed.
JJ slept for another 45 minutes until the medication wore off. I was happy to pick him up and cuddle with him while I watched a show on Food Network. I don't know if he was really asleep but he was dead weight in my arms as if he was. It was another 45 minutes before we were discharged.
In the rush to get out of the house earlier that afternoon, I neglected to grab coats. It was 11pm and freezing outside! Fortunately the teddy bear shielded JJ from some of the cold night air as I quickly half-walked, half-ran to the suburban. Thank goodness it warms up fast.
We got home around 11:30. Jared waited up for us. I'm so grateful he doesn't work Wed. mornings. It was such a blessing he didn't have to get up early. He held JJ, who, by this time was now wide awake, while I got something to eat. I drifted to sleep around midnight while JJ and Jared watched Blues Clues in our recliner in the family room. Jared brought JJ to our bedroom around 3am because when he tried laying JJ down, JJ would just cry. Considering all he had been through that day, Jared figured it would be okay for him to sleep with us just the one night.
Except he didn't sleep. He tossed and turned and kicked us. Somehow he fell asleep and SOMEHOW we managed to get up to get the first wave of kids off to school...even with chess club and jazz band. I had fallen asleep with JJ in the recliner again around 7:30. I vaguely remember Calvin getting up and hearing him eat at the bar and just couldn't open my eyes to save my life.
But all of a sudden, my eyes FLEW open. Calvin!! He had a field trip that morning. He was supposed to be at Century H.S. at 9:45. I grabbed my phone to check the time. It was 9:40!!!!!!
I jumped out of the rocking chair, sat JJ down who was startled awake, RAN through the house and tried to find Calvin and Jared. They were laying on our bed watching TV.
"JARED!! Calvin is supposed to be at school in 5 minutes for his field trip!!" I don't remember how it happened, but we silently and quickly went our separate ways--Jared worked on his lunch and I got Calvin dressed. Jared said he'd take him to school. Oh.my.goodness. They were going to OMSI and I would never forgive myself if Calvin missed going with his friends. I said a prayer that the teachers would be doing last minute things like putting kids in groups, etc. and that they truly weren't leaving on the bus at 9:45.
My prayers were answered. Jared came back about 20 minutes later without a crying Calvin so all was well!! I don't know what made me wake up when I did, but I said a prayer of gratitude about 7 times that day because of it.
I'm happy to report that less than 16 hours after his injury, JJ was back to climbing furniture. And smiling as if he had no concerns in the world!! It actually looks like he has two smiles :) It was also a big relief that JJ was not hindered at all in eating or drinking and has not seemed to suffer any other ill effects. I can't believe the sutures in his mouth didn't bother him and he was a real gem for not trying to pick out his stitches like Calvin did!
Obviously, my baby is scarred for life. Literally. But hopefully, over time, his chin will be all good like Harrison Ford's chin. Besides, chicks dig scars, right?
2 comments:
Oh, I hate it when things like that happen! Glad he's doing so well considering!
I have a scar on my chin that I didn't notice till I was older. Apparently I had fallen through a glass door when I was a toddler. Can't really prevent that one :) It is amazing how you think you are doing your best to protect them, but they still manage to find ways to injure themselves. You're lucky to have such a sweet little boy.
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