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Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
a visit to the ER
Monday about 4:45 I was starting dinner. The boys were watching Transformers. I heard a thud/bang/hard-to-describe noise, then an "ow" scream and lots of crying. I ran over and Jonas was on the floor. He had been sitting on the back of the couch (which is not against a wall) and had fallen off the back onto the hard wood floor. To make it worse, I had moved our dining room chairs over behind the couch because I had been cleaning the dining room floor. He had whacked his head on a chair on the way down. I picked him up and quickly realized he was bleeding. I tried to figure out where it was coming from and all I could see was that the back of his head was red and the back of his (longish) hair was soaked.
I yelled at Gareth to go get Isaiah, who was upstairs. Isaiah came down (quickly). I managed to tell him to turn off the stove and grab his insurance card. We put the boys in the car and took off. Luckily we live about 2 minutes from the hospital. Unfortunately, it was the start of rush hour, so although it still didn't take long it felt like an eternity. I did not have the presence of mind at home to grab a towel to put on his head to stop the bleeding, so I rummaged through the car and found one of the cloth toy bags that I make.
I walked into the emergency room not knowing where to go or what to do. Luckily one person sitting down immediately saw the blood on Jonas' back/head and got up and directed me to a nurse. They briefly checked it out, gave me some gauze to soak up the blood, ice for the wound, towels to go between myself and the blood (though by this point both Jonas' and my shirts were already ruined), and a warm blanket for Jonas. Then we waited. The bleeding had definitely slowed, and it pretty much stopped at some point before we got into a room. The nurse tried to reassure me that even small wounds to the head bleed a lot.
I think we sat in the waiting room an hour, maybe less, not sure. Jonas ended up dozing in my lap. But the nurse did come out a couple of times to wake him up just to be sure he was okay since it was a head trauma type wound.
We eventually were ushered back to a room. Talked to the doc who explained all (or at least the most likely) things they'd do. Eventually they came in to clean it. That was really hard because they couldn't give him any kind of anesthetic and it hurt. Jonas cried quite a bit during this initial cleaning. While we waited for the next stuff, he actually perked up a bit. Back when we were still in the waiting room, Isaiah and Gareth had brought in some color wonder from the car for something for Gareth to do. So after Jonas' wound cleaning he started coloring and was doing pretty well.
Nextthey shaved/trimmed a bit of his hair around the wound and the nurse put some lidocaine cream on under a gauze pad. Thankfully that whole process was relatively painless.
We waited some more. Another nurse came in and we talked to Jonas about how we were going to wrap him up like a burrito, which thankfully isn't foreign to him because we do it after bath. Then the doc gave him a lidocaine shot (or some type of numbing shot). They put in two staples. But Jonas cried really really hard. The doc said that given how much anesthetic they give him, he should not have felt it as much as he did. So for future reference we should be aware that he may need more that is typical (I am the same way at the dentist). I think getting the staples in was hardest for me than any other thing they did in the ER because he was cried the most, was in obvious pain. I could stand there next to him and talk to him, but I felt rather helpless in that I couldn't *do* anything.
All in all we spent about 3.5 hours there. The doc said if we were really worried we could wake him up during the night, but he seemed pretty okay and if it was his own child he'd probably let him sleep. Jonas said he felt pretty good this morning. I imagine he has a bit of a headache. The cut is only maybe and inch and a half. And it's puffy and he's got a huge lump. But otherwise he seems fine.
It was definitely one of the scariest moments of life. I nearly lost it when we got to the emergency room. I think I had held it together at home b/c I knew that we needed to in order to get him to the hospital. but once at the hospital it was almost like relief that there was someone there who could take care of it. But I knew that if I did start to cry i would be a mess for hours and would be really not useful, so I did some deep breathing and managed to hold it together. He was a serious trooper, and Gareth did great also. I am glad that part is over.
We have to go to our doc for a wound check tomorrow and we get the staples out in about 8 days.
Jonas went to preschool today. And really he seemed fine. You'd never know. This morning Isaiah was taking off his jammie top and Jonas said, Ow! Isaiah said he was sorry and asked if he (Isaiah) had hurt his (Jonas') owie. Jonas said, no, my ear! Kinda funny in the moment. I did give him a bath tonight. I washed his hair, but kept as much soap away from the would as possible and I didn't scrub it or anything. Jonas' hair is so long that you can hardly tell anything. Too bad we didn't need to cut more. We've been trying to get his hair cut for months (but he insists he likes it long and is willing to sit through detangling for it).
I've got some ooey pics to post as soon as I download them.
Considering that Gareth is 6, I think we've done pretty good in that this is our first major ER trip. We've only gone one other time, and in the end it was nothing. I hope that Jonas is a bit more careful, but somehow I suspect that is wishful thinking.
a visit to the ER
Monday about 4:45 I was starting dinner. The boys were watching Transformers. I heard a thud/bang/hard-to-describe noise, then an "ow" scream and lots of crying. I ran over and Jonas was on the floor. He had been sitting on the back of the couch (which is not against a wall) and had fallen off the back onto the hard wood floor. To make it worse, I had moved our dining room chairs over behind the couch because I had been cleaning the dining room floor. He had whacked his head on a chair on the way down. I picked him up and quickly realized he was bleeding. I tried to figure out where it was coming from and all I could see was that the back of his head was red and the back of his (longish) hair was soaked.
I yelled at Gareth to go get Isaiah, who was upstairs. Isaiah came down (quickly). I managed to tell him to turn off the stove and grab his insurance card. We put the boys in the car and took off. Luckily we live about 2 minutes from the hospital. Unfortunately, it was the start of rush hour, so although it still didn't take long it felt like an eternity. I did not have the presence of mind at home to grab a towel to put on his head to stop the bleeding, so I rummaged through the car and found one of the cloth toy bags that I make.
I walked into the emergency room not knowing where to go or what to do. Luckily one person sitting down immediately saw the blood on Jonas' back/head and got up and directed me to a nurse. They briefly checked it out, gave me some gauze to soak up the blood, ice for the wound, towels to go between myself and the blood (though by this point both Jonas' and my shirts were already ruined), and a warm blanket for Jonas. Then we waited. The bleeding had definitely slowed, and it pretty much stopped at some point before we got into a room. The nurse tried to reassure me that even small wounds to the head bleed a lot.
I think we sat in the waiting room an hour, maybe less, not sure. Jonas ended up dozing in my lap. But the nurse did come out a couple of times to wake him up just to be sure he was okay since it was a head trauma type wound.
We eventually were ushered back to a room. Talked to the doc who explained all (or at least the most likely) things they'd do. Eventually they came in to clean it. That was really hard because they couldn't give him any kind of anesthetic and it hurt. Jonas cried quite a bit during this initial cleaning. While we waited for the next stuff, he actually perked up a bit. Back when we were still in the waiting room, Isaiah and Gareth had brought in some color wonder from the car for something for Gareth to do. So after Jonas' wound cleaning he started coloring and was doing pretty well.
Nextthey shaved/trimmed a bit of his hair around the wound and the nurse put some lidocaine cream on under a gauze pad. Thankfully that whole process was relatively painless.
We waited some more. Another nurse came in and we talked to Jonas about how we were going to wrap him up like a burrito, which thankfully isn't foreign to him because we do it after bath. Then the doc gave him a lidocaine shot (or some type of numbing shot). They put in two staples. But Jonas cried really really hard. The doc said that given how much anesthetic they give him, he should not have felt it as much as he did. So for future reference we should be aware that he may need more that is typical (I am the same way at the dentist). I think getting the staples in was hardest for me than any other thing they did in the ER because he was cried the most, was in obvious pain. I could stand there next to him and talk to him, but I felt rather helpless in that I couldn't *do* anything.
All in all we spent about 3.5 hours there. The doc said if we were really worried we could wake him up during the night, but he seemed pretty okay and if it was his own child he'd probably let him sleep. Jonas said he felt pretty good this morning. I imagine he has a bit of a headache. The cut is only maybe and inch and a half. And it's puffy and he's got a huge lump. But otherwise he seems fine.
It was definitely one of the scariest moments of life. I nearly lost it when we got to the emergency room. I think I had held it together at home b/c I knew that we needed to in order to get him to the hospital. but once at the hospital it was almost like relief that there was someone there who could take care of it. But I knew that if I did start to cry i would be a mess for hours and would be really not useful, so I did some deep breathing and managed to hold it together. He was a serious trooper, and Gareth did great also. I am glad that part is over.
We have to go to our doc for a wound check tomorrow and we get the staples out in about 8 days.
Jonas went to preschool today. And really he seemed fine. You'd never know. This morning Isaiah was taking off his jammie top and Jonas said, Ow! Isaiah said he was sorry and asked if he (Isaiah) had hurt his (Jonas') owie. Jonas said, no, my ear! Kinda funny in the moment. I did give him a bath tonight. I washed his hair, but kept as much soap away from the would as possible and I didn't scrub it or anything. Jonas' hair is so long that you can hardly tell anything. Too bad we didn't need to cut more. We've been trying to get his hair cut for months (but he insists he likes it long and is willing to sit through detangling for it).
I've got some ooey pics to post as soon as I download them.
Considering that Gareth is 6, I think we've done pretty good in that this is our first major ER trip. We've only gone one other time, and in the end it was nothing. I hope that Jonas is a bit more careful, but somehow I suspect that is wishful thinking.
Glad to hear Jonas is doing OK today. :O)
I am glad Jonas is ok, it is so hard to see your children go through pain.
My nephew had staples in the back of his head for a fall, he cuts his hair close so you can still see the scar there today, hair just won't grow there anymore.
Glad he's okay!!
Th is is my first blog comment - I don't know if any of you will get it or really how it works at all. Although I enjoyed the report (not what happened) and, particularly, the comments.
I remember that we were walking Becky down the street when she was about 3, we were walking alongside of her holding each of her hands and she tripped on the lip of a manhole cover and did a "face plant on the pavement resulting in a terribly painful cut lip. We know the feeling of terror and impotence and the er agony. I wonder if Beckers remembers and incident and still has a scar??