As the mother of a boy I knew trips to the ER would be inevitable. I just did not think that I would be rushing to the emergency room so soon.
This past Wednesday night was like a bad dream.
A nightmare.
It all started when Liam was standing in the kitchen and my husband handed him a glass of water. We let him drink from our cups all the time, so we thought nothing of it. Then Liam turned and tripped, cup in hand. He fell and the glass shattered. My husband jerked him up and we knew right away he had cut himself. It was bad. There was blood all over the floor and as my husband held him blood splattered the carpet.
I wanted to vomit and cry and then vomit again, but I held it together. I grabbed the roll of paper towels and pressed them to his little hand as I held it in the air to stop the bleeding.
My husband held him as I threw on shoes and grabbed the diaper bag. He then passed Liam to me as he put on his shoes and threw towels over the mess on the floor. We rushed out the door and to the Naval hospital ER that is 5 minutes from our house. Thank God we live so close.
Liam had stopped crying long before we got there and he wanted to get down and play in the waiting room. He was so upset he couldn't get down. I guess he had his priorities. lol
Waiting to be called to triage felt like an eternity. They replaced our blood soaked paper towels with gauze and at that point most of the bleeding had stopped. The nurse then sent us out to wait once again. The whole time Pablo was cursing under his breathe and wondering why they wouldn't just take us back.
We were finally taken back and Liam was poked and prodded. They said he had a 3 centimeter laceration that was pretty deep. His hand was X-rayed to make sure there was no glass left behind and that he didn't hit any bones. Once cleared of all that the ER doctor decided that orthopedics should take a look at him and be the ones to stitch him up. The reason behind this was to make sure that no tendons or ligaments were cut. They also explained that since he is so young and would not hold still for stitches so he would have to be sedated. He was also going to have to wear a full cast, so that he would not mess with the stitches and his hand could heal properly. :(
While waiting for the orthopedic doctor to see us Liam fell asleep on me. I was so happy to see him get some rest, because he was in for some more pokes and prodding. By the time the orthopedic team arrived Liam was awake and they started right away checking his reflexes in his hand. He did not like that one bit. They also wanted to check for nerve damage. That required holding his hand in warm water for 30 minutes! He sat surprisingly still while we held his hand there. The doctors looked at his fingertips afterwards to see if they were wrinkly. His fingers were pruney, which was a good indication that he did not have any nerve damage. The doctors were very optimistic that he did not have any ligament and tendon damage either.
It was now time for an IV. That was perhaps the worse part. A corpsman had to hold him wrapped in a sheet as a nurse attempted to hold his other arm still and insert an IV. He kept moving his arm and the nurse had a difficult time getting it in. I think that's when the tears finally came. Watching him struggle against the nurse just broke my heart. After it was in we were ushered into another room where Liam was given medicine through his IV to sedate him. It was so sad to see him talking to the nurse one minute and then asleep the next. We were ushered out since the room they were working in was tiny.
We had another eternal wait in the ER waiting room and when we were finally called back Liam was still asleep. He slept through the move to a recovery bed and laid on my lap a good while before I roused him. He had to be awake and drink a little something before they'd discharge us. It took a lot of effort and some applesauce to get him to wake up and drink.
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| Before we woke him up. Pitiful. |
We finally made it home at One in the morning. My poor husband got 3 hours of sleep before having to report for 24 hour duty. Liam slept through the night and most of the next day. I admit I did too. We were exhausted.
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| Liam got to watch Little Pim on the iPad to keep him still. He doesn't get much screen time, so he loved it! |
Liam is doing surprisingly well and we've already had a wound check. They said everything looks good. He isn't in any pain and he doesn't even act like the cast bothers him.
That was the worst scare. EVER. I hope that we will not have anymore trips to the ER for a VERY LONG TIME.
We're now just trying to take it easy at home, but Liam has other ideas. He has been going full force like nothing happened. In a way I guess that's a good thing.
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| One handed coloring with Mami. |
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