Zeke's Latest ER Visit!

On December 8th Zeke and I got to make another lovely trip to Mary Bridge in Tacoma. It all started out like a normal day. Wake up get the kids off to school, work out with my neighbor, come home do dishes, start laundry, go upstairs to collect more laundry and hear a clunk and then crying! Really that actually is a pretty normal day. This kid is such a klutz...he would never be hurt if he didn't hurt himself! 

At first the cry didn't sound that bad so I finished putting Ella's shoes back in her basket and then came downstairs. The reason the cry wasn't that bad was because he had done the initial cry and then was sucking in all the air in order to do the secondary cry. I scooped him up and carried him to the love seat and then kissed his face. That's when I felt wetness on my face. I wiped my chin with my hand and looked down to see it covered in blood. Up we went into the kitchen. I laid him out on the kitchen counter and started checking him out. It didn't take me very long to come to the conclusion that we were headed to the ER. His poor chin right at the jaw line had been split open and that fatty tissue was sticking out. 

I got a band-aid on it to stop the bleeding and then we got in the van. Mind you no where in the above description of my day had I listed shower as one of the things I had done....and I had worked out with my neighbor! I'm sure they've seen nastier stuff at the ER than a mother of 4 who's worked out and not showered! So off we went. First I decided since it was a pretty cut and dry thing...probably no more than 2 stitches...that I would just stop at the new Seattle Children's Clinic in Federal Way to see if they could stitch him up. It would be nice to not have to go all the way to Tacoma. We stopped there and I carried him in....we waited since the two ladies at the front desk were on the phone. Then one lady got off and waited until she called us over. I asked if they could stitch him up and she informed me that their Urgent Care doesn't open until 5pm! What is the point of that? I was a bit irritated and it just 100% confirmed that no matter what if something happens with my kids I am ALWAYS going to take them to Mary Bridge!  

One we got to MB I used the lovely free valet parking and went inside to check in. The lady at the desk greeted me right away. Since Zeke is already in their system there was no need to pull out insurance cards or anything. There was a guy waiting right there to take us back to triage. He took some information and checked out Zeke's chin then it was straight back to a room. Seriously THE BEST HOSPITAL! 

I got Zeke into a gown and the nurse checked out his chin. He wasn't too thrilled about that. He let me take off his old band-aid and then the nurse got him a new blue crayon band-aid. 

Right on the side of the TV is a sign posted with all of the kids cartoon channels so no surfing around trying to find something for him to watch. He was super happy because he got to watch Paw Patrol and Blaze. 

Cute little TV watcher! 

He thought it was funny that he could see the TV from one side, but the sound was coming from his remote control. He'd lean over and listen and then look back at the TV. 

While waiting a lady came in to ask how the hospital was doing and I looked right at her and said, "I love you guys!" I told her the whole story and how I'm just not going to go anywhere else. She asked me if they could improve somehow and I told her they could move closer to my house or invent teleportation! She said she'd look into that for me! :) 

The Dr came in and looked at Zeke's chin. She decided it would be more traumatic for him to have the shot and stitches so they decided to use glue. Our only experience with surgical glue in the past was with Owen a little bit after he turned 1 years old and he fell into the coffee table and put his tooth through his lip. They tried to glue the inside of his lip close. That lasted all of 20 seconds before he used his teeth to rip it off. $500 later and we decided we didn't really like the whole gluing idea! Since this wasn't in Zeke's mouth and we could put a band-aid on it to keep him from touching it I thought it would be okay to give it a whirl! 

They laid him on the bed so he could look back and still watch cartoons. After that I couldn't take pictures. I was in charge of holding down his hands and his legs. One nurse was in charge of holding his head still and the other was cleaning out the wound, poking the fatty tissue back in and gluing the skin together. Seriously I do not think this was any less traumatic than a shot. He wasn't numb at all so the cleaning out part wasn't fun and since he was moving around it took her a few tries to get all the tissue back in place. He was crying pretty hard and it was pretty traumatic for me. Still the glue worked and it looked great! 

He was just fine once he could sit back up and watch his show and to top it off he got a Popsicle! He was released shortly after he finished his treat. In all I think it was a less than 3 hour ordeal. 

He was pooped after all that mess. So he fell asleep in the van on the way home. I pulled into the garage and rolled down his window. I always leave the music on while he's sleeping....I've ran my battery dead doing that before! He normally wakes up just fine. He'll cough and I'll hear him and come and get him out. I always make sure to stay in the dining room so I can hear him. This time he woke up crying! He was so scared for some reason. I felt so bad, but he most definitely needed the sleep! He wasn't the only one pooped...later than night I felt like I was going to crash. It's always such an emotional ordeal dealing with this stuff even if it ends up only needing a little bit of glue. Going to the hospital is stressful! 

A couple days later his chin was already looking better. He was happy as a clam as usual! The bump on his forehead happened at the same time as his chin. I still have no idea how you split the bottom of your chin open and get a goose egg on the top of your head at the same time. I seriously need to set up cameras around my house! 

The glue fell off after 3 days and now the scab is almost gone. I'd actually be surprised if there is a scar. If there is it will just be a tiny line! So the glue was probably better than stitches after all!