Last night we paid a visit to a familiar place......
the Duke Emergency Department!!!!
While Christopher was getting dinner ready last night and I was upstairs changing clothes (had just gotten home after a LONG week and crazy day). Ethan was in his high chair and Elias was playing peek-a-boo with him. He was apparently under the high chair tray and jumped up, slicing his head open on the edge of the tray. He was just saying "Ow!" at first and looking down so Christopher was trying to find out what had happened. When he looked up, Christopher saw the huge gash and screamed at me to come downstairs, which I did, in my unbuttoned jeans and no shirt!
Sure enough, we could see a prety deep slice and we knew what was in our immediate future. Grandma came right over to take over with Ethan and we headed off with our firstborn to his
3rd ER visit (5th head injury...) He was pretty calm and the bleeding had pretty much stopped. The waiting room was pretty full at 7pm on a Friday night, but we didn't wait more than 20 minutes. Once the nurses and doctors took a look, they decided that he would need stitches and gave us the option of either local anesthetics or an IV with sedation. At this point I am sure some parents would be relieved that the doctors felt like they could repair something without major drugs, but we have BEEN THERE, DONE THAT and felt like the best scenario for all involved was for Elias to be sedate while they were messing with his head. We did not want him to experience any pain or traumatic memories AND wanted the doctors to be able to make a clean and neat closure.
Elias was AMAZING. So brave! They put
LMX on his IV spots and Mommy was confident that with holding still and good breathing, there would be a successful IV. However, when two nurses came in, I quickly figured out that one of the nurses who would be poking her baby was new. Don't worry, I did not go crazy or go all
"John Q" on anybody, but we'll just say that it took two pokes and Mommy had to instruct the nurse on proper aseptic technique.
They gave him a dose of anti-nausea medicine (Zofran) and then began to set up for the procedure. They put Elias on a bunch of wires, which to any healthy kid, looks so abnormal. And to me, who is used to doing all these things to other kids, it is just surreal. If nothing else, I come away from these experiences with so much gratitude that my boys are healthy. I do not know how the parents I know deal with these traumatic events every day.
Once they gave him the Ketamine, he faded into dreamland with his eyes open (so freaky no matter how many times I see that!!) and we sang to him while they cleaned the slice up and stitched him up. Thankfully, he only needed one dose of Ketamine and even though he began talking at the end, could not feel a thing. Six stitches, a few times vomiting and about 2 hrs later, we were ready to go home. I asked for another dose of Zofran before we left so that he could feel a little better to eat. He hadn't eaten in over 8 hrs at this point! Having been down this road before, we expected sedation and so did not feed him dinner as we were leaving. We are no rookies! = ) Elias was able to stomach a couple packs of crackers on the way home and then had a little homemade vanilla milkshake when we got home.
Kids are resilient and our little boy is no exception. As I write this, Elias is with Christopher at Waffle House and then on to the Farmer's Market. The next week will be interesting as his wound heals and we navigate getting the stitches out (in 5 days) and keeping antibiotic ointment on it. If you think about it, say a quick prayer for quick healing and no infection. Funny, but last time Elias busted his head, he was due for a haircut, as he is right now. Suspicious.....
Here a few pictures I snapped with my cell phone...we even had the foresight to think about taking the actual camera this time, but forgot in the effort to get out the door quickly!
a couple of head shots...the cut is actually in his hair. The stuff on his forehead is dried blood.
Here he has the topical medicine on...the cotton balls are soaked in "LET" which is Lidocaine, Epinephrine and Tarcaine (?) to help numb the area and cause the blood vessels to constrict in the area. He had this the last time as well.
Reading their chapter book they've been reading every night...The Rats of Nimh. Glad we brought this because all that was on the Disney channel was Hanna Montana (though I'll admit we did end up watching quite a bit)!
Gettin' wired up for the procedure!
