Keegan's first ER visit

So we have had quite the week here. On Friday the drier broke down so we ended up shopping for a new drier. On the way to play Dungeons and Dragons on Saturday the tire went flat on our car. I am thinking that that's enough for this week; should be smooth sailing from here on out.

Then I get the dreaded call...from daycare. "Hi, Keegan had an accident and you need to take him to the ER." Ends up Keegan was running and smacked his little head on the corner of a table and ripped a dime size hole into his forehead. They were having a lot of trouble stopping the bleeding.

So into frantic mode at work. I work 40 minutes away from daycare so I call my mom who lives 5 minutes away. She takes off to pick Keegan up, I leave work and start on the way to the ER to meet them there. I call Lyle too; he decides to meet us there. I call my boss and let him know I am going to be in the ER and won't be back until tomorrow.

Lyle and I get there and my mom pulls in right after. Keegan has band-aids over his forehead and doesn't look too bad; he's a bit pale and he looks a bit upset. We rush into the ER sign him in and wait. 20 minutes later we get to go into registration. The band-aids have pretty much done all they can so we are blotting blood off as is drips out from under the band-aids. They finally call us back into the room.

20 minutes more pass as we watch PBS on the TV there. I am thrilled there is a TV; I can't imagine what we would have done otherwise. Keegan is chilling on grandma's lap; he is so happy to sit with grandma. Then the doctor appears and they take off the band-aids. My first chance to see the wound. It is a dime-sized hole; you can see his forehead bone underneath. I start to get faint and have to sit down. I am not sure why, this stuff doesn't normally bother me. I mean I worked at the vet's for 3 years and saw many things worse than this. But it is Keegan, so I guess that's the difference. Dr. applies a numbing gel to the cut. Keegan is supposed to lie down with pressure on the wound for 20 minutes while the gel takes effect.

I am happy there is a TV. Keegan lies on Lyle on the bed while Lyle put pressure on the wound. Time passes. The Dino Train show ends and Sesame Street starts. More time passes. 40 minutes to be exact. The nurse brings in the suture cart and asks Keegan what kind of Popsicle he would like. That gets his attention. Gma and I exclaim over all the really cool things in Sesame Street. Finally the doctor comes back.

He wants to know if he should put Keegan in a restraining papoose. I tell him no, let's give it a shot without. So they clean up the wound, leave Keegan laying on Lyle, and Gma takes one hand and I take the other.

They put a blankie over Kee's face with a hole in it that exposes the wound. The doctor starts to stitch. Keegan is amazing. We tell him to hold still and it will go fast. Unfortunately the doctor has to do two stiches in the sub-layer of the skin next to the bone and five stitches in the top layer of the skin. Keegan is awesome, there are one and half stitches left when he starts to cry and scream. Around the third stitch I start to sweat, get dizzy, and I go sit down.

Since they don't need the nurse for Keegan he is watching me, he says, "I think mommy needs to take some deep breathes." I think oh yeah that would help. Gma is stuck holding Keegan's hand by herself while I speak encouragement from the chair.

As the doctor finishes up Keegan's greatest concern is his promised Popsicle. He wants cherry. He gets cherry and a ton of praise about what a brave amazing kid he is to take all that stitching so well!

While we wait for release papers Keegan wanders out of the room to talk to the policeman and nurse standing out there. In his normal manner he starts chatting them up. He tells them that he ran too fast and got a hole in his head. It's okay though because the doctor fixed it all up. He got a Popsicle and he really liked it. Oh and he doesn't really want to do that again. He has them in stitches (good pun huh) by the time he leaves.

I couldn't believe how good he was and how quickly he was making people laugh again. I also couldn't believe how close I came to passing out, I mean really, I guess it is different when it is your kid.

Then we go to Target to get him a cookie with frosting and sprinkles and a toy; his reward for being wonderful. We also drop some Make-a-Wish donations off at daycare and let him go show off his stitches. It was nice to drop by because his teacher felt really horrible and he scared a lot of people there. So, he was in telling them about the doctor sewing the hole in his head shut and about his Popsicle. He was hamming it up; he also told them he really doesn't think he wants to get stitches again. That doctor kept poking me in the head over and over, he says.

So we leave. I find out while I am there that daycare will cover any of the cost of the incident that our health care doesn't cover; how cool is that?! They apologized so much, and I am like you know this could have happened anywhere. Really I am amazed we haven't been in the ER yet with all this kid's antics.

Then home for a nap. We spend some time looking at Keegan's stitches with him in the mirror. Explaining what they do and how they are like the stitches that hold his shirt together. We talk about when he goes in Monday to have the stitches removed it won't hurt and he shouldn't be scared. He is cool about it all. Miraculously the wound is completely scabbed shut shortly after we get home. I am amazed at the healing rate of kids.

After all the excitement we realize that there is an interesting irony to this all happening. We have family pictures this Sunday. Oh well, I guess these will be unique pictures. We are hoping he doesn't bruise too much.

The whole affair made me very thankful to our modern health care system, and our local ER who thinks to provide Popsicles to injured kiddies. It also made me very very thankful to my mother. Who helped us get Keegan to the ER half an hour earlier than we would have otherwise; I am also glad that she at least isn't a fainter so Keegan had her to hold his hand the whole way through! Thank you mom :-) Below is a very blurry picture of Kee's stitches...