An ER Trip for Kade

Yesterday I was in the kitchen starting to get dinner ready. Kade was "playing" with Rachel, but Hailey didn't want him to. She told him to leave Rachel alone twice and then I heard a crash and crying. I didn't realize that he was cut and bleeding and was trying to deal with Hailey. Then I heard the shriek. "I'm BLEEDING!" I looked up and saw that his temple was bleeding. We got the blood cleaned up and I decided he'd probably need stitches or dermabond. I made a quick call to my mom and asked if she'd come stay with the kids until Nathan got home. I bribed her with chalupa and she came over. I called Kelli to see if she would come over and stay with the kids until my mom got there. I bribed her with chalupa and she came over.

Our first stop was Urgent Care. I was hoping that they could just glue it shut and we'd be done, but since it was on his face the doctor there didn't want to do it. Next stop, Thunderbird Hospital.We got checked in pretty quickly. While we were waiting for triage a nurse asked Kade if he would like to color. She gave him some Halloween pictures and a set of markers to color with. There were also some Halloween stickers attached. He was in heaven.

We were called into the triage room where his temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and weight were taken. Along with his story of what happened--the who, what, where, when, and why. (Side note: I never know how to act when I'm at the ER or the doctor when one of my kids is hurt. Do I tell the doctors the whole story or does that look suspicious? Do I have my kid tell the story and I don't say anything or does that look suspicious. Not that I've done anything wrong, but I've heard the horror stories of parents being wrongly accused and their kids get taken away.) The triage guy gave Kade more stickers. Then we were taken to the Pediatric Unit.

The Peds Unit was great. The waiting room had little games, toys, and books for him. It had a little table for him to sit at and color. Plus it was quiet. We were called back and put in the "Camping Room". Kade sat on the bed and I got a chair. There was a TV and VCR and about 100 movies to choose from. He chose Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While watching the movie, another nurse came in with more pictures to color, crayons, dinosaur stickers and a paper to put the stickers on to make a prehistoric scene. Kade said, "I think they must like me here!"

Kade's Loot

We saw a few nurses, a student doctor, a medical assistant, and finally the doctor. All of whom asked what happened. The doctor told Kade he''d need stitches and Kade lost it. He had been hoping the doctor would just put a bandaid on it. After the doctor left, Kade and I talked about it and I got him calmed down. The doctor came back in a couple of minutes later to have another look. He said he really didn't want to glue it because it was gaping open and that could lead to a bigger scar if the glue came off.

The student doctor did the stitches. Kade was very brave and only cried when he was being numbed. After getting three stitches he went to the "Toy Closet" and picked out a kite. We waited for about an hour after that and then we were discharged.

Four hours and three stitches later and we were on our way to McDonalds for some cookies.