Weekend Chaos

WARNING!  This post contains graphic pictures.  Not for the faint hearted.  WARNING!

Ok, if you continue to scroll down, don't say I didn't warn you!  : )

On Saturday Andrew was invited to go to the Y with another family.  The Y is like home away from home, my kids have all grown up there since the day they were born.  So I didn't give it another thought to let Andrew go play there with his buddy.  This family have always been good friends.  I'd trust my kids with them any day of the week (and still do).

Ok, so you know how you teach your kids some things.  Like common sense things.  Things that you tell them all the time to NOT do.  But, you know, that when you are not looking they do it anyway.  For example, I tell John....DO NOT ride your sister's scooter.  She is 3, you are 10, you are TOO BIG for her scooter (duh!).  But when you look out the kitchen window what do you see sometimes?  Yep, he's on her scooter.  So, this was one of these great example.

Andrew KNOWS he should not play on a railing that goes up & down a ramp.  The rail is not intended for that.  Yet, what do I catch him doing from time to time.  Playing & climbing on that railing.  Despite knowing that I've told him a MILLION times to not do this, he does it.  This day it had some big consequences.  He flipped over the rail, fell to the ground and whacked his chin on the edge of the ramp.

Here is the initial wound as we saw it when he got home.  I took one look at it and said "yep, he needs stitches".

So, we pack up & take him to the emergency room.  There was only 1 person waiting ahead of us when we got there.  We didn't have to sit long before getting called back.  Which by this point I've already sent out a text to some friends & family to alert them to our situation.  Jim is always amused when I spring into action & notify the "whole world" of our plight.  And yes, I had even posting something on facebook before being called back to be seen by the doctor.

The nurse we were assigned was so nice.  She even laughed at Jim's jokes ; )  Here is his wound after getting it cleaned up.

The doctor on duty was also very nice & wonderful.  He did a great job at putting Andrew at ease.  We listen to music on my ipod the whole time and the doctor high fived Andrew for his song choices.  We even put in a favor for the doctor who loves Michael Jackson & playing one of his song (yes, I have several MJ songs on my ipod).

Andrew only cried when the doctor had to numb up his chin.  Otherwise he was a very brave little boy.  I could tell he was in a lot of pain, his chin kept trembling.  But he was very cooperative & laid still while the procedure was being done.

I was very interested in watching the while stitching process.  If I could have I would have taken pictures.  I didn't even ask the doctor.  For legal purposed they might not want pictures being taken of the procedure.  It could also have been a distraction to the doctor.  Not to mention I was "being there" for Andrew.  Just standing by his side and holding his hand.  Jim was also there by his side, holding his legs, just in case he decided to move suddenly.  Jim at one point though had to grab the stool behind him.  The nurse warned him that she was not going to catch him.  So he sat on the stool....just to be safe.  I'm telling you, I missed my calling to be a doctor.  I was completely amused & fascinated by the whole process.  Those kind of things are "cool" in my book. 

Hopefully Andrew learned his lesson and won't be climbing & playing around any railings again.  He is all boy though and at church the next morning he was running around like a mad man.  I was having visions of him falling & busting his chin back open.  Every time I told him to slow down he'd give me this look that said "why?"  Siiiigh!  Well, until our next ER visit.....