Stiches

So we've officially checked "First Emergency Room Visit" off Kade's little life to-do list.

Our little guy took a tumble down 3 stairs and somehow knocked his mouth, splitting it open. We are still trying to figure out what he hit, but I think it will forever remain a mystery.

Kaeden was actually over at Jeff's parents house when it happened.  Jeff was at work while I ran some errands. I got a message from Jeff saying Kade had been hurt, and to meet him at the urgent care.

At the urgent care they looked at the location of the split in his lip and said that they wouldn't touch it. The cut crossed over the lip line into the cheek, and if it wasn't stitched up with absolute precision, it could affect his look forever. So...we were sent off to Primary Children's to see a plastic surgeon.

Kade was such a trooper. Once the bleeding was under control, he was sad and in pain, but didn't do too much complaining. When we got to Primary's we sat in a triage room for quite awhile. The nurse came it to ask us what happened, and made us feel a little weird that we couldn't explain EXACTLY what happened. One, we weren't even there, and two, it was just one of those freak little things that happen with little kids. Luckily they didn't question our story too much.

So we hung out in triage for a bit, and Kade was pretty chill.

I loved that he just wanted to hold my hand for comfort.

When we were moved into our room, Kade got to relax on his own bed.

Carter thought it was pretty cool.  Well, he at least thought the remote attached to the bed was pretty cool.

The staff at Primary's is sooooooo impressive.  We could tell early on that Kaeden's anxiety about pretty much anything was going to be an issue with receiving the care he needed.  So they called in a department called "Child's Life." The staff members come in, and their sole role is to do everything they can to make the child's experience fun.  They find out about the kid's interests, bring them toys, and just generally try to distract them from what's going on.

We learned that we actually didn't need to see a plastic surgeon, and that the doctors and nurses who were on staff that night had repaired dozens of tears just like Kaeden's with absolutely no problem.  That's the difference between a general doctor in an urgent care, and specialized doctor in a children's hospital.  Apparently they fix up kids faces all day long.  So we trusted them to get Kade fixed right up.

Before the procedure they gave us the option to give Kade a little bit of medicine to calm his nerves.  The doctor's explained that since his injury was in an area where he'd be watching them coming at his face with gadgets and needles, he'd probably need something to keep him calm.  Knowing how much anxiety he already had, and the the need for him to stay still during the procedure, we opted to give him the medicine.  We were warned that 9 times out of 10 the medicine worked just as hoped for and the kid became like a "happy drunk", but there was that 10% chance that Kaeden would become what they described as an "angry pirate."  They gave him the dose and we hoped for the best.  Knowing that Kade has a fairly sweet and calm disposition, I figured we'd be fine.

When they were ready to do the stitches, the room was filled with people.  I'd say there were at least 6 people surrounding Kade on the bed, plus the Child's Life person blowing bubbles over him.  I kid you not.  The lady climbed up on the bed and for a good 40 minutes just blew bubbles over Kaeden.  I mean c'mon.  That's service!

To start the stitches they rolled Kaeden up in a blanket like a burrito so that he didn't have use of his arms.  Then they brought the bright light over his head so that they could have ample light to see what they were doing.

And then  Cranky-Beard the ANGRY pirate appeared.

Kade freaked the freak out.

Seriously.

He started screaming, "I can't move my arms! I can't move my arms!"

"Turn the sun off!  The sun is too bright!"

He was not happy.  They gave him a pair of sunglasses, and that didn't help much.  He just kept screaming the funniest [saddest] things.

"I'm stuck!  Why are my arms stuck?!?"

"No, no, no, no!  Mommy!  Tell them no!"

I didn't think we'd be able to go forward, but the staff pushed through and got things done pretty quick.  Being a parent sitting there, it was hard to listen to him screaming and wondering why his parents would let this happen and just stand by, but luckily it was over soon.

When they were done we had a lot of time sitting around making sure he came off the calming [ha!] medicine okay.

Kade wanted to sit and blow bubbles, and since he was groggy [ie drunk], we were told to do everything on the floor, and to not let him walk on his own.

But Kade got confident and wanted to stand.

Um yeah, buddy.  Your face is telling us you are NOT fine.

What you lookin' at?

Before we could leave they needed to make sure he could hold some fluids down.  So they gave him an orange slushy and told us to have him take it slowly.  Don't worry.  That orange slushy came back up three times on our ride home.  All over the car.  Awesome.

And just to prove how loopy Kade was....he randomly took the remote/nurse call thing, put it up to his ear, and started to have a conversation with "Tangled".  Not Rupunzel, Tangled.  He had the whole conversation in a whisper.  Not going to lie.  I was laughing so hard.  It went something like, "Hi.  Tangled?  It's Kaeden...."

Luckily for us, once we got home, Kaeden turned right back into the little boy we know and love.  His pain seemed minimal, and he was recovering just fine.  By the next morning, he was just another happy boy with stitches in his lip.

One that definitely knows that chicks dig scars.

For our first emergency room visit, I think we got off pretty easy.  Not that I'm wishing for anything worse.  Or another visit any time soon.  But with two boys, I don't have high hopes....