The First ER Trip

Having two boys, I knew I would be making at least one trip to the local ER at some point.  Let's be realistic- it will almost certainly be more than one trip.  Trip number 1turned out to be this past Tuesday night. Rob had bought an apple pie at the store earlier in the day and Rex had been eyeballing the thing all day/night.  He wanted a piece as soon as Rob brought it home but we told him to wait until after dinner.  He kept asking for some and then finally we told him okay, it was time for pie.  Rex took off from the family room and headed for the kitchen like a shot.  In his excitement, he bumbled the one step up from the family room into the rest of the house and hit his chin really hard.  It was gushing blood.  A lot of blood.  We knew it was serious.  There was even one point where his eyes were kind of rolling back in his head and he was hyperventilating.  Rob got him calmed down and then the bleeding stopped.  I think that was the point where Rob and I finally started breathing again.  Now we could get a peek at it but it was a big ol' mess and hard to see what was going on.  Even though it was barely bleeding and we couldn't see the wound real well, we thought it was still a good idea to take him to the ER.  Rex and I changed our bloody clothes and got in the car and headed to the hospital.  We were seen right away, which was awesome, and it turned out that Rex definitely needed 2 or 3 stitches.  He did really good with everyone looking at it, cleaning it and even applying the numbing gel that had to sit there for about 20 minutes.  The actual stitches part wasn't too good- he kept yelling at them "Done! Done!"  The doctor and nurses were awesome with him and got him all put back together very nicely and quickly (though Rex would probably tell you it took forever).



We finally got home a little after 10:00 p.m. and he got his pie.  He really wasn't that into the pie (not surprising) at that point so we put him to bed and he was out.  The stitches will come out on their own in a week or so.  So glad we don't have to go back and have them taken out.  Keeping Rex from playing with the stitches is a full-time job for me now.  The thing I keep thinking about is that step and how many discussions Rob and I had before building it to make sure it was as safe as we could make it.  There was a LOT of time spent designing that step and it still ended up being a danger.  Anyhow, I hope we are done with the ER for a long time now and I am glad it wasn't a broken bone that we were there for.  At least this time.