Friday, February 19, 2010

Maya goes to the ER.

We knew the day would come. We knew it from the moment she was just 7 months old and pulled herself up to standing just so she could get at her older brother and pull his hair. We knew this day was coming! To be honest, I can't believe Maya survived over 4 years before her and her brother came to this place! But, it finally happened last weekend. After a wild game of  "Ninja Warriors",  Maya finally learned that her older brother that outweighs her by more than 20 pounds, and towers over her by almost a foot, is in fact, stronger than her! Really, I'm not sure that she got that message before last weekend! However, after just one calculated  mighty ninja shove/kick from her much older, much stronger brother, she got the message!

I wasn't in the room (because I was trying to get ready for our Valentine's date night that never happened), but I heard the dull "thump" when her head hit the dining room chair. To be honest, I didn't think much of it at first because this is a daily ritual that Maya and Chandler go through. The crying ensued, & I began to lecture on the many valid reasons why "we don't ninja thump kick our siblings". I then tried to send Maya to the couch to watch her  favorite "babysitter" Barbie Fairytopia  DVD (so I could finish getting ready), but as I turned to walk away I heard McKenna gasp & Maya say "Uh-oh....it's a lot of blood!".

It was at that moment in time when I learned two very important things: 1) Head wounds bleed A LOT, and 2) When you have 4 small children it's always a good idea to keep first aid supplies replenished.  With no gauze, peroxide, or other important first aid supplies handy, I just scooped her up and ran to the bathtub.  I quickly got her undressed and into the tub so that I could rinse all the blood out of her hair & try to find the source of all the bleeding. The tub water instantly turned pink from all the blood & I was sure I was going to find a much larger gash than what I actually discovered. When we got the bleeding to slow down I discovered that the wound was smaller than I had anticipated (did I mention that head wounds bleed A LOT!). At first I thought "oh, good...maybe we won't need stitches after all", but after waiting several hours in vain for the bleeding to stop for good,  we gave up and decided that little miss had just earned herself her first trip to the ER!

I'll stop my story there, because the rest is just boring & involves 6 freaking hours of  losing my mind with a restless 4 year old who was climbing all over the germ-filled floors of the ER waiting. Yes, we waited for 6 hours in the ER for 3 small stitches! Can't wait to get my $1000 bill for that! However, I think after this last ER experience I'm going to start a facebook fan page called "I think you should get a huge discount on your ER bill if you have to wait 6 hours to be seen!". I'm pretty sure I'll get 1 million fans overnight!


Here are some pictures of our ER adventure!




Just chillin'. Watching a little National Geographic channel, followed by the late night edition of the winter Olympics. We caught the whole thing since we were there for 6 hours (did I already mention that?)!

The nurse wrapped this gauze around her head to keep the numbing gel in place, & because Maya was freaking out every time she turned over on her pillow and got blood on the pillow case. Once she was all numb she fell right to sleep. Poor baby!

After the traumatic stitches were through! She woke up as soon as the Dr. started the stitches & it took three adults to hold her down! Not a fun thing to wake up to I'm sure!

Look....she's still my baby!

WARNING! Head wound picture!
(It's really not bad at all...but some people have a weak stomach!)
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See.... just a tiny little 1/2 inch gash. Could have been worse!

2 comments:

Courtney Lewis said...

poor thing. I hope she feels better, and she learns that it's not the pain that keeps traumatic injury away. it's spending entire days in the ER.

Amber said...

Ha! Yep, that's the moral to the story here. That is, until she's an adult and has a $5,000 deductible like her parents have & then it's the whole "money issue" thing that keeps traumatic injuries visits to the ER away...or does it cause more of them???? One may never know?

Sometimes I don't get dressed for the day until 5:00...pm, and on the weekend I let my kids eat cookies for breakfast. I drank coffee (and sometimes diet coke) when I was pregnant. I use under eye concealer to cover up my zits & I bake when I'm stressed. If you can deal with all that....then welcome to our family blog!