Yom Kippur = ER (warning...a bit graphic)

Well, with 3 boys it was bound to happen, but did it have to happen on our holiest day of the year?

Our first trip to the ER:

Yesterday the boys were to stay home from school and go to children's services in the afternoon. I was awoken by Jadon screaming and running into our room with blood dripping from his forehead. Cole and he had been "playing" and Cole had pushed him off the bed with his feet. Jadon fell forward and hit his head on the dresser. It looked like a bad enough cut that it at least needed to be seen be a doctor, so I threw clothes on him and myself and off we went.

We got to the ER at 9am and they were ready to stitch him at 10am having commented that it was an uneven cut and against the natural grain of the skin. I decided to ask for a consult from the plastic surgeon. I swear the ER doctor and nurses hated me. I could see them rolling their eyes in the hall and pointing to their heads and discussing what a small cut it was. I felt like an idiot for having asked, but the cut was on his face and whatever scar that was left was going to be there for life. I was on the verge of tears, but sucked it up and stuck to my guns. The plastic surgeon came down around 11am and looked at it. He said that if he stitched it like the ER wanted to (by tying Jadon down) it would leave a bad scar because there was no way Jadon was going to keep his head still. Jadon told us this himself. So we had to consciously sedate him, but first the doctor had to go finish a case in the operating room. He said he'd be back in about 45 minutes. Two hours later (1pm), IV in, heart monitors on, pulseox on, blood pressure cuff on, we were ready to begin. The procedure didn't take more than 20 minutes...tops (I wasn't timing it). The doctor trimmed the edges of his cut to make them even and then put in about 5 stitches. Jadon had a hard time shaking the sedation. It was conscious sedation so he never really slept, just had a glazed over look and was out of it. He was very agitated when he started to come out of it. He screamed and cried and vommited a few times until they finally decided it was too much and gave him some anti-nausea meds. It took him two and a half hours to shake the sedation enough that he could walk without falling over and speak without slurred speech and then we finally got discharged at 4pm.

On one hand, I feel ridiculously guilty for asking for the plastics consult. If I had just let the ER do it we would have been out of there by 11am, he wouldn't have had sedation, and it probably would have saved me a ton of money. On the other hand, now I know his scar will be minimal, there was probably less psychological trauma by being sedated rather than tied down while they put lidocane in his head, and the plastics doctor was SO much nicer to him than the ER doctor. In retrospect, I think I made the right choice and I highly recommend that anyone who gets a cut to their face ask for a plastics consult. That doctor clearly knew how to make Jadon's head look as pretty as possible...the ER doc was just going to patch him up with little regard for the scar.

And so life continues here at the Sand houshold. Jadon has to have ice for 10 minutes off for 30 minutes for 72 hours while awake. The bandage should fall off on its own along with the stitches in about 5 day. We will go in for a follow-up with the surgeon sometime next week. In the meantime we prepare for some auditions and a possible commercial shoot for next week. Good thing his long curls cover the cut!

Finally, as a new addition to my blogging and totally copying my cousins idea I introduce "Funny Things My Kids Say."

Funny Things My Kids Say:
As we drove home from Yom Kippur dinner last night Jadon said, "Mom, what do you prefer, throw-up or poo poo?" I respond "poo poo." To which he responds, "Well then you'd better drive faster."