Fortunate Event #1

Before I get into what we have been up to for the past week, let me start off by saying I'm sorry but it will be slightly out of sequence. There is something I'll need to get out of my system first and, well, you'll see. Second, as it is a coincidence (or is it?!?) that we are currently reading the twelfth book in the Series of Unfortunate Events series, we have experienced our own family series of unfortunate events. Some of our recent posts have just barely scratched the surface and our unlucky streak all seemed to start at the beginning of October so maybe that is appropriate. However unlike Lemony Snicket I think I'll refrain from pessimism and sarcasm (although I do enjoy his books) and try to make the following posts in a gratitude journal entry format, mostly to try to lift my own spirits but also to keep from causing others to become depressed by reading about it. Oh, come on, this is already starting to sound gloomy!

Let us jump right in! (here I will add another !)

Saturday October 11th, 8:30ish pm: Tales from the Ann Arbor ER

We were visiting my brother and his family who live just outside of Detroit, Michigan for the weekend. Aedan was playing with (or rather on) their dog and in the midst of his doggy ride he fell and hit his forehead on the corner of a little table (or coffee table but they don't drink coffee so what's the point?). His bleeding was nonstop and plentiful and he was in a good deal of pain, we could tell. So we decided he needed a little trip to the nearest emergency room. We drove over with our sil and filled out the necessary paperwork and waited. And waited. We had plenty of light hearted discussions with various moms and dads in the waiting room who had gone through the same ordeal.

The before shot, waiting in the ER. I didn't want a closeup but with technology nowadays, I'm sure you can click on the picture and zoom in and see it for yourself. I for one, did not want to ever see something like that again but I suppose I needed a pic for posterity right?

In talking to Aedan we quickly discovered that he did not have a concussion and even though he was still bleeding and in pain, he was still able to be in a playful mood and was delighted to watch the big fish in the fish tank (we are so grateful for fish in the doc offices) and he was giggling with some other kids who couldn't help looking at his bleeding head and grimacing at the sight/thought of it. We are also grateful that there were vending machines nearby as cookies and juice seemed to get his mind off of his situation.

The wait was incredibly long - I don't think I've ever experienced a short ER visit have you? I suppose I should be grateful for that too, it probably means that our troubles were not life-threatening and that others were getting care that was very needed. We were finally taken to a room where we sat for another while longer with nurses popping in and out giving him Motrin and such. We were very grateful for their wide selection of children's videos and we were able to watch one Bob the Builder tape and half of a Thomas the Tank Engine movie before they finally came in to stitch him up.

And yes he needed stitches. The wound was down to the bone (I was not thrilled to see that with my own eyes) and it was a pretty nasty L-shaped owie. They dabbed on some numbing medicine and we had to pin the poor guy down to the bed. They covered up his little face with towels with a hole to work on the wound through. He was very scared as you can imagine and not being able to see us made it worse. They wouldn't let us be near his head so they could keep everything sterile and the doctor told me to go down to his feet to try to comfort him and I was very grateful for that as I don't know if I could have watched the whole procedure. All we could do was talk to him and hold his hand and kiss his knees to let him know we were there.

The after picture - his eyes are pretty red from all the crying. No fun

A while back I read a book called I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg and the book had given me some things to think about in dealing with young ones in these painful situations. One thing I learned from reading this book was that it is not helpful to lie to the child and tell them things like "it won't hurt" because we all know that it will and while it may save them from being scared beforehand, it just might cause them to not trust you afterwards when they find out that it did hurt. I might be stretching it a bit and I doubt Aedan will go insane after all of this like the girl in the book but the fact is that I just couldn't tell him that it wasn't going to hurt and I couldn't pretend to him that I wasn't scared myself. I wanted to.

Aedan got two internal stitches and six stitches on the outside. He was bleeding all the way up until he got stitched up, poor guy and he was screaming and crying all through the stitching. He was awarded a Popsicle and a sticker for his bravery. We left the hospital around 1:30am I think. We had to make a quick trip to the store to pick up Tylenol, ointment, bandages, and a few toy cars to make mending go smoothly in the following days. We were exhausted but we made it to my brother's home safely. When we arrived Aedan received some gifts (a box of Cheez-its and a remote controlled dump truck) from the dog with a note written on it in Doglish, "Rime Rorry" (thanks Uncle O for translating it).

I am so grateful for ERs even if they were a little slow there. The doctors seemed to be short-handed that night but we were grateful for their service. I am so grateful that I was able to control my emotions for the most part, only crying when Aedan couldn't see me so as not to scare him even more. I am so so grateful that we had so much family nearby who were such a great source of support for us. We are grateful that we have such a brave kid who has rebounded from this experience fantastically. Really, he harbors no hard feelings whatsoever to the dog (neither do we, after all it was Aedan's fault) and he is such a happy boy. He is still trying to get his full energy back I think but he is doing really well now aside from the fact that he hates it when we change his band aid. We will go get his stitches removed maybe on Thursday so wish us luck!