Clumsy or Blind?

We're not quite sure but at this point, I'm looking for any reason to explain why d2 had his 3rd trip to the ER, on the SAME EYE. What can I say? Seems the kid leads with that side of his face. It's a good thing the last 2 incidents have had witnesses present or I'm certain we might not have left the hospital without a 'visit' from Social Services....the poor boy is either clumsy or blind and we'll find out soon if it's the latter.

So the story goes like this (and honestly feels a bit like de ja vu)- D1 called me on my way home from work and said that d2 had fallen on the stairs and he thought he would need stitches. I told him to meet me at the ER and I turned back around and headed back to the hospital. I first called the aunt & uncle who have helped on the other 2 occasions and they met us at the hospital and took d1 and d3 so that we could focus on the wounded soldier. My next call was to my co-worker, who is an M.D. and has ties with a plastic surgeon in our hospital. Typically, this wouldn't be the case to have a plastics doc sew up a simple laceration but in our case, it was the THIRD TIME and we were already concerned with how the other two scars were healing so it was warranted. Thankfully, he was willing to come in and handle it himself, even though he was not on call. And talk about feeling important - the surgeon was waiting on us when we got there.

They initially numbed d2 with a topical cream and were hoping to just sew him up while he layed there and watched. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen. He remembered what this process entailed and the last 2 times, it involved a large needle. So, all we could do was mildly sedate him so that the doc could do a perfect job. That was FREAKY! They hooked him up with the monitors and gave him a shot in the hiney that literally knocked him out within 2 minutes. I was holding him when they gave him the shot and shortly after, he started to slowly lay back onto the bed. Eyes started glazing over and he was out. As a parent, that was probably one of the hardest things to watch.

It took no time at all and then we just had to wait for him to come out of it. Eventually he responded and was talking (albeit very slurred) about what kind of ice cream he was going to have. We had to wait in the ER while he fully came to and could walk and show the docs that he was progressing nicely.

Instructions were that he not eat heavily but could have an ice cream sundae. Soooo, after 3 1/2 hours in the ER, I took d2 to McD's at 9:00 PM and gave him the choice of hot fudge or a blueberry/strawberry sundae (a.k.a. Fruit-n-Yogurt Parfait). My health dude picked the parfait!! Maybe it was a bit of a trick on my part, maybe I might have talked the parfait up a bit but nonetheless, he loved it and thought it was a sundae. Who am I to argue with the precious patient? And I might have tossed some french fries back to him on the drive home....

While we had the plastic surgeon's time (and to save a consult co-pay), we asked about the other scars and what would be the very best way to heal them and he only suggested sunscreen on the scar. He said that no creams/lotions have been proven to help and that time will heal as children produce excess amounts of collagen and that his scars will look better as he gets older. We always use sunscreen on the boys but we're going to take it a step further. D1 is taking the older boys to Lids for Kids today to get d2 his very own baseball hat, personalized, in hopes that everytime he goes outside, we don't have to battle him to wear the hat. When asked what color hat he would like to have, d2 thought for a minute and answered 'WHITE.' Great...white hat on a boy? That will be brown in no time. I asked D1 to use my persuasion tactics (see above at McD's) and see if maybe d2 might like another color better....maybe blue or red?

All in all, the night went better than expected, considering our good fortune of connections and getting 'royal' treatment in the ER. That's almost an oxymoron, isn't it? I mean, c'mon. I feel dirty just stepping foot in the ER, like I want to sanitize head to toe when I leave. Oh well. Here's praying that the next set of stitches is in a less obvious place....