Thursday, July 31, 2008

Three stitches and a corneal abrasion

Yes, that's right. Three stitches and a corneal abrasion between 2 of the kids. Here's what happened:

I took the kids creekin' last week (that's playing in the creek, for you cityfolk) with Joanie. Andy's eye had been red ever since. Monday I took him to the pediatrician. Christian, Andy's good buddy, came with us to lend moral support and help Andy be brave. Andy was found to have an abrasion on his eye and had to wear a patch. He was not happy about it until Christian got a patch first and then they got to be pirate brothers. They were such good kids, I took them to DQ for ice cream. We went home at our leisure, having a nice evening.


When I got to Christian's house, where the rest of my kids were playing, I learned that Emma had fallen at another friend's house and cut a big, nasty gash in her knee. Her friend's dad carried her all the way to Julie's house with Emma screaming at the top of her lungs. I forgot my cell phone, so while I was gone, Julie came in the back door of my house to search for my first aid kit for butterfly bandaids. When she couldn't find it, she went door-to-door, scouring the neighborhood for them. No one had any. By the time I got to Julie's our whole block was involved, including consultation from a firefighter and a nurse on whether or not she needed stitches. All this happened while Andy and Christian were getting brain freeze on Blizzards.

I took Emma home to bandage her up, took one look at that cut and said, "Uh-oh". I left the other kids with Julie and took Christian's big sister, Hannah, with us to urgent care (my first visit as a mother after 6 years, not bad) to help distract Emma. The doctor numbed her knee then shot it up with something else- Novocaine, maybe- then irrigated the wound. Emma was freaking out, as she is prone to do, so I asked Hannah to talk to her and take her mind off of it. Hannah gave her the play-by-play and said, "Emma, he's sticking a giant needle in your leg." Thanks, Hannah.

Emma ended up with three stitches in her left knee, no swimming and no long baths for two weeks until we go back to have them taken out. Andy, after 3 more hours spent at the ophthalmologist the next day, ended up with steroid antibiotic eye drops 4 times a day (fun) for two weeks.

Did I mention this all happened at the beginning of the week that Kevin was gone to Utah? Next week, I'm going to Utah!