Monday, May 08, 2006

 

My kids first ER trip...

Last night after church I was supervising 5 kids (2 were mine) while my hubby (the preacher) and another young dad from our congregation went to visit someone. We were all playing on the playground.
The toddler swing was occupied by another little boy about 18 months. The 8 yr old girl and her 5 yr old brother were swinging on a double bench swing on the swing set (the metal swing that has two benches so the kids face each other while they swing). I was pushing Xander on the single swing and was teaching him how to 'pump' (where you move your legs back and forth to gain momentum without being pushed or pusing off yourself). My 15 mo old was toddling around and I was being very careful about watching her and the swings, but pushing my son distracted me for a moment.
I heard the thud of the double bench swing hitting her and turned around as the 8 yr old said, "The swing hit Abby!"
The image that came to mind was a doll with it's head smashed in and I was so afraid of a severe head trauma. There were two kids on that swing after all and they were going pretty high.
She was face down and when I turned her over there was blood. 'Okay,' I thought, 'a bloody nose. I can handle that. Get her washed up.' I left the 8 yr old in charge while I ran to the house with Abby. She was crying and I suppose that was a good sign. I grabbed a washcloth, wet it and wiped up some of the blood. That was when I saw the cut. It was about a cm long or more and it started on the side of her nose. The nostral was sliced through.That was when I grabbed the phone and called 911. I had never done it before for anyone I knew and I was scared!
They contacted my hubby and the ambulance. My hubby got there first! He calmed us both down some.The ambulance came and the medics said that they didn't think there was any fracture, but it needed stiches. We decided to drive her ourselves.
At the hospital, they told us she'd need to be sedated and would be out of it for about an hour and a half. They said it was a deep wound and needed internal stitches. The doc checked for tenderness around the wound and Abby didn't react at all to that, so he said no fracture. The nurse gave us a cotton ball with a topical painkiller on it. We held it in place for about 20 minutes and the doc came in to seriously look at it.
Abby laid perfectly still while I held her hand and sang. The doctor commented how amazing a child her age (and after fighting with us earlier) was being so calm and still for him! He checked it out closer and decided the internal stitches weren't necessary and that it went together cleanly enough to do the dermabond liquid adhiesive. Abby stayed still for him to do all of that too - without any sedation!
We are so blessed that it turned out better than it could have. I keep thinking about how close she came to having it hit her eye, teeth, ear or temple. I think by hitting the nose the way it did that the cartilige probably absorbed some of the blow since cartilige is flexible and all.

Dawn posted this at 1:24 PM.