Trip to the Emergency Room

at the ER....after we cleaned the blood off his head, but it was still bleeding.


Paul and I were sitting outside in the front with Mady while she toddled around (away from the rowdy boys playing in the back). Caleb was riding his bike on the sidewalks of our street. We were headed to chase Mady and I look down the sidewalk to see 3 people and a bike. As I focused in I noticed one of those three people was my son, and the bike was being pushed by someone else.

As they got closer I noticed my son was being held up and under the white and red paper towel on his head, he was COVERED in blood! I mean his face, clothes, legs. Mama ALMOST freaked out, but held it together.

"We were looking at a house for sale" the couple began, "and we saw him flip over his handle bars and hit the fire hydrant." That is right, folks. My son had a fight with a fire hydrant. And, I am sad to report, the fire hydrant won!

What is worse....he could not tell them our phone numbers!! So they gave him a paper towel (the poor woman apologized for not having anything more than a papertowel in her car) and WALKED him home!

So, we thank the lovely couple that will now NOT want to buy a house in this neighborhood, and took him in to clean him up, although we were certain we were headed for the ER. It looked bad, so off we went! (Just a side note....on the way to the ER, Caleb says "If that couple buys that house, I will tell them I will help them with their landscaping!")

There was no one at the ER, luckily. We were in and out in about an hour. Which is turning out to be not such a great thing. The dr came in and looked at his head and said he needed stitches. Caleb immediately says "What about that glue stuff. Can't you glue it? I want glue!"

I told the dr to do whatever was best to make is scar the least and heal the best. He said they would be about the same.

I asked if an MRI should be done (as we have flashes of stories where there is a head injury and injured looks fine, but the next day dies of a head injury). He told me no, he was sure he had a concussion but did not want to expose him to the radiation.

He did not give us anything to watch for, offered no pain meds, etc. Just sent us home.

I should add that two nurses came in to clean his head and to put numbing meds on it so they could figure out if they need to stitch or glue. They stand over him and one asks the other if they were stitching. She answers "no, I think he is stapling." Now, Caleb is already freaking out - their small talk was not helping.

Then, they take the towel off his head that was covering his eyes while they cleaned his wound. The other nurse was putting the numbing meds on his head. She had the meds in a HUGE needle, but was using the needle to put the meds on a cotton ball to numb. They were so busy with their small talk that they were not telling Caleb what was going on. So, they pull the towel off and when Caleb opened his eyes he was looking up at a HUGE needle and the nurses finger ready to push the syringe in.

Caleb starts flailing around, hit the nurses hand (almost made the needle go in her face), etc. I quickly try to calm him down saying the needle was NOT going in him. It was kind of hard to be mad at him though, they should have explained what was going on AND NOT had a needle over his head when they uncovered his eyes!

So, he got his head glued back together....but the dr said he was going to OPEN the wound and glue it so that it would heal from the inside out.