Kinnick's Chin

The week before Sadie started Kindergarten, we got to take our 2nd trip to the emergency room for child needing stitches.  After going with Macey last fall, I was not nearly as nervous this time!  I took a look at the gaping cut in Kinnick's chin and thought "Pretty sure he needs stitches, let's go!"  Kinnick's fall took place in the bathroom.  Marc got him out of the tub and wrapped him in his towel.  He started to run toward me and slipped and hit his chin right on the tile floor.  (Because his arms were wrapped up, he couldn't break his fall.)  He started bawling and Marc scooped him up--I noticed the blood leaking from his chin.  I scooped him up while Marc went to retrieve butterfly bandaids for me.  I secured it best I could with 2 butterflies and got him cleaned up and in pajamas.  At this point, Kinnick was very calm and actually excited about the prospect of visiting the emergency room and getting stitches (he thought it was cool when Macey did it and he was pumped to get a "bracelet" from the ER!)  He decided to add a badge to his pajamas and told me that he wanted to wear it so he could show the Dr... 

 Needless to say, our ER trip was nothing like the amazing experience we had with Macey.  We went to the same hospital but ended up there on the worst possible night.  The receptionist told us when we checked in that we would be waiting for awhile (in my mind that meant an hour or so in the waiting room).  This hospital has a brand new pediatric ER that is totally separate from the regular ER--their goal is that kids would never (or rarely ever) sit in the waiting room... and we didn't with Macey.  This particular night the waiting room was packed with a mixture of adults and children (and we arrived at about 9 pm.)  I brought the Ipad for Kinnick and a book for myself and he was happy to sit and play.  An hour passed with not too many people leaving the waiting room (and even more coming in).  There were a lot of people complaining (and not quietly).  As we approached the 2 hour mark I began to wonder just how long this was going to take.  I started texting with Marc and he let me know that the urgent care we have gone to opened at 7:30 am and they do stitches.  After that I called a friend who was an ER nurse for years to ask her opinion about staying vs. leaving and waiting till morning.  She assured me that they would do stitches within 24 hours if he needed them.  I decided to check the front desk to see how many people were still in front of us.  At the 2 hour mark of waiting there were still 4 children in front of us (that was just to get in a room!)  I decided to call it quits and make a plan for morning... (This was actually our 2nd ER visit in 2 weeks and both times we ended up leaving without care.  The previous was with Macey.  To make a long story short, we thought her arm was hurt--she screamed for almost 2 hours.  By the time we checked into the ER she had calmed down and after sitting with her for about 5 minutes she seemed completely fine and let me move her arm so we decided to leave and wait till morning... she was fine!)

Back to Kinnick... I covered his butterflies with a gauze pad overnight and Marc helped me get all the kids up in the morning.  We headed to urgent care right at opening time.  Marc took Sadie with him to his office (which happens to be right next door).  We didn't wait at all--we were with the Dr. in less then 5 minutes.  They numbed his cut with a topical cream and then cleaned it real good.  The Dr. said that the butterflies did a nice job sealing up the cut--there was one small area that was still open and she said gluing should work fine.  When Kinnick heard glue he gave me a worried look.  I said "It's okay buddy, that means you don't have to get any stitches."  He replied, "Aww... I really wanted to get stitches!"  The Dr. laughed and said we could do one stitch, but I think you would like the glue better.  She talked him into the glue and we were done 10 minutes later.

Little did we know at the time but we would be back to see this same Dr. (who we LOVE!) in about 2 weeks!  Sadie and Kinnick were playing "Doctor" which they do frequently.  Sadie has q-tips in her Dr. kit which I never thought about as a potential problem.  I heard Kinnick start screaming and crying.  He couldn't even calm down to tell me what happened.  Sadie came out of her room with a q-tip in hand and said, "Mom, I think I put the q-tip in his ear too far."  She was so sad about hurting her little brother.  He cried for about  5 minutes.  When he calmed down he told me his ear was busted open just like his chin.  We couldn't see anything.  It was evening so we waited overnight.  The next morning there was dried blood in his ear.  He said it hurt when I touched his ear but other wise was fine.  We had a playdate that morning so I decided to take the kids anyway.  After we picked Sadie up from school that day we headed back to urgent care to get it checked out.  To our pleasure "Dr. Molly" was working again.  She remembered Kinnick and she is so good with the kids.  She looked at it (which was very painful for Kinnick) and said his membranes were ruptured.  She assured me that they would heal over time but the biggest concern was infection.  She prescribed ear drops and an oral antibiotic and we go back for a check this week.

Well, after all the ER/Urgent Care excitement we've had in the last month I will be happy to NOT go back for awhile.  Luckily, at the beginning of last year Marc's work decided to drop the high deductible plan we were on and we were forced to switch to a more expensive plan.  His raise at the time covered the difference and judging from the year we've had so far... God knew what we needed!