Family Forum / Parenting / Single Parents / May 2006

UGH.  That's all...
Thursday, February 2, 2006, he's in the OR having his head stitched up at
the children's hospital for a major scalp laceration.  Plastic surgeon works
on him for about an hour, hour and a half.  It's almost 2 hours later when
he gets out of the operating room.  Also has a fractured nose amd about 30
stitches.  Spends the night in the hospital.

Wednesday, April 17, 2006, he's in the Treatment Room 2 having his head
stitched up at the Medicentre for a major gash in his head.  Took about an
hour to get it all done and 7 stitches.  About an inch-inch and a half gash
RIGHT exactly where he had that scalp laceration...

He was playing out in the back yard (it is fenced and gated) and I'm in the
house.  Normally he plays just fine in the yard, in our yard or in the
neighbour's yard with the neighbour kid, since they're around the same age
and we have a shared gate to our yards.  Windows open, blinds up, every 10
or so minutes I double check on him at the door or window, and I can hear
him outside anyways.
Today, however, he decides to let himself out of the yard - problem we've
been having a lot of lately - and we can't lock the gate as the neighbours
need that same gate to our yard to get into theirs.  Locks are out of the
question, although we did have a lock on the gate at the place we moved
from.  Anyways, before he goes out, I do tell him he is to stay in OUR yard
or Tyler's yard, and this is a reminder each and every time so there's no
excuses.  Today, anyways, he's in the yard.  He's playing just fine and
dandy.  I'm off doing whatever in the house - picking up the dishes,
gathering up toys... I run to the basement to gather more dishes left down
there, and Norm's upstairs with Amie, Bran's still in the yard.  2 minutes
later, I hear what sounds like someone ramming down our door.  Banging,
literally almost smashing our door, and I yell upstairs to Norm to see who
the hell is banging on the door like a hooligan.  I make my way upstairs at
the same time.
Next thing, not half way up the stairs, I hear screaming and crying.  Norm
yells at me to get upstairs pronto and before I can even know what's going
on, he tells me to take the kid to the doctor NOW.  I see he's COVERED in
blood.  His face is just a mask of red blood, and I nearly pass out.  I grab
him, Norm grabs him, I run around like an idiot feeling myself get all sick
and dizzy, and Bran gets seated on the kitchen chair.  By this time, I'm
still freaking out like a moron, but still calm enough to not make everyone
else act like the fool I am acting like, more inside.  Norm tells me to grab
a towel of some sort, and I'm already half way up the stairs, nearly
trampling him, to the closet.  Of course, there's only the white towels left
in the closet, as they're smaller towels and used only for hands or
sometimes for the baby.  Norm's hesitating a bit, and I think he's wondering
if I'm going to freak about the white towels + blood, and I just grab a
towel, fly down the stairs and bunch it all up on the kids forehead, which
is, of course, still bleeding like crazy, and of course, I'm probably not
thinking very clearly.  Norm wipes his face off from as much of the blood as
possible, and I grab the keys and the kid in my arms, with the towel on his
head and him still screaming like a wild animal, and I run out to the car,
toss him in his seat, snap the seatbelt on and back the car out of the
parking lot, spitting rocks in every direction.
At this point, I still have no idea what the heck is going on.  I know
something isn't quite normal, and I see blood and freak out.  I heard
something about him falling on the skateboard, which he knows damn well he's
not supposed to be on, as that's a toy for when we go OUT of the yard, and
helmets are on, yet he helped himself out of the yard without anyone
knowing.  I guess it was one of the neighbours who was banging on the door,
as around this time daily there's always a few adults and a bunch of younger
kids (my guess is from about 3-6 years in age and about 10 of them at a time
on a regular basis)
So, I'm using up about a gallon and a half of gas per block, gunning it to
every corner, slamming on the brakes, passing off a stop with a rolling stop
and booking it to the closest medicentre, which is normally about 7 or so
minutes away when NOT cruising like a bat out of hell... I don't know what's
going on, what happened, or even where I'm going, so I call my mom, and ask
her where I should go - medicentre or hospital, and I opt for the medicentre
rather than a hospital, a long distance away, to just sit in an emergency
room all night when they would do the same job at the clinic.
I slam the car into the closest parking stall - I was even planning on
abusing the handicapped stall if there was no regular parking stall open,
but luckily I instantly found an open parking stall and grabbed the kid,
still crying, both of us with blood all over everything, and him still
holding that grossly bloody towel on his head, run into the clinic and to
the counter, and instantly the nurse puts the phone down and we go into
"Treatment Room 2" and they clean it up.  Of course, we get there at about
10 to 5, and this stupid doctor in right now is busy looking at his watch,
saying the next doctor's shift starts in 10 minutes and he'll fix it up.
Apparently, his schedule is too busy and he's not going to stay and do the
job, leave it for the next guy coming in at 5, and of course, the kid's head
is still bleeding quite a bit.
Next doctor calls at about 5:15, I hear, and says he's stuck in traffic on
the freeway.  Of course.  Why wouldn't he be?  He finally makes it, at 530,
and then comes in and out, other emergencies come in, and I think
'emergency' depends on the injuries, as well as how loud that kid is
screaming.  At this point, mine was not.  At the same point, some little
girl is screaming as if her leg has been ripped off... Anyways, finally the
doctor comes in and he's freezing the area, and of course Bran's screaming
like crazy as the doc is trying to freeze the area.  Meanwhile, I'm trying
to hold him down, get him to sqeeze my hand and calm down as much as
possible.  Not working.  I just *had* to look over at exactly the wrong
time, and now for the second time in the room, I feel sick and dizzy.
Earlier, the doctor was talking about something, and I just started to feel
like I was blacking out.  No real reason, he was just talking, I wasn't
seeing any blood, no screaming or crying, I just nearly felt like I was
going to pass out - that normal hazy feeling you get and blurred vision
along with feeling very light headed.
So, 7 stitches and just over an hour later, we go home.  He's not to be at
school tomorrow, and the doc said he can go back after the weekend.  Lucky
me.  lol
It's been such a wild evening... Until morning, it won't be any better...
The head injury paper said I have to wake him up every 2-3 hours at night
when he's sleeping... I guess standard for any type of head injury... Just
wake him up enough to get a response of some sort, not totally wake him up,
to make sure he's not unconcious or something... Great ;) lol