Perhaps the First of Many
Today we went to the ER for Elizabeth for a deep cut in her thumb. Of course it was Elizabeth, and not Jane or Paul or me, that required our first trip to the Emergency Room.
It began when Paul and I heard her crying.
We both just assumed Jane had done something to provoke her, but Jane was playing quietly (for once!) by herself in the living room. Elizabeth was in Jane’s room.
Paul got there first and found the broken glass.
I arrived next and was completely baffled why she was crying. No blood. No sign of hurt.
Just Elizabeth sitting very still, crying big tears with the most pitiful sad face you’ve ever seen.
Scared us to death, mostly because Elizabeth rarely, if ever, cries due to pain. Her pain threshold is unusually high, probably due to the many ear infections and other maladies she’s had her whole life.
When I got to her, I realized she was holding her hand.
I opened her right hand, and saw the wound: a pretty deep gash across the inside of her thumb, at the joint just where her thumb meets her hand. I knew immediately she would need stitches. It was deep. I told Paul what I thought, he looked at it, and then at me and we exchanged that resigned, “well, crap, looks like we’re going to the ER” look.
After calling work to tell them I wouldn’t be coming in, my dad, and a host of other acquaintances looking for someone to watch Jane (to no avail), the four of us loaded up and headed to Children’s Hospital to get Elizabeth all fixed up.
Fortunately, it was very quiet and mostly empty in the waiting room, so we were seen fairly quickly. Jane and Paul stayed in the waiting room, while Elizabeth and I headed off to have her thumb examined. (Paul’s idea…smart man.)
The good news is that no glass was lodged in the cut (we had an x-ray to prove it). More good news was that it doesn’t appear that the tendon was severed or damaged at all. The bad news is that she had to have 3 stitches in her little thumb so that the cut wouldn’t re-open every time she opened her hand.
Oh, and did I mention we can’t get the stitches wet AT ALL for 10 days? And that she’s 2 years old, which means she gets her hands dirty CONSTANTLY?
Oh well. Small price to pay, I guess, for keeping her wound/stitches infection-free. Still. What a pain.
Overall, it was fairly uneventful trip to the ER. If that’s possible.
If I’m being honest, however, I would admit that I’m pretty shaken up about it. Having Elizabeth strapped down and wrapped up in a glorified board that they call a “papoose” while screaming bloody murder from both the pain of the lidocaine injection and the anger/frustration/fear of being restrained and not understanding why…well, it’s just hard on a mother’s heart.
I did great at the time, but I find my eyes welling with tears when I think about my baby going through that pain and fear. I hated it for her. And I hate that helpless feeling that every parent experiences a million times in the life of their child whether they’re 2 or 20.
The only thing I could do was tell her that I was there, that she was doing great, and that everything was going to be okay. And that I loved her.
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t helpless after all.
Sigh.
And maybe this will be the last of the ER visits for a very long time.
Filed under: General, Catbird, Local Color, Elizabeth on May 16th, 2007
Sorry, girl!! I’m glad it wasn’t any worse. Wish I could have been there to watch Jane for you.
Ah, yes, the “papoose.” That immediately brought back memories for me. Amber had to have her nose cauterized when she was two, and they strapped her into one of those. Of course, I was crying as much as her by the time they were done.
Ashley’s been the only one with stitches here so far. Once when she was two, (fell off the bed and hit her head on the doll cradle that Dad made her–same type as Jane received. It put a little hole right at her hairline). They steri-stripped that one, much to the ER doc’s dismay b/c “it would show later, and she’d never be able to pull her hair back.” *gasp*
A year later, she ran smack into a door jamb with the MIDDLE of her forehead. Now that one really shows up! (And she pulls her hair back anyway…)
I’m glad Elizabeth is such a trooper. Can you put anything over the stitches to keep it dry?
Hang in there. It gets worse than ER visits after a while (just kidding!)
OH, Cathy! I can totally empathize with your heartbreak as a mom and watching your child suffer like that. After Natalie broke her arm in Nov (3 years old at the time), I cried and cried when I went to bed and the next day. For me, it was so hard to see her in so much pain, and to not have been able to “fix it” for her. And the realization that I was not going to be able to protect my children from all the hurts and pains of this world! (SIGH!)
Poor baby! I hope she got a nice treat for being so brave.
We have never had stitches at our house, but we have had enough trips to the ER so that I can relate to your anguish without even thinking twice about it. Doesn’t it make you hold them a little tighter and tell God, “Thank you” just a little bit louder?
I remember the damnable papoose. My son gashed his forehead open by running into a dresser drawer handle when he was 18 mos. old. I’ve never seen so much blood! The ER people put him on a papoose and stitched his head without anesthesia! I could have killed them all. They explained that it was 2 needle pricks without it and 4 with. Fat consolation that was.
Aww, how awful! Poor Elizabeth and poor you! Evie split her forehead open at 12 mos. I was glad it was “after hours” because that meant we could go to the After Hours Pediatric place instead of the ER. Seeing her held down and restrained while she was screaming bloody murder while they cleaned and Dermabonded the wound was truly heart-breaking. I feel for you. But at least no long term damage was done!
It made me think of what would happen if my small child had some sort of terminal illness that required her to live in a hospital or be in pain constantly. I suppose most parents rise to the occasion but I never want that occasion to rise to.
Ahhhh yesss! The ol’ emergency room. I remember it well. Between my two younger brothers and me we spent many a night there. Like the time when I pulled all the ligaments in my knee playing baseball. Or the time I got a hook in my finger and tried to cut it out with a pocket knife, or, my favorite, the time I landed wrong on a dirt bike - ended up with a hole in my right shin bone, 62 stitches, and all the muscle in my right shin cut out - to mangled to sew up.
The memories. . .ahhh, they are a flood’n in.
Hope this is doesn’t happen any more and if it does, it’s a long time until you have to go back. Still, it’s great to see a mother who cares.
Hey Cathy! I’m so behind in my blog reading these days. I’m sorry to hear about Elizabeth’s stiches. I hated the papoose when Trey had to have an earing removed from his nose. Poor little thing was so scared. Adam’s body cast was probably worse, though. I just hate it when they’re in pain and don’t understand what’s going on. Breaks my heart!