Saturday, July 5, 2008

Doing the Beck--aka spending time in the ER

Yes, nothing like spending a beautiful day in your local ER. Nothing like calling into work and saying I can't come in, my son needs stitches--and quite honestly due his traumatized past--both parents are needed.
So, I'm getting ready for work and Ted starts yelling at me--"Your son is bleeding" yeah ok that happens. "No, I'm not kidding he is bleeding BAD!" Ted drags Chewie in and there is blood EVERYWHERE. I put pressure on it and started checking things out--while Chewie is screaming at the top of lungs--making it that much easier. He fell on the deck and his bottom teeth went right through his upper lip and it wasn't about to stop bleeding. I call into work and say yeah I'm not coming in--feeling a little guilty--but they could hear Chewie yelling his bloody head off in the background. Off to urgent care--who HEARD him and said--off to the ER cause they are going to have to sedate him. When we got to the ER, the triage nurse called childlife because he was completely inconsolable. Of course, after we had got away from all the medical stuff, he calmed down. By the way, the University has a really nice peds ER waiting room now. Anyways, in comes Kris from childlife. She plays with him a bit, leaves, Ted comes in and after a while they come to get us. Chewie starts screaming at the top of his lungs and carrying on. He settles and then the resident (Beth Becker who is super nice) comes in. She looks at him in the middle of his screaming ( oh yeah he did a number on his arm too) and says yep stitches. To make a long story short, Chewie had to be sedated--which, since he is like Rauan in more then one way--took first versed(oral), then 45 minutes later, a shot in the leg of ketamine. All the while with Kris trying to distract him. Total time at the ER--4 1/2 hours and 3 stitches later. So, I worked--but its going to cost me $75 in a copay. I'm waiting on my frequent flyer points because between Bubba and Chewie--I'm going to either live in the ER or go back to school so I can start stitching them up!
I do want to say I sure am impressed with our ER, despite the fact that I work at the hospital and I know alot of people there. The nurse who took care of Chewie was awesome. Childlife--well, again they are invaluable. The medical staff was so kind and caring.
Now, if I can just get my children to injure themselves on a weekday when I'm not working. Yeah--pigs may fly, right? Again--frequent flyer points!! I'll post a picture later. Julia and Chewie now have matching puffy lips!

5 comments:

Maria said...

Ahhh... I'll never forget the words of a very wise ER doctor to me when Josh was there, "I'm sure we'll be seeing you again." And, sadly, he was right. Boys... they are a wonderful breed of "live life the to fullest" people. I'm glad it was only three but cringed through the entire post feeling so bad for you. Here's a hug for all of you!

Lisa said...

~Hugs~ But boys are still wonderful. I'd tell you that we've spent plenty of ER time with girls too but that won't make you feel better.

Steph said...

Sounds like a great time. Good to know people! Hope Chewie is feeling better. Haven't had the priveledge of anyone getting stitches yet, but Brandon starts Drivers Ed tommorrow, so we shall see. BTW, what hospital are you working at (yes, I know I should know). My brother Jerry's working in the lab at UW now.
Keep in touch - long time no talk!!

Hilary Marquis said...

Poor little buddy! There is absolutely truth in the saying, "Boys will be boys" isn't there? Tyler broke us in with the stitches by jumping off his bed just one more time after mom told him to knock it off...fortunately he managed to bang his face into the corner of the wooden train box just about 1/4in away from his eye! Super glue stitches rock! I'm still not sure how in the world Toby managed to break his foot while running down the hall with his brother. We really need to check and see if mom's of boys can get "frequent flyer ER miles" ;) Give him a hug from us.

Mala said...

oh no! Not a Beck! Sorry that Chewie suffered a Beck, hope he has a speedy recovery.
Beck's first trip to the ER ( a mere 12 hours after arriving home) they sedated him for his stitches. His 2nd trip for a-sewin' they gave the area some novacaine, his 3rd Beck was in a location that they couldn't use novacaine so they had to do the best they could with a topical numbing agent... I guessing next time they'll just give him a stick to bite on to.