Sunday, April 26, 2009

Murphy's Law States....

That whenever something major happens with my son (illness, accident, whatever), my husband is working and in the middle of something, so he usually can't get away to help. This was the case, yesterday. V and I had a great morning babysitting two of his little friends from my moms' group while their mother spent time unpacking and baby-proofing their new home. Then, we were supposed to go to our neighbors' house for a dinner party. As we were walking over to their house and across their driveway, which is concrete embedded with stones, V tripped (over his feet or on the driveway, I don't know) and fell. He smacked his forehead against the rocks in the driveway, and when he stood up screaming, the wound started bleeding like crazy! I dropped the salad and dressing I was carrying on the driveway and ran him back over to our house, which is just a short distance away from where we were going. After wetting a towel and cleaning his face, I realized the wound was just a small gash in his forehead. However, it was open enough and deep enough that I was afraid he might need stitches. I didn't know if I should take him to the ER at the hospital where B was working, or if I should take him to the much closer Promptcare. After calling and getting through to B, I decided to just take V to Promptcare, even though B volunteered to look at him himself. B was in the middle of a delivery, and I didn't want to take him away from his work, so I rushed V over to the closest Promptcare (after giving my neighbors the salad and dressing I'd left on their driveway, still in one piece, thank God!, and explaining what was going on), all the while making sure he didn't fall asleep on me. I found out later that it would have been fine if he fell asleep; it's only when a person has had a concussion that you want them to stay awake. The ladies at Promptcare were all super nice, from the receptionists to the nurses to the doctor. I think it helped that we'd been there before on Halloween, when V dropped the pizza stone on his toe. There was very little paperwork for me to do, and we were taken back to an exam room very quickly, at least, within ten minutes of getting there. V fought and screamed the moment we went back, when they tried to weigh him and get his vitals, while the nurse and an assistant cleaned his wound, and when the doctor came in to look at it. She said we could do stitches or Dermabond, and even though she asked me which one I wanted done, I think she had already pretty much decided the Dermabond was the way to go. It's a liquid skin adhesive that basically helps glue the edges of a wound together. It's clear, so you can still see the wound through it after it's applied. Plus, you don't need to numb the wound site to apply it, which means, no shots! It took me holding V's hands, the nurse holding the rest of him down, and the doctor standing over us to get the Dermabond on his forehead, but she managed to get it done quickly. Once it was over, there was a little more screaming while she tried to check his pupils, his ears for bleeding, his back for any other injuries, and his lungs. The doctor was amazing (she told me she had a grandchild his age), and she used stickers to make sure he was coherent by asking him the names of the characters on the stickers. Then, she held them away from him and moved them to watch his eye movements and pupils. Once she was sure he was just fine, she wrote me up some instructions for wound care and head injuries, and we were done! Both V and I were glad to leave and go home. We changed our clothes, since we were both covered in his blood still. I noticed, then, that he had really scratched up his face around his right eye under the forehead wound. We went ahead and walked back over to our neighbors' house, anyway. Luckily, they hadn't started dinner yet, even though it was over an hour later than when it was supposed to start. The other family that was coming for it had to come late, too, so we were all able to relax and let the kids play before we sat down to eat. The evening ended on such a lighter and happier note than it started, even though B never made it to the dinner. He was able to come home after the delivery, and amazingly, he didn't have any calls during the night! It was nice to be able to sleep all night long. V fell asleep in my lap almost as soon as we sat down on our couch after the party, he was so worn out from the day. Now, we're just hanging out in the family room watching some TV. We haven't had a good, relaxing morning in a while, and it's nice to be able to sit in our PJs for a bit. The day looks like it's going to be a beautiful one, and I hope to get him outside to play, maybe even at one of our local parks. I'm a little nervous about getting him out in public with his fresh head injury, since it's very noticeable through the Dermabond. Oh, well. I guess if anyone has any questions, they can always ask me. Kids have accidents all the time, and even though I was upset that it happened, it's just one of those things. Luckily, it wasn't any worse than it was. This coming Friday, B and I leave for Chicago for a few days, while my parents watch V for us. I'm really looking forward to a mini-vacation free of stress and kids for a while! ;) I love my son, but I think we need a break from each other. I'm sure I'll miss him while we're apart, and we're going to spend the end of the week with his other grandparents in Gatlinburg, so we'll have plenty of opportunities to have fun as a family over B's week long vacation.
Before I go, here's a pic of the morning after V's accident. Yeah, it ain't pretty!

Hope you're all having a better weekend than we've had!
Best,
Amanda

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

I just realized it's been a while since I posted here. We've been busy, especially with traveling over the past few weekends. We're still not done, either! This weekend was Easter at my in-laws', which was so much fun! Next weekend, we're going to spend some time near Louisville with our college friends at "Thunder Over Louisville", a super awesome, super LOUD fireworks display that kicks off the festival leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The next weekend, we'll be close to home because B will be on-call, but the first weekend of May, he and I will be going to Chicago for five days ALONE for the annual national OB/GYN conference. V's going to stay with my parents while we're away, and I think everyone is going to have fun in their respective locations. I've already made reservations for an awesome restaurant called Moto, which specializes in molecular gastronomy (think "high-tech" and "chemistry" meet "food"). Should be lots of fun, especially from what I've heard from people who've been there. I've also been looking into other restaurants close to our hotel, the shopping on the Magnificent Mile, and the spa at our hotel! I'm hoping to spend one morning getting pampered with a massage, facial, and whatever else I can dream up. If you can't tell, I'm really looking forward to it, especially the ability to sleep in! Since we put V on his new bedtime routine, he's been waking up earlier in the morning. However, I've not been going to bed any earlier at night. I know I must change that, but it can be hard, especially when I'm in the middle of a great sewing project! Anyway, here are some Easter photos from the past week to make up for the lack of recent posting. Hope you all had a great weekend!
Amanda