A day in the life...
Monday, October 13, 2008 by The Traveler
Well, it's official. I am getting to be a pro at handling crises with my family - specifically my kids.
Sunday afternoon was really nice (perfect) weather, so all of us were working on the yard pulling weeds and making it look presentable to the neighborhood again (hey, they were only 2 feet tall across the rock this time). When it was all done, the kids and I started playing basketball and shooting hoops out front, in the driveway.
Well, Derek made another lay-up, about the 40th one or so he had done that afternoon, but this time when he went off to a side of the hoop, ran in to a nice (rather large size) rock holding down the base of the basketball hoop, and then made a loop back towards the driveway hopping on one leg.
Mind you, when I saw what he did and how he was hopping, I already knew one of two things happened. A) broken bone or B) large cut/gash. Guess what - I was right - answer B - 1" deep gash to his right shin.
Well, let me tell you what happened next. Derek sat down in a lawn chair that was out on the driveway, looked down at his leg, and proceeded to scream, cry, and generally lose it (can you say he doesn't like the sight of blood?).
So here I am out there with all 3 kids (wouldn't you know it that Todd and Ken had just gone inside the house about 5 min prior to the accident) with one freaking out, and the other two starting to freak out because big brother was freaking out. So what do I do, I calmly grab Derek's leg, push together the leg muscle and skin on either side of the cut (to slow/staunch the bleeding), and quite calmly, but firmly call out "Derek, Derek..." until I got his attention.
It was weird, all of a sudden he stopped mid cry, looked at me, and then I was able to tell him to give me his hands, which he did after a moment or two. I took his hands and then I put them where I had had my hands and I told him to sit there and hold it. I would be right back. He did that and I went in to the house, hollered for Todd to take care of the other two kids because Derek was hurt, and once he went outside to get them, I went in and grabbed the first aid kit. Then I took and bandaged Derek up and we came back in the house so I could then find some kind of facility open (it happened at 5:45pm).
So I spent the next 20 min finding something open, hoping to save the cost & trip to the ER, and one office said they would check it out and let me know if they could or could not do it. So I had Derek grab a quick bite to nosh on in the car and we were off. After a bit of a drive to another part of town, they got him back in the triage area, where the dr. looked at it and said it was too deep (too many layers of damage) - plus because it went down to the bone, he'd need an x-ray to be certain nothing got chipped.
So I got my re-bandaged Derek back into the car and drove him to the ER (one w/a kids unit). We got there and Derek was so witty and funny. He was pointing out different things and was making all kinds of comments. My favorite of the night was when the nurse was doing triage he pointed out the smiling face pain poster - noting the expressions between 1 and 10 - and calmly, with a straight face pointed out, "I think I'm about a five. That's about right." It was all I could do (the way he said and did it) not to bust out laughing. I just said to the nurse it is so much easier when they can talk!
So Derek and I hung out for a while, the nurse and doctor checked him out and explained what they would need to do. When the dr. mentioned he would get an injection of pain medicine - he just about lost it (he HATES needles) and then be stitched up. So he and I devised a plan where he would squeeze my hand as hard and as long as possible each time he hurt. He squeezed my hand a lot, but he made it through the process - and he didn't even kick the dr. :-)
He got a total of 12 stitches, 4 on the inside and 8 on the outside. Plus he got to have an x-ray. Fortunately, the x-ray showed no damage or chips so all he had to get were the stitches. So after 3 hours at the hospital, I got to take my Derek home - well, to his dad's house and run over the routine and wound care. Derek was so tired (so was I), but he was glad to see his dad and show off his handy work.
What's funny is he told Louis, all happy and excited, that he was catching up to his little brother in stitches - and all I wanted to do was groan (I don't need a stitches contest between those two).
So that is how I started off this week. :-)
I hope it goes more gentle.
Me
Sunday afternoon was really nice (perfect) weather, so all of us were working on the yard pulling weeds and making it look presentable to the neighborhood again (hey, they were only 2 feet tall across the rock this time). When it was all done, the kids and I started playing basketball and shooting hoops out front, in the driveway.
Well, Derek made another lay-up, about the 40th one or so he had done that afternoon, but this time when he went off to a side of the hoop, ran in to a nice (rather large size) rock holding down the base of the basketball hoop, and then made a loop back towards the driveway hopping on one leg.
Mind you, when I saw what he did and how he was hopping, I already knew one of two things happened. A) broken bone or B) large cut/gash. Guess what - I was right - answer B - 1" deep gash to his right shin.
Well, let me tell you what happened next. Derek sat down in a lawn chair that was out on the driveway, looked down at his leg, and proceeded to scream, cry, and generally lose it (can you say he doesn't like the sight of blood?).
So here I am out there with all 3 kids (wouldn't you know it that Todd and Ken had just gone inside the house about 5 min prior to the accident) with one freaking out, and the other two starting to freak out because big brother was freaking out. So what do I do, I calmly grab Derek's leg, push together the leg muscle and skin on either side of the cut (to slow/staunch the bleeding), and quite calmly, but firmly call out "Derek, Derek..." until I got his attention.
It was weird, all of a sudden he stopped mid cry, looked at me, and then I was able to tell him to give me his hands, which he did after a moment or two. I took his hands and then I put them where I had had my hands and I told him to sit there and hold it. I would be right back. He did that and I went in to the house, hollered for Todd to take care of the other two kids because Derek was hurt, and once he went outside to get them, I went in and grabbed the first aid kit. Then I took and bandaged Derek up and we came back in the house so I could then find some kind of facility open (it happened at 5:45pm).
So I spent the next 20 min finding something open, hoping to save the cost & trip to the ER, and one office said they would check it out and let me know if they could or could not do it. So I had Derek grab a quick bite to nosh on in the car and we were off. After a bit of a drive to another part of town, they got him back in the triage area, where the dr. looked at it and said it was too deep (too many layers of damage) - plus because it went down to the bone, he'd need an x-ray to be certain nothing got chipped.
So I got my re-bandaged Derek back into the car and drove him to the ER (one w/a kids unit). We got there and Derek was so witty and funny. He was pointing out different things and was making all kinds of comments. My favorite of the night was when the nurse was doing triage he pointed out the smiling face pain poster - noting the expressions between 1 and 10 - and calmly, with a straight face pointed out, "I think I'm about a five. That's about right." It was all I could do (the way he said and did it) not to bust out laughing. I just said to the nurse it is so much easier when they can talk!
So Derek and I hung out for a while, the nurse and doctor checked him out and explained what they would need to do. When the dr. mentioned he would get an injection of pain medicine - he just about lost it (he HATES needles) and then be stitched up. So he and I devised a plan where he would squeeze my hand as hard and as long as possible each time he hurt. He squeezed my hand a lot, but he made it through the process - and he didn't even kick the dr. :-)
He got a total of 12 stitches, 4 on the inside and 8 on the outside. Plus he got to have an x-ray. Fortunately, the x-ray showed no damage or chips so all he had to get were the stitches. So after 3 hours at the hospital, I got to take my Derek home - well, to his dad's house and run over the routine and wound care. Derek was so tired (so was I), but he was glad to see his dad and show off his handy work.
What's funny is he told Louis, all happy and excited, that he was catching up to his little brother in stitches - and all I wanted to do was groan (I don't need a stitches contest between those two).
So that is how I started off this week. :-)
I hope it goes more gentle.
Me
Posts
Nice work...lots of stiches. You're catching up to my kids. We've had 3 dislocations, 2 broken bones and one set of stiches. I seem to be the most expensive one medically!