ER

Yep, the title says "ER"... not in reference to the long running NBC drama series, but in reference to the trip we made Sunday afternoon to Texas Children's Hospital's ER. This is a first for us, well for an injury anyway. Can you guess which child had to be taken? If you guess the wall jumping, couch diving, ninja fighting 4 year old, you're right. Truitt had be taken in for stitches by his left eye. Amazing how Aidan is almost 7 yrs old, and hasn't made 1 trip to the hospital (then again, he is my cautious child).

It all started on Sunday after lunch. We had decided to stay up at the church for an informational luncheon for the youth group & the summer activities they have planned. Yes, our boys are not old enough to be in this age group, but we so loved the youth while we were at First Colony that we have decided to work with them here at Memorial Church of Christ. (Now mind you, we just placed membership the first of April, after visiting the church since the first of the year so the events to be described make this all quite comical in my opinion.)

Once lunch was over, the boys asked if they could go play with some of the other kids that were in their age group (most of them had older siblings that belonged in the youth group) and we said sure... it is the norm here for kids to take off an go entertain themselves during these types of things. Not 10 minutes into the Youth Minister's talk about the activities for the summer I hear someone crying... I think to myself "Is that Truitt?" About a minute later, the door to the room they were in opens & I see Aidan's head poke out. This is when I realize that it is indeed Truitt wailing at the top of his lungs. Soon, he comes walking out, with blood streaming down the side of his face. "Great" is all I can think (am I a caring mom, or what?).

Luckily, Fred had gotten up to get us some more tea, and he got to Truitt quicker than I did. He carried him off to the bathrooms, stopping at a first aid kit first. I caught up with him there, and took him in the restroom to try and clean him up some so we could see where all the blood was coming from. It turned out to be a small cut near the corner of his left eye, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 inch long. Fred says he thinks we need to go get stitches, mostly because it is so close to his eye. (I hadn't really put much thought into it... I was thinking if we could get it to stop bleeding we'd be okay.) Several other friends had come to help us out, and brought a bag of ice to help with some of the swelling. We go find Aidan (who is more than a little grossed out by the blood... don't guess he will be going into a medical profession) and load up in the car.

As we pull out of the parking lot Fred asks me where to take him. I tell him there is a hospital just up I-10 from where we are. No, he doesn't want to take him there. So I mention SW Memorial, which is on the way home, and also Sugar Land Methodist... the hospital where both boys were born. No, he doesn't want to go there either. He doesn't want some "quack intern in the ER doing stitch work on his kid's face". "Where is Texas Children's?" he asks. "Downtown in the med center," is my reply. "Let's go there." In the back of my mind I'm thinking... the med center is where all the student drs are... it's where UT's med school is, along with various others, like Baylor. We've known friends in med school... they did their work at all the hospitals in the med center. Texas Children's is a teaching hospital.

Upon arrival, Truitt is asleep in the back seat, band aid on his cut, quite content. We go in, and I must say it is so nice to go to the ER that is catered for kids. I've taken Truitt in for illness at 3:00am before to Methodist, where it is very much NOT kid friendly. But here at TCH it is painted brightly & there are cute pictures made by kids framed on the walls. There is a TV in the waiting room showing kid shows, and the nurses all talk to the kids, not the parents. I must say, next time we have a crisis, I'm driving the extra 10 minutes down to the med center. The triage nurse takes a look and says that she thinks we need to stitches rather than the glue (a new superglue like stuff that sticks your skin back together) because of the location. We measure, weigh, and get the blood pressure taken. Truitt seems fine, more a little apprehensive of what is to come, than hurting. We have now found that we are the day's humor for the staff as "this happened at church" is in our file. They all laugh even harder when they learn that we are "new" to this church... what a way to get your name known.

We get shown to a room, where we begin our wait (I'm okay with this... it is the ER afterall). They have a tic-tac-toe game in the room & we play, & sing songs, & hang out. After a while they bring Fred & Aidan back, and then the boys start laughing and cutting up. A nurse comes in and brings them some crayons & a couple of coloring pages, and comments that he isn't sure the kid is really hurt by all the laughing that is going on.

After a while the dr comes in & she tells us that if he can hold really still, she thinks she can just glue the cut (yeah!). Truitt tells her that he will hold still, and she returns later with the glue pen & some saline wash. I hold a washcloth over his eyes, so she doesn't get saline or glue in them, the nurse holds his legs to help keep him still, and she is done in about 5 minutes. I feel pretty lucky that we didn't have to go with the stitches, I can only imagine asking him to "hold still" while they came at him with a needle to deaden the area. After we were done, the nurse brought us a couple of Gatoraide drink boxes for the boys & we were on our way out.

Monday night I took a picture of his eye, which is now turning a nice shade of black & blue. Later tonight I'll try to post it as well. He doesn't act like it hurts, and was proudly showing off his "glue" at church on Sunday night. He tells everyone, "They glued me like when I use my glue on the paper at school." Ah, yes... one for the baby book.