First Ever Trip to the ER

Considering I have been a mother for 5 1/2 years now, I feel pretty lucky that today was my first trip to the ER. But I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened and that day came today when a very excited Evan ran face first into a skee ball machine. He knocked his front teeth a little out of place and split his lip pretty bad. Charlie was on call at his hospital and I was in MA with my mom and sister watching my nephew bowl.

I called Charlie right away and tried to get his opinion over the phone on whether he thought we needed to take him to the hospital. We knew the ER wouldn't be able to do anything for his teeth but I was still a little concerned about his lip. We tried to call the dentist but couldn't get a hold of anyone. I finally got Evan calm and took him out to the van and put on a movie. I was able to get a good picture of his lip and sent it to Charlie (thank you smart phones and technology!)

The picture we sent to Daddy

At this point it was starting to look better and the last thing I wanted to do was take him to a busy ER loaded with sick people unless it was absolutely necessary.

Charlie called me back and said it looked worse than he thought and since he was working at the hospital today he said he would go down to his ER and talk to one of the doctors to get an opinion. Once we got the confirmation that his lip probably should be stitched we headed over to Exeter Hospital (since it was closer than driving all the way to Concord and that way my mom and sister could stay with me and help with David & Shaun.

When we arrived there was no one there and we didn't have to wait long. Evan was in good spirits checking out his surroundings and enjoying the kids area of the waiting room.

Hanging out in the waiting room

Angry Birds to take the edge off!

We got called into the triage area and then fairly soon after that they came to take him to a room. They gave him a coloring book and some crayons and we waited for the doctor to come in and take a look.

Following the nurse to his room

Waiting to be seen and being such a great sport!

Checking out the TV

Coloring to kill time

The doctor confirmed what the doctor at Concord had said about the stitches and confirmed what Charlie had said about the teeth. He gave me a couple options on how to go about the procedure. The pain free option sounded the best but it would have required us to wait at least 30 minutes before starting and he was already so tired and so ready to just leave. So I opted to have him get a quick shot of lidocaine which would hurt a little but would have him numbed up for the procedure in 30 seconds as opposed to 30 minutes. He was restrained using a papoose board so that he wouldn't move around and once the lidocaine was administered the doctor was done in about 10 minutes. He ended up getting seven stitches and orders to see a dentist on Monday and to limit all active play and running around to NONE!  Oh boy, that should be interesting!

In any case, we were signing the discharge papers in less time than it would have taken to do the numbing gel, so I was very happy with my decision to not sit around and wait or try and put him under.  Evan was a champ, he did so good and he was very ready to see his brothers and head home!

The shirt says it all!  What a champ!