A Lesson Learned?

We had another trauma drama in our house last Friday night. While practicing inside with Ted and Jack, Elliot peeled some of the metallic tape (at right) off of his hockey stick. He crumpled up the pieces and threw them onto the floor. Theo crawled right over and ate one of them. Unfortunately, the tape was almost cellophane thin, and sticky, so it did not go down well. It managed to get lodged in the back of Theo's throat. He coughed, gagged, vomited and cried, but the tape would not come up or go down. After about 15 or 20 minutes, we decided to take him to the hospital. I knew that I would never make it driving to the hospital myself with Theo in the backseat in his carseat. I also knew that it would be impossible to mobilize four kids (one gagging and vomiting) to make a speedy exit. And, I was worried that the tape might somehow move and obstruct his airway. We called the pediatrician and 911, and an ambulance came. En route to the hospital, he managed to completely swallow the tape, and was instantly fine. They still wanted to check him at the hospital. He had a chest x-ray, and they x-rayed the rest of the tape (which was clear on x-ray, so most likely plastic.)

After a surprisingly quick and painless ER visit, I took Theo back home. His brothers, by this time, were in bed. Jack has always been worried about Theo putting things in his mouth, and was beside himself when Theo ate the tape. I knew I needed to reassure Jack that Theo was home and fine. When I took Theo into Jack's room to say good night, Jack asked me in all earnestness, "Do you think he learned his lesson?" I only wish I could have said yes, for all of our sakes.

Déjà Vu

(Written Monday.) As sometimes happens in life, we had the pleasure of repeating a not so enjoyable experience today. Mattie pulled the tape off of his stitches tonight. With it came three of his five stitches. So, off we headed to the ER. Again. It's really not a bad place to be, it's just that it takes such a long time. We end up sitting here for hours, for just a few minutes worth of work. But, when you have kids, you have to just roll with it. And so, I found myself sitting in ER room 5 with Mattie once again. We blew more bubbles, we watched more tv, we got more stitches. We even had several of the same staff people working with us. This time I had them put in nylon (rather than dissolvable) stitches, in the hopes that we won't go for yet another repeat visit. As we set out in the car tonight, it was already dark out. Mattie immediately started looking for the moon again. When we couldn't see it through the clouds, he said, "I think the moon will growl at the clouds. He will surely scare them away, right?" I should have known it was going to be one of those evenings as soon as he spoke...

Stitches

I love three day weekends. It's having that extra day - the one I feel like I always need, but never get.  This time around, I busied myself baking "Bakery Style Cinnamon Rolls" yesterday, and 4 loaves of wheat germ bread today. Ted sweetly, and as he often does, took all three boys down to Hingham for Jack's and Elliot's weekly hockey game this morning. I enjoyed a very quiet morning at home while Theo napped. I had just put the wheat germ bread into the oven for the second rise, when the phone rang. It was Ted, calling to let me know that the boys had won their game 9-5, and they were on their way home. Elliot, as goalie, had made many more saves than last time, and was extremely happy with his performance. (He wore his new goalie pads for the first time this weekend.) Oh, and Ted just wanted to give me a heads' up that they had some great plans for us for the rest of the afternoon. One of us was going to get to take Mattie to the ER for stitches in his forehead. Apparently Mattie was running around the lobby of the rink while his brothers were playing their game. He ran right into a door, which someone was opening from the other side. He caught the metal edge of the door right in the middle of his forehead.

The boys came home, and I took Mattie to the ER. Luckily, our local children's hospital is fantastic. My kids actually love to go there. I packed some chocolate milk and a special pretzel necklace, and Mattie went happily to get his boo-boo all "healed off". Besides being stuck there for almost 6 hours, we had a great experience. Mattie was a perfect patient. He happily watched a video (held right over his head by one of the Child Life specialists at the hospital) while they sewed up his head. On the way home he asked me lots of questions about whether his boo-boo would hurt again, and whether it was going to heal off in a few days. I assured him that the doctors at the hospital had fixed it all up. We were at the hospital for such a long time, that it was night by the time we left. Mattie was pretty surprised to see it was dark out already. We had a very cute conversation on the way home.

Mattie: Is it nighttime already?
Mama: Yes, it's dark out, isn't it?
Mattie: Is it time to go to bed?
Mama: It will be when we get home.
Mattie: The moon must be out because it's nighttime. Where's the moon? I can't see it.
Mama: Oh, it's cloudy and rainy out tonight, so I don't think we'll be able to see the moon, even if it is out. The moon is always there, but we can't always see it. Sometimes it's hiding, or the clouds are in the way.
Mattie: Do you like the clouds?
Mama: No, I don't like the clouds. I like the sunshine much better.
Mattie: I don't like the clouds either. The moon will surely growl loudly and scare the clouds away, right? I think it will.
Mama: Yes, probably. Maybe we'll see the moon tomorrow.
Mattie: I think we will.

After that, he came home very happy to be all fixed up, and clutching the new blue light up ball they sent him home with in his hand.

Click on any of the images to see them larger. His cut doesn't look nearly as open or deep in the photos as it did in real life! He got 5 small stitches hidden under the steri-strips. Oh, and he loved his pony tail. He called it a dinosaur horn. I put it in during our consult with the plastic surgeon so that I could use both hands to push the wound closed. He liked it so much, he didn't want me to take it out. You can also tell what a great time he had today by the look on his face in all the photos.