Tales From the ER

Ever wonder what it's really like in the emergency room on a Saturday night? We all see how it is portrayed on television, but certainly there is a lot of dramatic license used in those shows.

Here are what I call, "Tales From the ER". When you're waiting around for four or more hours, lots of stories are shared. So, reporting from the children's emergency room at our hospital on the Saturday evening of Memorial Day weekend...

The first story was a very sad one. A young boy was curled up in the arms of his stepmother, covered with a blanket. His face was red and swollen. Apparently he had visitation with his biological mother that day, and she sprayed something bad in his face. It's hard to not get angry when you hear a story like that. But thank God that boy had his stepmother. She was showing him such love and tenderness.

Next I met a little boy who had an encounter with a thermometer. He bit down on one of those glass mercury thermometers, and it broke in his mouth. He was such a cute boy, with beautiful blue eyes.

Across from me for most of the evening was a mother and her teenage son. The boy had headphones on the whole time listening to music. I don't think the two exchanged a single word the whole time they were there. They both stared straight ahead.

A little girl came in with her parents. She told me that she had fallen off of her bicycle and hurt her arm. Her arm definitely looked bent, and I'd guess she wound up with a cast. She was so sweet, and was really handling her injury well.

There were two couples with babies. I don't know what was wrong with either one. One of them obviously had a feeding tube. Poor little thing. The other was crying a bit, and the young mother was trying so hard to calm her. I really felt for them, with infants in the ER.

Next to me was a whole group from one family. Teenage son, older sister, parents, grandfather, and stepmother-to-be. The teenage son was suspected of doing drugs, and they were there to get him tested and to get him help. It was really encouraging to see how the whole extended family was pulling together to help him out.

And then there was us. Me and Matthew. After dessert last night, Matthew climbed up on to a kitchen chair and stood up. He rocked it and it fell over. He hit his chin and split it open. So off we were to the ER, Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. Thankfully he did not need stitches, but they used Dermabond to glue his wound back together.

Everyone at the hospital was so nice. Others who were in the waiting room talked to Matthew (and his stuffed froggie!), and helped us with the long wait. The doctors were all so kind to him. It all made the four hours in the waiting room and the one hour in the exam room so much easier to bear.

So we have now experienced our first trip to the ER after almost 4 years of parenting. It probably won't be the last.

Now we just have to figure out how to keep Matthew off of the kitchen chairs!