First (of many I'm sure) trip to the ER

It is good to be a boy. Sometimes.

Today, Christopher found out what it feels like to get stitches in his forehead. He was being a typical toddler, who didn't want to put on his shirt. I was standing behind him, Deb was sitting on the floor after getting his pants on. He tried to escape from me putting his shirt on, bent over at the waist and went head first into the porcelain garbage can we have in our bathroom.

Yes, head cut, so there was blood everywhere. We got it stopped, then loaded up Courtney and Christopher and headed to the ER. Surprisingly, this is Christopher's first trip to the ER and he is 2 and 3/4 years old (exactly today, weird). Both the girls were in and out for non-injuries like fevers, puking etc. But not Christopher, he's been pretty healthy.

Since it has been a while since we went to the Children's Health Care of Atlanta ER, we didn't know they moved the entrance. Took a few seconds to figure out where we were. Very cool thing they do: they have valet parking at the ER. So rather than having to find a spot, getting the kid bundled up etc. I pulled up to the door, took the ticket, picked up Christopher and went straight in. Deb got the coats, toys and Courtney then followed us in.

The wait to be start the process was about 10 minutes after we signed in. Not bad. Then 10 to 30 minutes between each step. Another nice thing: as soon as we were put into the examining room (after the vitals, paperwork and a regular waiting room) the nurse and doctor were there within a minute of us sitting down. Total time was about 2 and 1/2 hours.

We knew the gash on his head was going to require stitches before we even arrived. So when the ER doctor looked at him I asked to have the plastic surgeon on call come down and look at him. The ER doctor didn't seem to have an issue with this, which was pretty cool considering problems we've had in the past with the girls getting a specialist to look at them while in the ER.

Now the fun starts. They have to give Christopher a pain killer and 'loopy' drug to get him calmed down before stitching him up. Well, both tasted horrible, so he fought with the nurse, Deb and I to get it down. He then spit up about half of the dose. They weren't sure how much he kept down so they were going to come back in 30 minutes to see how it went. Before leaving the nurse gave me a gauze pad with a numbing agent and asked me to hold it on his cut. Yeah, that went over well. After about 5 minutes he finally settled down as it started working. Of course the medicine got all over my fingers so they were numb holding him.

Stitching him up when pretty well. I was about 6 inches from the cut watching the doctor stitch it up because we wrapped him in a sheet and I then pinned him down. This is one seriously strong boy. 5 stitches, with small thread and a doctor who was taking his time. Christopher was great. I could tell he was scared, but he didn't cry or fight once the wound was cleaned out.

Did you know they make glue for covering stitches on kids? Rather than fighting to keep it clean, they put a glue over the cut that seals it. It takes about a week to evaporate.

By the time we left he was starving (so was everyone else), so we got some fast food and headed home. Within 3 hours he was back to himself, running around, throwing toys, dumping out Lincoln logs, everything. One funny thing: I had shaved about 50% of my face before this happened, so as I was driving home I realized how funny I must have looked.

Well Christopher, welcome to the scar club. When you are older I show you all my scars and the stories behind them.