Payton and I are in the kitchen and
"SLAM!" I hear a door slam shut and Lincoln start crying. I head back
to Lincoln's bedroom as he is coming down the hall and that is when I see the
BIG gash on his forehead. Then comes the blood...lots and lots of blood.
I feel myself start to panic just a
little but then I hear Payton's panicked cry behind me, "Mommy, there is
so much blood." I snapped out of panic mode really quick and knew I had to
stay calm. I picked up Lincoln, grabbed a washcloth, started applying pressure,
and went back out to the kitchen for my phone.
My first thought was, "I need
to get Lincoln to the hospital, but how do I get him there and still apply
pressure to his head." So I called my friend, neighbor, and nurse to see
if she could come over and help me but unfortunately her phone was on silent
and she didn't notice my call. Next I called another friend of mine and asked
her if she could come over and help me. Fortunately, she was in her car with
all her girls already and headed right over.
I called Dave and told him that I
needed him to come home, that Lincoln gashed open his forehead, and I needed to
get him to the hospital. He said, "Call 911!"
I call 911 and they went over how to
control/stop the bleeding while they sent the EMTs to our house. My friend,
Jessie, was the first to get here. She took one look at Lincoln and said,
"Hey Payton, do you want to come to my house and play?" Payton was
ready to go. As Jessie was getting Payton into the car the firetrucks pulled
up. I was so glad when they got here. I hadn't realized how bad I was shaking
until they took over.
Fortunately, Lincoln was fine and
was just going to need some stitches. They said we didn't need to take the
ambulance and that we could just take him. Dave had called his dad who got here
about that time and said he could take us. So the EMT cleaned and bandaged up Lincoln's
head for the trip.
This is a picture of Lincoln after
he had been cleaned up but before the stitches. At this point he had been
examined by the PA. She had taken us into a room pulled back the bandage the
EMTs had put on him, then walked out of the room. As soon as she left the room
I looked down and he had started bleeding again. Evidently, when she pulled
back the bandage she pulled it open again...
Dave and I start frantically looking
around for something to put on it and couldn't find anything. I finally noticed
the paper towel dispenser hanging on the wall and pointed it out to Dave. It
was a motion activated one and it seemed that no amount of dancing in front of
the thing was going to get it to spit out any paper towels. It was certainly
funny to watch Dave try though. ;o) Eventually, it did spit out about 6 inches
of paper towel and right after Dave hit jack pot and found the drawer with the
gauze.
We ended up having to wait a little
while for the plastic surgeon to come. Dave insisted that we wait for one
instead of just letting anyone do it. At first I thought he was just being
silly, but after watching the plastic surgeon stitch him up I am glad we waited.
Lincoln was such a trooper, as long as no one touched his head he was happy as
a clam. Dave was so smart and thought to bring a Nook with a bunch of kids
movies. So Lincoln just sat and watched movies while we waited.
They ended up having to put him in a
papoose to do the stitches. Once they injected the pain killers he just sat
there and let them stitch him. But as they were injecting the pain killers I
wasn't sure the papoose was going to hold him. Kids are so strong.
He ended up with about 20 stitches.
I hope we do not have anymore calls to 911, this was the second time I had to
call for Lincoln in 9 months. Yikes!
Broken bone....Check!
Stitches...Check!
What's next?
