There was a lot of blood... but Nate had gotten Henry much calmer... he was still crying a little. But I could tell, we were in for it. So we headed to Children's Hospital - in what seemed like the longest drive ever. (It was about 12 minutes). After we got checked in, Nate brought Zoey home so she could take a nap and hang out with Grandma.
After the Doctor looked at him, they decided to call a pediatric plastic surgeon. And we were told he would need to be sedated. I think that was actually the first time I cried... I knew that was going to be hard.
We had a long wait, for the surgeon to get there, and for the food that was in his system to pass a little more. The nurse that we had was awesome - and kept finding ways to entertain Henry. He was a life saver for Henry, and my emotional sanity that day.
The sedation was horrible! I thought I had prepared myself for it. I had heard that when kids go limp it is hard... I was ready for that. I was not ready for his eyes to be open, but completely empty. Void of the sparkle that is always there. I really lost it at that point.
The surgery only lasted 30 minutes, and the plastic surgeon was awesome. He would have us come over and look so we could see what he was doing, and where the damage was and how he was fixing it. Recovery went fast too... Henry was able to drink juice pretty quickly, he even wanted to walk around - although he looked like a little drunk man.
The next day his face was swollen like a balloon! But he was in pretty good spirits. I kept him home with me, as he had to be watched for 24 hrs after the sedation. He was tired, and wanted to snuggle alot. I was fine with that.
The most heart warming/breaking thing - when we picked up Zoey at school, Henry and her had pretty my been apart for 2 days straight - she was so emotional, that when she saw him she cried. Can you even begin to imagine a bond so strong at 2.5?
A few days later it moved from overly swollen to bruised... pretty good shiner going on.
Five days after the ER trip we had to go back to the surgeon to make sure that it was healing correctly and that the stitches had de-solved. I walked in there thinking that the Dr. would say 'Wow- it has healed so well.' Instead he said 'Wow - his face should not be this swollen'. Crap. They wanted to make sure that there weren't any broken bones in his jaw or check. The Dr warned me that if Henry couldn't sit still for 15 seconds, that he would need to be sedated again. Crap again.
So, we had to walk to the other side of Children's - where I was giving myself a pep talk... I could do this - if he needed to be sedated I would be okay. But I did not want to have to go threw that. So, we got to the CT scan, where I convinced him that the big donut was going to take his picture. And bribed him with a chocolate shake. Then I proceeded to tell the most elaborate story I could think of to keep him still. It took about 15 minutes, but we got the seconds!
The boy was brave and earned his chocolate shake. And luckily the Dr called a few minutes (yes- on a Friday called to make sure we had the results) to say that he was clear - no broken bones!
One would think that with a face still healing, you would be a little careful - of course not! About a week later dude thought he could fly off the swings at daycare - and face planted:
He is completely fine now. There is still a little pink line, that should go away in a few months. But, don't worry, he still knows to milk it for all it is worth. When he wants something and we say no, then he will say 'it will help my owie. It hurts right here' and point to his lip... stinker.
No comments:
Post a Comment