MARCH 10th - COLE'S ER VISIT

A few days after having a chaotic “moving sale” I was cleaning up the leftover stuff in the garage while the kids were playing outside in the driveway. All of a sudden Cole starts saying, “Oww, oww, oww, oww.” He said that another kid hit him in the head with a golf club. I told him to look at me so I could see his head and shockingly all I saw was blood gushing from his face. I gasped and then Cole looked and his hand covered in blood and started screaming uncontrollably. Then Brooke saw it and started screaming even louder. I didn’t know what to do and just ran to the front door to get a rag. It was locked and I just started banging on it. Nathan was already in Tennessee so I don’t know who I thought would open it. Then the kid that accidentally hit Cole came to see if he was okay. He obviously didn’t realize that Cole was bleeding because his eyes bulged out and he started crying as soon as saw the blood. I finally got a towel and the neighbor got some ice and started cleaning off Cole’s hands and face and then we took off.

I called Nathan’s parents and they met me at the Mansfield hospital just as they called Cole’s name. Brooke stayed in the lobby with Nana (thank goodness) and Pa went back with us. I was so relieved that they were there because this was my first big injury to deal with and I cannot handle looking and gashes and needles very well. We had to wait a lot during each little step but they did a good job. I had to take pictures with my camera phone since I stupidly left my digital camera on the back of my car bumper somewhere. They didn't turn out too bad.

We waited…
They got us in a room and then quickly came to take my co-pay.

We waited…
The nurse came and cleaned his cut and taped it up for the medicine to soak in. Cole thought he was pretty tough because he thought it was all over.

We waited…
The doctor came in and wrapped Cole up like a burrito so he wouldn’t flail around and gave him those painful numbing shots around the cut. Cole screamed so badly that it still makes me cringe just thinking about it. He was so upset and even more terrified of getting stitches. The doctor said it would take 10 minutes for the full effect.

We waited…
Pa asked the nurse twice where the doctor was because we were worried the numbing would ware off. We waited…
Finally the doctor comes back 45 minutes later. He wrapped Cole up again and I laid on him while Pa held his face. I turned the TV on to good ole SpongeBob and we both tried to talk to him to keep him distracted. I couldn’t even look while the stitches were going in. It took maybe 3 minutes and yet someone else had to come to give care instructions.
We waited…
A different nurse finally comes to tell us what the doctor could have easily done but I guess she had to get paid for something. At last we were on our way home. But wait, we couldn’t go home because Cole wouldn’t let me forget that I said he could get a new video game and was going to make sure he got it asap. Luckily, Game Stop was still open and Cole and Brooke were both able to get a “new to them” game. I think all in all everything went pretty well and I handled it okay but it would have been so much better for everyone if Nathan was there, too.