December Drama (Long boring post where I document something for my memory)

December began with me returning from Florida with a bum, but mending knee, Jackson with a black eye and Miller with a cut in his chin.  We were all healing and trying to keep up with all the December  activities.  The first week I was back we had parties or activities on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday.  Phew! 

We made it all the way to Saturday evening.  As Allen and I were getting ready, I put both boys in our tub so I could keep an eye on them and give them a bath before the babysitter got there.  Somehow, Miller managed to hit his chin in the tub and there was no avoiding it… this time he and split it even more, and it was obvious that he really needed stitches.  You know it’s bad when Jackson can only say,”That’s a lot of blood!”  We were able to leave Jackson with a neighbor until our babysitter arrived.

On the way there I was thinking about the different trips to the ER or Urgent Care we  have made.  I asked Allen, “I wonder how many more of these trips we have in our future”  Hopefully any future ones will be for minor things as they all have been in the past.

Here in Nassau, there are two hospitals.  We have been told by those “in the know” to go to the private one, so we have.  It is kind of like walking back in time.  A time where gauze is just left out in the open and then used without much thought to the germs floating around.  I shudder to think what the public hospital is like.  An interesting thing is that here you pay BEFORE you get treatment.  And you better have a big limit on your credit card.  Otherwise you’ll be heading down the street to the public hospital.

Miller did great when we got there.  When the doctor evaluated him, he thought calling a plastic was a good idea.  Then we were then told that the plastic surgeon was busy and couldn’t make it until 10:00…three long hours away.  We asked if they could please, pretty please call him again, and this time they thought to mention it was a child and he came straight away.

It was all good until they had to give him an IV.  He put up a good fight and continued to fight for a LONG time.  While I love his spirit and determination, it is not always easy hard as heck when he has decided he wants out of a situation!  Eventually they were ready to sedate him.  I was holding him as he fell into a very deep sleep.  The doctor was saying that they only had 15 minutes until he would wake up, so he worked very quickly.

Unfortunately, the way that they placed the bed for the best lighting, I was stuck in the corner while they opened up his cut, cleaned it and stitched it up.  I looked a few times, but it is not something I’m glad I saw.  Kim Troyer, I’m glad you weren’t there!  He got inner and outer stitches because that cut was DEEP!.  Sixteen stitches later he was done.  See how his sleeping with his eyes a little open?  Creepy!

Then we just had to wait until he woke up and we could go home.  The plastic surgeon checked on him again before he left the hospital, and said, I think he is going straight from sedation into sleep.  Made sense to me.  It was night time, when he was usually asleep, he had pitched a royal fit for about 20 minutes when they gave him the IV and he was tired.  Apparently the Plastic Surgeon failed to mention that the the other staff there.  We had to wait about 3 hours, all the while trying to wake him up so he could talk and walk before they would release him.  On the plus side we were entertained by all the patients that show up in the ER on a Saturday night! 

Eventually they realized Miller was night night and no longer sedated, and they released him.  We got him home, tried to tuck him into bed and THEN he woke up.  He was mad as a hornet and wanted that bandage off. He made it clear that he wasn’t going to take any Advil and he wanted to be left alone to take his bandage off.  He and I spent the night with him trying to take it off and me pleading with him to keep it on.  I prevailed!

Monday we had a follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon.  He changed Miller’s dressing and checked his stitches.  When I went to check out they told me that I owed $1500.  Huh?  The doctor just changed his bandage!  Turns out that the Plastic Surgeon bills for his services separate from the hospital.  Oh, and they don’t accept credit cards.  Would have been nice to know that before going to the appointment.  Surprisingly, I didn’t have $1500 cash in my wallet and the clerk seemed astonished by this. I offered the $6 cash that I had, but they acted like that wasn’t acceptable. Whatever.  Transferring money from savings was the only way they were going to get anything from us! Eventually they let us leave, but not before they made me feel awful for not paying anything. 

That began a very long week of Miller being home with me all day and not being able to go outside, or get wet. Let that soak in a bit.  No bath= no dirt + no sand.  No way!

It was really hard, but we made it!