We went to the skate board park this morning for Howie to find that it was closed, they have some funky open hours...7am-10am and then again 6pm to 10pm, don't understand the reasoning behind it, but we got there at 11...and I wasn't going to wait around until 6 for it to re-open...but I brought the camera. So I let the kids play at the little water park there for an hour or so.
We went home, we ate lunch.
I fed Coby real quick, I took a shower (I had to do a few loads of laundry to get my laundry caught up so I could do some laundry for a friend who has been in the hospital - 5 kids - and no mother to launder for them - it gets messy) So my friend dropped off a few loads for me to wash - I started a roast in the crock pot - fed Coby and jumped in the shower.
Got out of the shower, got dressed, and heard dishes breaking - and then Brynn screaming.
Normally I would not run in to see what the problem was, mostly I like for the kids anxiety to build up for breaking something they know they'd get in trouble for. But this was a more urgent scream. So I ran in to see what was the matter.
Brynn was crying, she fell while she was helping Kali unload the dishwasher - she was handing the dishes over to Kali who was standing by the cupboards putting them away. But they were having fun doing this. Brynn would unload a plate and "drive" it (like it was a steering wheel) over to Kali. Well, she bumped into the open dishwasher and tripped dropping the plate and then fell on top of the plate that she dropped.
I saw that she was bleeding when I picked her up and pried her arm away from her body and tried to take a quick peek at the cut that I could see - the part below the elbow.
It looked pretty bad, but nothing I couldn't butterfly closed...so I called for Rossi to bring me some butterfly closures from his first aid kit. Then I saw the rest of her cut and decided that it was beyond superglue and butterfly closures!
I took her to urgent care - down the street.
Nope, they took one look and freaked out - told me to go to the hospital - it looked like she nicked her artery. SO off we jetted to the Phoenix Childrens Hospital.
We went straight back & they looked at it (pictures 1 & 2 below;long shot & close up), put some local numbing stuff on it (refer to picture 3 below) took an x-ray (to make sure she didn't have any glass in it) and brought her to the sutcher room. So there we sat, waiting for the local numbing stuff to take effect, Coby's at home, getting hungry - it's been a few hours - and crying - along with all the other kids in the ER crying - and my milk started to come in (yes, it did, and I don't wear nursing pads) so I ran around frantic before I realized I was in a hospital and I could take care of the slow leak (insert gauze pads here HAAAAA!)
So here we sit in the sutcher room....this is where they decided, and in fact, attempted to anesthetize her (so she'd sleep peacefully while they stitched her up) - to no avail (anyone who knows my sweet baby and why I call her the "Grave Digger" would know why any form of opiates or even anesthesia is not effective on her, her dad gave her a blessing when she was just born that said something about how she will always be alert and awake - and that includes no naps and no drugs, I'm guessing?) (Oh, and the whole time, though, they're sure she nicked an artery because they couldn't get the bleeding to stop - apparently blood loss doesn't knock her out, either - she filled up a diaper with the blood coming from her arm - we used it to apply direct pressure & soak up the blood - and their gauze & other wrappings...)
So the next picture is her laughing while they were irrigating the wound...it apparently tickled her.
The next one is while they were stitching her up (yes, at this point, she's pretty doped up with meds that were supposed to knock her out...she's WIDE awake and talking like a drunk monkey). If you look toward the bottom of the picture, you'll see an extra "hole" and then directly to the right of that picture, you'll see an extra piece of skin - that piece of skin plugs up that hole...yah - yank it over to the right place, would ya, doc?
Lets see, the next one is of her when her daddy finally got to the ER, she was glad to see him - even though they gave her a portable DVD player and put her very favorite movie in - he held her hand and she was glad to see him.
And - oh I've lost track of what order I have them now, there's a close-up of the stitches - you don't have to count them, there's 16 there - and a picture with her daddy holding her hand, and then her favorite one - a picture of her licking (like a dog would) her hard earned popsicle.
Also I wanted to let you know that I didn't run back in the house to grab the camera while my daughter lay screaming and bleeding to death in the back seat of the car, I had it in the car from before so I could take pictures of Howie at the skate-board park - and left it there in the car, so I could take pictures of him at the skateboard park when we go back at 6 - which we didn't end up doing, since I was in the hospital with my babycakes.
(by the way - these first three pictures were taken by Rossi - her brother - who held her on the way to the hospital - I wouldn't let my baby lay there screaming while I snap pictures!)
Our first good look at her gash.
obviously the close up of the gash.
screaming while they put the numbing agent on it (look at that broken hearted face! Ross took a good picture, there!)
Irrigating the wound, it tickled.
Here's the part if you look toward the bottom of that picture (above) you will see a little extra hole to the left, and then to the right of the gash, you can see the piece of skin that belongs in that hole. Cool, huh?
All done "la la, daddy, why do you have six eyes?"
16 stitches
All done, just waiting for the flick to end.
The hard earned and well deserved gratuitous popsicle.