Today, I took two of my children to the ER within an hour of each other.
Magdalena split open her chin on Sunday when she slipped on the monkey bars. We left the ER with four stitches and instructions to come back on Tuesday to check the healing progress.
This afternoon, I took her in and they checked the wound, re-dressed it, and sent us on our way with instructions to come again on Thursday.
An hour later, I was on my way back to the ER, this time with Sterling. He was running with salad tongs (SALAD TONGS) and somehow fell on them and impaled himself in the eye. It was so bloody that I couldn't even stand to look at it closely. Jeremy wiped him off a little bit and said I should probably take him in to make sure there was no damage to the eye itself, and to take care of the deep cut across his eyebrow and down to his tear duct.
The parking spot I had vacated earlier was still open, so I parked there. The same guy checked us in. Sterling sat on the same bed in the same triage room that Magdalena had been on an hour before. It was surreal.
Two endnotes:
1. When I say ER, I do mean the literal ER, but it's not quite as emergency-y as the ones in the US. There is no Urgent Care here, so if you don't have an appointment with a doctor but you need to be seen right away, you can go to the ER. For us, the cost is the same as if we had an appointment with a regular doctor.
2. Looking back, I cannot recall ever going to the ER as a young child, or any of my siblings going, at least not for stuff like this. Either we were just lucky, or maybe we had these injuries but our parents didn't take us in??
Magdalena split open her chin on Sunday when she slipped on the monkey bars. We left the ER with four stitches and instructions to come back on Tuesday to check the healing progress.
This afternoon, I took her in and they checked the wound, re-dressed it, and sent us on our way with instructions to come again on Thursday.
An hour later, I was on my way back to the ER, this time with Sterling. He was running with salad tongs (SALAD TONGS) and somehow fell on them and impaled himself in the eye. It was so bloody that I couldn't even stand to look at it closely. Jeremy wiped him off a little bit and said I should probably take him in to make sure there was no damage to the eye itself, and to take care of the deep cut across his eyebrow and down to his tear duct.
The parking spot I had vacated earlier was still open, so I parked there. The same guy checked us in. Sterling sat on the same bed in the same triage room that Magdalena had been on an hour before. It was surreal.
Poor baby will be fine. The eye itself is unhurt, thank goodness, and the cut could use some stitches but since he's 15 months old (CANNOT SIT STILL NO NOT EVER) and it's so near his eye, it's not possible. So they glued and taped it shut (not with, like, Elmer's and Scotch, but with medical stuff) and sent us home with instructions to come back on Thursday to check the healing progress. Which I already had plans to do, with Magdalena! So thanks for making my life that much easier, ER.
Two endnotes:
1. When I say ER, I do mean the literal ER, but it's not quite as emergency-y as the ones in the US. There is no Urgent Care here, so if you don't have an appointment with a doctor but you need to be seen right away, you can go to the ER. For us, the cost is the same as if we had an appointment with a regular doctor.
2. Looking back, I cannot recall ever going to the ER as a young child, or any of my siblings going, at least not for stuff like this. Either we were just lucky, or maybe we had these injuries but our parents didn't take us in??