Our First Visit to the ER...Not Impressed

 

This picture above was the cause of our visit to the ER

It breaks my heart when my babies get hurt...

A few weeks back Ethan fell when getting out

of this wooden highchair...

What kills me is that right before it happen...

I was thinking...

I have to get a dang belt for that chair!

About a month ago Todd took over Ethan's old highchair

Ethan moved to the big boy wooden highchair...However,

this new taste of freedom when eating got the best of Ethan...

He soon realized that he could get in and out of the chair

as he wished...Which led to some frustration for us...

We were constantly saying "sit down Ethan"

But of course he is 2... so he doesn't pay attention to our plea.

Unfortunatly...

I was too late acting on my gut feeling to

get a belt for this dang chair...

Man o man!

So this is what happened...

I was in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner

as Ethan and Todd were finishing up...

Both Nate and I told Ethan a number of times to sit down...

And like I said...

I was thinking at that moment...

I better get a belt for his chair...

I was getting a little frusterated with Ethan not listening...

That is when I hear a big bang...

My heart dropped...I knew what happened...

My little boy fell out of the chair...

Both Nathan and I ran to him and I was thinking the worse...

My kids fall all the time but this time I knew he was hurt...

He landed on his hand...He held it up crying and saying "hurt"

The top of his hand started to swell and

looked limp at first glance...

And upon assessment he wasn't using it...

So off the the ER for some x-rays

My poor little man...







Ethan's hospital band...He wasn't too sure about it!





The hospital was so fun...NOT (lol)

I was told a good 2-3 hour wait...

Picture this...(cold and flu season)

A couple of kids with high fevers...

A father sitting beside me with his four year old boy...

His father told me his son has had a fever of 105 for 3 days...

105 really...I just held onto Ethan tighter...

I looked around the warm, infested room

 and I saw a few more kids looking very ill,

While taking in the sounds of croupy seal like coughs...

And of course by this time...

Ethan was back to his hyper little self...

He seemed to not be bothered by his hand anymore...

Even though he wasn't using it...

He seemed excited to be at the ER and not in bed...

Ethan wanted to play with the toys in the ER,

"Down mom"...He wanted to walk around!

Luckily I told the ER nurse I was there for x-rays and she called that in...

We were able to get the x rays within the first 20 mins after arriving...

Then we were told to wait in the waiting room for the doctor...

They quoted a wait of 2 hours...

I tried keeping Ethan on my lap in the waiting room

after the x-ray...But it was a struggle...He just didn't understand

why I wouldn't let him down...

After I knew I was going to lose this battle I thought...

Why do I have to wait for 2 hours to find out the results

I work in health care and I know that they will have to call even if I leave...

So after talking to the nurse and letting her know that I was choosing to leave...

I booked it out of there...

I couldn't get Ethan out of there fast enough...

I knew if I statyed luck would be me returning there

next week with 2 very sick kids...

With fevers of 105 and croupy seal like coughs.

I called the hospital the next day to confirm the results...

The x-ray was normal (Thank goodness)

However this experience opened my eyes...

Are health care system has a lot of issues...

This being one...

I wonder how many parents bring their toddlers to the ER

for similar reasons and expose them to really

terrible contagious viruses or bacterial illnesses...

And do not realize what I know and stay for the two hour wait...

It is next to impossible to keep a healthy two year old in your lap

without having them have huge melt downs...

And toys in the ER...Are you kidding me...

Parents come to seek health care for there children but

unfortunately often leave with much worse illnesses

brewing in there little precious ones...

Then it is past to the other children in the household.

Costing many more dollars to our health care system and

increased distress for the families that seek these services.

Why don't they have a doctor in triage for these type of cases...

Get the healthy kids in and out

Okay this is my rant for the day

I need to be more politically active...

We all do...

This is the only way to

CHANGE OUR SYSTEM






Ethan showing off his hospital band the next day...
He is showing the hand that he hurt in the last picture above

While downloading the pictures above
I came across this one from another injury of Ethan's
We didn't go to the ER this time thank goodness...



My poor baby stepped on a nail outside this past summer

in our backyard...It went right through his shoe...

He handled it well...But was not a fan of the blood...

I see blood and injuries all the time but...

It is sooooo different when it is your baby!

I might of went a little overboard wrapping up his foot...

But Ethan thought it was cool...

It healed up great...

Poor little Ethan!

He is such a BOY