My son took a face-dive into the street

[The Laughing Man]

Last Saturday, my son had his first serious accident. We were leaving my mom's house when he bolted from me and ran towards the street. I yelled for him to stop, but he didn't listen. At the end of the boulevard walk, there are a couple of short steps down to the street. My son completely missed those and tripped when his feet hit the pavement. He tumbled face-first onto the ground and got pretty banged up. He ended up with a good-sized swelled bruise on his forehead, a bloody nose, a scraped and swelled lip, and some other minor scrapes and bruises on his body, legs and arms. He cried at first, of course, but was calm and talking while we drove to the ER. He started crying and screaming when the nurse cleaned him up and when the doctor checked him out. (I think all that was much more traumatic for him than the actual accident.) Thankfully, the doctor didn't see any signs of serious injury and recommended that we keep an eye on him through the first night and to also have his teeth checked out by a dentist just in case. Well, he made it through the first night just fine and the dentist didn't see anything wrong a couple days later. My son still bears the remnants of the accident (fading bruises and scrapes) and his face is obviously sore (he usually winces some when we're cleaning his face), but he's healing just fine - and not just physically. I'm simply amazed by his resilience and ability to handle the pain he obviously must've felt.

[Solly]

That's good news Jinx.

Now for family anecdotes:

My eldest, 11/boy, screams like a stuck pig at everything, rolls on the floor and all.

Meanwhile my youngest, 2/girl, bounces off things, looks at the blood and carries on.

Children!

[themuzicman]

It's called a "face plant" in skater terms, Jinx...

Welcome to parenthood, the first of many such trials. Wait until you bring him in two or three times in a two week span, when they start asking you odd questions... :doh:

Michael

[mossrose]

I'm glad he is ok, Jinx. I'd like to tell you he will grow out of it, but.......I did the very same thing a while back......missed some steps and hit the cement........of course, I trip over the pattern in the lino on a regular basis, and fall upstairs, too......:doh:

Do you think it taught him the valuable lesson of "listening"?

[The Laughing Man]

It's called a "face plant" in skater terms, Jinx...

Oh, geez... Don't put that image in my head. I don't want him to be one of those skate rats (as I call them) I see around town.

Welcome to parenthood, the first of many such trials. Wait until you bring him in two or three times in a two week span, when they start asking you odd questions... :doh:

:eek:

[The Laughing Man]

Do you think it taught him the valuable lesson of "listening"?

I'm hoping so. He's still your average defiant almost-3-year-old at home, but he seems to be more cautious outside.

[elysian]

My son is very familiar with both the local ER and the orthopedics dept. He made it to age 7 before he had to go for an injury. He had his ear half ripped off by one of his little buddies at the sitter's. They were wrestling on the floor and the buddy had his boots on, and his foot slipped and caught on my son's ear. The sitter (who has several kids of her own as well as nieces and nephews around as well) basically cleaned it up and taped it until I could come and get him. He was busy watching cartoons and didn't want to go to the ER. The only screams from him were when he had to get the Lidocaine shots (they burn) so they could stitch it up.

The first time he broke his arm (later that year) we didn't know it for a week. He had fallen on the ice while roughhousing with his buddies and didn't want to get in trouble for roughhousing. He was using his hand and arm and it wasn't swollen - we thought it was perhaps a minor sprain- but we took him to have it checked when he still said it "bothered him sometimes." Both large bones in the forearm were broken, and he had to be put under general anesthesia to have it set correctly. At this time we were warned that he has an extremely high pain threshold and should be monitored accordingly...

The second time he broke the same arm we also thought it was a sprain- because he was using it and it didn't swell up- but I saw him fall so I made him go to get it checked and of course it was broken again, only one bone close to the wrist. He spent that summer in a cast and didn't get to go to the pool until August.

The dogbite was probably the worst injury he's had and it makes me really mad. My parents' neighbors had a sheepdog of questionable bloodline (he was really stupid and blind I think too because he kept running into door frames and walls.) Thank God the dog was at least vaccinated. My kid is not at all afraid of dogs, (still is not afraid of dogs) and he was talking to one of their kids when the dog came up and grabbed ahold of his right hand. The dog bit almost completely through the palm of his hand and permanently damaged the nerves that operate the forefinger and thumb. His worst comments were derogatory language directed toward my parents' neighbors and the dog. But he was far more calm about the Lidocaine than I would have been. That stuff really does burn the first few shots! Before the shots he casually chatted with the nurse the whole time she was irrigating the wounds in his hand (and it was pretty well mauled- to me it looked like burger meat) and only winced a couple of times at the Lidocaine shots. He watched the doctor stitch up his hand with calm interest which I guess isn't normal when you're nine. I must give the ER doctor credit- he did clean out the wound well and stitched it in such a way that it healed with almost no external scarring, but the kid has almost no sensation in his forefinger and his writing is nearly illegible, even with therapy and exercise and practice. I don't know if the nerve damage lessened the pain (the doctor said that sort of injury should be wickedly painful, and prescribed Tylenol 3, which we gave him once and he refused the next time because "it makes me tired.")

Anyway, welcome to the wonderful world of accompanying your child(ren) to the ER! It is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach (notice my husband does NOT go!)

Here's some survival ideas:

Know where your insurance card is. You'll need it. Be prepared to write.

Kleenex.

If you can grab something good to read, do. You'll be waiting awhile, and I hate network TV as well as vapid outdated "Suzy Homemaker" type magazines. Do not read the medical fun fact brochures or they will leave you wondering if indeed you have the seven warning signs of prostate cancer, even if you don't have one! (a prostate that is...)

Bring something to occupy the kid. Gameboy, and at least 2 game cartridges, is especially good for this.

Bring change. Quarters especially. After a few hours the vending machines will beckon. You will need that Hershey bar and Diet Coke. The kid will start screaming for candy. If it's an orthopedic injury or cut go for it. Candy will shut him up for a minute or two. (not for the "I barf easily" kid, or kids suffering from gastrointestinal maladies)

Try not to laugh at your child's observations re: your fellow sufferers in the ER waiting room. Yes, it is funny that the lady across the room has candy-apple-red hair and her makeup makes her appear to look like Bozo the Clown, but we are trying to teach our children empathy here. I told you bring Kleenex, if you can't help laughing, blow your nose, it won't be so obvious.

Have a sense of humor, because you're going to be there more than once.

[$cirisme]

Wow, I feel luck that I've never had a broken bone and have never been to the emergency room. :angel:

[Tfbandie]

I was a sickly child tila botu age of 3 i think and spent many trips in the hospital and porbably emergency room. But since then i've only been once to stich up my chin from a hockey game. But i didn't want to go to emergency room, but after I showed my dad the cut about 5 hours after it happened (there was no blood, just a few drops right after the cut) he said we should go, ended up needing 5 stitches, i was 17 at the time...

[themuzicman]

So that was what? Last week?

[$cirisme]

Wow, I feel luck that I've never had a broken bone and have never been to the emergency room. :angel:
Thinking about it, I will probably be cursed to have a son that goes to the ER every other week.

Drat!

[themuzicman]

Cir,

You have an obligation to pass on those smart genes to the next generation. You have to raise software developers that will continue the fight against a universe that continues to produce bigger and better idiots. :egad:

[$cirisme]

Cir,

You have an obligation to pass on those smart genes to the next generation. You have to raise software developers that will continue the fight against a universe that continues to produce bigger and better idiots. :egad:
:shifty: So, what, put him in a plastic buble so he doesn't have to go to the ER every other week? :hrm:

Actually, that might work. :idea:

[themuzicman]

No, he needs to understand the depth of idiocy that must be overcome. He must be in the world but not of it. He may even need to go Solomon's route and become an idiot while keeping his sense about him to understand it's vanity. (This will be known as the teenage years.)

It's OK, genes never fail.

Michael

[$cirisme]

His teenage years? :shocked:

He doesn't even exist yet. :shifty:

[themuzicman]

Just warning you ahead of time.... :no:

[elysian]

His teenage years? :shocked:

He doesn't even exist yet. :shifty:

:lol:
You know this is a corollary of Murphy's Law:

Those who should never be permitted to breed do so most prolifically.

The proof of this corollary is that those who should never do. This is why intelligence is a constant despite the fact that the population is growing.

:lol: (my apologies to those with multiple children...)