Saturday, December 02, 2006

Another trip to the ER

Katy is developing a love of hospitals, but a definite dislove for needles. This morning we were supposed to pick Katy up from my parents' house, but they called to let us know that she had fallen, cut her lip, and that it looked like she needed stiches. We had Mom bring her down to Marion, and Shawn (thank you!) looked at her. He advised that since it was through the lip/skin border, since she is a girl, and since the wound was on her pretty little face, that we go to the ER and have a plastic surgeon do the stitches. For the second time in five months, we went to the ER. We arrived around 11, and the plastic surgeon was there by 1. In the meantime, we (Mom, Stephen, and I) valiantly attempted to entertain an injured toddler in a room full of medical equipment and not toys. When he did get there, though, I experienced the worst feeling I have ever felt as a parent. The process to put Katy under anesthesia, according to the dr, would have been just as terrible as doing a local to put in the stitches. In retrospect, I have my doubts.

The nurse brought in a mini-surfboard child restraining device (see right - infant size). We had to put Katy on it and strap down all her extremities so that she couldn't move. She screamed and cried and gave us looks like we were killing her, and pled with us to help her escape this terrible place. The nurse held her head as still as possible while the dr numbed her and prepared the sutures. That's where I lost it. One look at the curvy needle he was about to stick through my daughter's lip was indescribably hideous. I felt like a witness and a party to torture instead of a mom who was helping her daughter not have a disfiguring scar. I recovered soon after, only to note that at the first stitch, Stephen lost it and couldn't watch any more. The whole time her stitches were being put in, she raised a royal ruckus, squirming in her little burrito sack, eyes leaking such large tears I thought all the fluids in her body were being lost. Because she was so agitated the nurse said that if she had a favorite song, singing it might help. Right. Like I can think of a song when seeing the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. Fortunately, Mom was a little more collected, and the two of us -- Stephen was too overcome -- rendered such Veggie Tales classics as "God is Bigger Than the Boogeyman" and "Busy, Busy." I don't know about Katy, but I felt better after that. I watched the remaining stiches be put in - six in all, I believe.

Katy is recovering now, but she has to go back for follow up visits every few months since scar tissue can take that long to form. We have to be extra careful with cleaning her mouth, and we'll have to be extra diligent with sunscreen this whole next year. In retrospect, I have a lot more admiration for parents who cope with life-threatening diagnoses for their children. I had trouble with a lip cut. I can't imagine their pain. May God help all parents. It's a big job.

Here are pictures of our Supergirl:

5 comments:

Amy R. said...

Thankfully, when Alex had stitches in his lip they put him completely out. I'd recommend not leaving her alone much for a few days. He pulled them out 2 days later at the sitter's after his nap. Ughh!

Anonymous said...

Poor baby! I'm sorry you all had to go through such a scary experience. Hope Katy heals perfectly!

Anon said...

Awww, I cried when one of my kids got put in those child restraint contraptions for the first time. They do look at you like, help me Mom. Glad she's recuperating.

Anonymous said...

I know how you feel with the needles. I almost wish they'd put Bekah in something like that when they put the IV in in July. It was hard to watch her struggling to pull it out. Glad we finally got to see recent pics of Katy, but sorry that it had to be because she got hurt!!

Anonymous said...

Its called a papoose. I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, but when I got bit my a dog and had to have plastic surgery they strapped me down in one of those. The Native Americans used them on their kids.