The day started out great. Sophie woke up at 6:00am and but immediately went back to sleep until 8:15am. She is such a snuggle bug. I love that about her. She woke up in a great mood which has been unusual for her these last couple of days with her stuffy nose. I gave her a bottle and she drank it up and played around a bit with no crabbiness. Then I put her in her highchair for breakfast. She ate great. She had about 10 drop seizures in the morning which is about average. So after she ate breakfast I turned on a video in the living room for her to watch and went to the kitchen to make some coffee and eat breakfast. Before I even made it to the coffee pot, I heard Sophie fall and she started crying. She had her helmet on so I did not think it would be anything serious. I picked her up and she had a glob of red stuff on her eyebrow. I looked at it and wondered what it was. It was thick and did not seem like blood. Then all of the sudden it started running down her face and into her eye and then I realized she was bleeding. I grabbed a tissue and started soaking the blood up. It did not seem like it was going to stop. I started crying hysterically overwhelmed with guilt and then immediately called Uncle Jason (who is a nurse) and asked him to come over. He rushed over but luckily by then the bleeding had stopped for the most part and I had calmed down a bit. Sophie, being the trooper that she is, immediately lit up when Jason walked in the door and gave him big smiles. He took a look at it and said that it would probably need stitches and recommended that I take Sophie to the emergency room at Children's Hospital. I packed the diaper bag and off we went. We arrived around 10:30am and Grandma Debbie met us up there. I am so thankful she came because it turned out to be a very long day. After 2 sets of stitches (the first set popped out) and begging the nurse to unhook her, we finally arrived home at 5pm. Sophie looks like our little boxer with 5 stitches about her left eye and an old scar on her left cheek.
The painful details of our emergency room visit...
As we were the only ones in the waiting room at the time, Sophie was admitted into the hospital within 20 minutes. The resident doctor "RD" came in and took a look at it. She said that it did not look too bad and that it probably would not need any stitches or Dermabond but that she has been wrong before. Then the RD came back in with her supervising doctor "SD". The SD decided that Sophie would need stitches since the skin was spread too far apart and she could not squeeze it close enough together to use Dermabond. The SD said that Sophie would need stitches in order for the cut to heal properly and that stitches would give the best results to minimize scarring in this situation. The SD also said that Sophie would need to be sedated for the procedure and that we would need to wait 30 minutes before we could sedate her so that her stomach could settle from breakfast. Sophie was so exhausted by this point that she fell asleep as soon as the SD walked out of the room. Then shortly after that another doctor came in to talk about the sedation. Sophie was to be sedated with a drug that would be administer through an IV. The drug would not put Sophie completely under but that she would not be conscious enough to remember anything. Then shortly after that a nurse came in to start the IV and hook her up to various machines (pulse monitor on her toe and 3 leads on her chest). Sophie barely woke up for the IV. By this time, 30 minutes had passed and I thought this was going great. I thought they would come in and sedate her and stitch her up without her even waking up. Well another 30 minutes went by and still no stitches. Then another 30 minutes went by and still no stitches. By this time Sophie was wide awake. All the while they kept saying it would be soon and that they were just getting the team together. Sophie was all over the place with nowhere to go considering she was all hooked up in a small room. We did not even have a crib to put her in. Sophie was passed back and forth between Grandma and me trying to entertain her the best we could. Finally, the team was assembled. The RD was to do the stitching with the SD watching closely, the other doctor came back for the sedation (no anesthesiologist required), and a nurse to chart the events. Everything was going smoothly. Sophie would squirm a bit every time the stitching needle went in but you could tell she was not in pain. Finally, they were done and I walked over to Sophie. I looked at her head and thought it did not look much better. Then Debbie walked over and said it looked the same. Then the SD looked at it and said that the stitches popped out!!! So there I was holding Sophie's arms down while the SD went to get another sterile kit and the other doctor went to get additional sedation. The SD said it was fine if I wanted to stand there and hold Sophie down but that there were going to be needles. No problem as I held Sophie down for over 10 weeks while Brandon gave Sophie a shot in the leg with a pretty big needle on a daily basis. That little hook they used to stitch with was nothing compared to that. So there I was holding Sophie down in this very warm little room while there was blood running down her face and into her hair as they shot her up with more litacaine and started stitching her back up. If you would have asked me a year ago if I could have done that, there would have been no way. It is amazing how much a child will change you. Well, this time the stitches held and they put Dermabond over the stitches as extra precaution. After 30 minutes, Sophie woke back up and was so thirsty. She downed 2 sippy cups full of water and some apple juice. After that she was ready to go but they wanted to observe her for 30 more minutes. So again, Debbie and I passed her back and forth and tried to entertain her. After the 30 minutes were up, I tracked down the nurse to unhook everything and to discharge her. She decided Sophie needed another 10 minutes of observation. Why? I am not sure as Sophie was full of energy and ready to just get down and play. So another 20 minutes went by and I tracked down the nurse again. She said Sophie needed another 10 minutes of observation. We complied. After 10 minutes, I found her again and begged her to let us go. She complied and we were finally on our way home. When we got home, I was scared to put Sophie down. I think I will be for the next several days. I cannot imagine what a drop seizure onto those stitches would feel like. I can only imagine what it must feel like for Sophie to go through everything she does and yet she is so resilient and happy (for the most part).
The painful details of our emergency room visit...
As we were the only ones in the waiting room at the time, Sophie was admitted into the hospital within 20 minutes. The resident doctor "RD" came in and took a look at it. She said that it did not look too bad and that it probably would not need any stitches or Dermabond but that she has been wrong before. Then the RD came back in with her supervising doctor "SD". The SD decided that Sophie would need stitches since the skin was spread too far apart and she could not squeeze it close enough together to use Dermabond. The SD said that Sophie would need stitches in order for the cut to heal properly and that stitches would give the best results to minimize scarring in this situation. The SD also said that Sophie would need to be sedated for the procedure and that we would need to wait 30 minutes before we could sedate her so that her stomach could settle from breakfast. Sophie was so exhausted by this point that she fell asleep as soon as the SD walked out of the room. Then shortly after that another doctor came in to talk about the sedation. Sophie was to be sedated with a drug that would be administer through an IV. The drug would not put Sophie completely under but that she would not be conscious enough to remember anything. Then shortly after that a nurse came in to start the IV and hook her up to various machines (pulse monitor on her toe and 3 leads on her chest). Sophie barely woke up for the IV. By this time, 30 minutes had passed and I thought this was going great. I thought they would come in and sedate her and stitch her up without her even waking up. Well another 30 minutes went by and still no stitches. Then another 30 minutes went by and still no stitches. By this time Sophie was wide awake. All the while they kept saying it would be soon and that they were just getting the team together. Sophie was all over the place with nowhere to go considering she was all hooked up in a small room. We did not even have a crib to put her in. Sophie was passed back and forth between Grandma and me trying to entertain her the best we could. Finally, the team was assembled. The RD was to do the stitching with the SD watching closely, the other doctor came back for the sedation (no anesthesiologist required), and a nurse to chart the events. Everything was going smoothly. Sophie would squirm a bit every time the stitching needle went in but you could tell she was not in pain. Finally, they were done and I walked over to Sophie. I looked at her head and thought it did not look much better. Then Debbie walked over and said it looked the same. Then the SD looked at it and said that the stitches popped out!!! So there I was holding Sophie's arms down while the SD went to get another sterile kit and the other doctor went to get additional sedation. The SD said it was fine if I wanted to stand there and hold Sophie down but that there were going to be needles. No problem as I held Sophie down for over 10 weeks while Brandon gave Sophie a shot in the leg with a pretty big needle on a daily basis. That little hook they used to stitch with was nothing compared to that. So there I was holding Sophie down in this very warm little room while there was blood running down her face and into her hair as they shot her up with more litacaine and started stitching her back up. If you would have asked me a year ago if I could have done that, there would have been no way. It is amazing how much a child will change you. Well, this time the stitches held and they put Dermabond over the stitches as extra precaution. After 30 minutes, Sophie woke back up and was so thirsty. She downed 2 sippy cups full of water and some apple juice. After that she was ready to go but they wanted to observe her for 30 more minutes. So again, Debbie and I passed her back and forth and tried to entertain her. After the 30 minutes were up, I tracked down the nurse to unhook everything and to discharge her. She decided Sophie needed another 10 minutes of observation. Why? I am not sure as Sophie was full of energy and ready to just get down and play. So another 20 minutes went by and I tracked down the nurse again. She said Sophie needed another 10 minutes of observation. We complied. After 10 minutes, I found her again and begged her to let us go. She complied and we were finally on our way home. When we got home, I was scared to put Sophie down. I think I will be for the next several days. I cannot imagine what a drop seizure onto those stitches would feel like. I can only imagine what it must feel like for Sophie to go through everything she does and yet she is so resilient and happy (for the most part).
3 comments:
Bet she looks like a little boxer with stitches above her eye and her helmet on. And I don't even need to see the pictures to know that she just keeps on smiling!! I think she's your own little Rocky!! No matter what...nothing is going to stop her!!
Hope the Easter Bunny is extra good to her this weekend.
Love,
Aunt Barb
you are an incredible mom and sophie is so lucky to have u. u have a lot on your plate elaine, so remember to make some alone time for yourself... take a bath, a retreat for a weekend, whatever... it will be healthy for both you and sophie. it's so good to hear from you. i never stop thinking of you. PS (i passed out as soon as they were done with rachel's stitches in her head when she was six and nearly pulled her off the table)
jeannine
Great work.
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