Monday, August 20, 2018

Scariest Motherhood Moment To Date

*Warning: Injury description follows*

Last week, Chad was away on a work trip, so I was in single parent survival mode. First 2 days went fine. As much as I hate it, we have found a groove for when daddy is gone. Wednesday is my normal work day and my mom-in-law babysits and that's exactly what happened. The exciting and terrifying part of the day was the end of it. They kids were crazy (most didn't nap) and I was just done with the day. We were just about ready to be tucked in, jammies were on, the last kid was going to the bathroom, everyone had taken their last drinks. I was heading to the girls room with a book for everyone to join me there.

THUD

It was a terrible noise. Immediately I knew it was the sound of a head hitting a wall (that's way more common in this house than it should be) but it sounded slightly different. I spun around in the hallway to see behind me just in time for Brian to collapse to the floor clutching his head, wailing, with blood dripping onto the floor.

First issue: I don't do well with blood.

For a half second I froze. Then I knelt down next to Brian and scooped him up. After peeking under his hand to see a sizable gash I reached into the linen closet for a rag and held it against the wound. For the most part I feel extremely ill-equipped to be the adult handling emergencies, so my next thought was "who is more adult-y than me that will know what to do?" Normally that would be Chad or my parents, but they were all out of town, so my next thought was "who is or was a nurse?" So I'm trying to walk Alexi through finding our church directory in my desk drawer while still cradling a crying Brian and applying pressure in the hallway. It didn't work, I ended up lifting him and heading out to my desk to find the number.

Phone call made, nurse on the way. Now to help calm Brian (making sure he never loses consciousness) and calm the two little girls who are about in tears now too. By the time the nurse arrives the bleeding has pretty much stopped and we are left with this deep gash on Brian's forehead. The suggestion is that I take him to the ER to get stitches so it heals well. All the crying has stopped and Brian even had to be reminded that he shouldn't run to the entryway to put on his shoes.

Second issue: I don't do well in hospitals.

I had said over and over that whenever our first ER trip with the kids happened, it would be Chad, not me going with them. Unfortunately, as previously said, he was gone. The girls stayed at home with my in-laws and Brian and I made the 40 minute drive to the nearest ER at 8:20 PM. From this point on, Brian had no crying and instead just talked non-stop to EVERYONE -- it was the most entertaining couple hours as we waited in the waiting room, triage room, and exam room through the different nurses. He earned quite the reputation and everyone was smiling by the time they left the room. By 11 PM Brian earned the gold star from the doctor as her best patient. 5 stitches later we left the ER and drove home in the fog.

Third issue: I hate driving at night and in the fog.

Made it home, Brian fell asleep right away in his bed. 5 days later he now has his stitches out and is as healthy as healthy can be. He has some residual anxiety related to it (aka doesn't want to leave my side).

It took me 4 days to finally break down and cry. That was terrifying.

God is good. He gave our bodies an amazing ability to heal. He gave some people awesome ability to learn medicine and I'm so thankful. He gave 4 year old boys an indescribable charm. Still working through some of my own anxiety related to it. But that's your update from this past week.

Mrs. Troyer

1 comments:

Unknown said...

I was reminded of a time when Rachelle was riding a bicycle down the gravel driveway and had a crash and big gash. Uncle Mike was at work at that time we didn't have cell phones and I couldn't reach him at his office phone. So I call our friend who is a oral surgeon and he said bring the kids to our house and take her to the office and I will Stitch her up. Very grateful I didn't have to go to the emergency room with her I remember the sick feeling asas sat there thinking to myself my husband doesn't even know what's going on. Glad everything is good now for both of you