1st ER Visit

I never thought my first visit to the ER with one of my children would be with Avery, but it was. I figured for sure it would be with rough and tumble Will! But no, it was my precious little princess who required the first trip.

 Long story short, Avery had a little boo-boo on her leg got infected and we ended up in the Children’s ER to have it drained.  When we arrived, we were the only people in the waiting room so I was all like “Yes! We’ll be in and out in an hour; 2 hours max”. Yeah, I was wrong.  4.5+ hours later……

Plenty of folks kept parading in behind us and they all got seen first. Like 15 people.  Now of course I am very thankful that her case wasn’t urgent, but there were plenty of sick people around us with barf bags, masks, etc… and I was getting totally freaked out by the germs.  It is hard to get a 3 year old to not touch everything and to keep her hands out of her mouth!!!

Of course, when you dance, jump and run on the interactive floor for a solid hour, I can see why the triage nurse didn’t think we were an urgent case!!

Finally we were taken to the back and put in our own little room.  When I had to put this little gown on her, I almost lost it. Even she looks a little unsure of things in this picture.

The doctor came in and talked through the different alternatives for pain management and neither of us wanted to do full sedation on her if possible because the spot wasn’t that bad and the doctor thought it would be a fairly quick drainage and cleaning out procedure. We opted for a less complicated route of localized numbing, some mild anti-anxiety medicine and then laughing gas. Which turned into an hour + ordeal of searching the hospital for a mask small enough for her.

She looked so pitiful with it on. I think she looks so young in this picture.

She cried a little, especially when they did the numbing injections but overall, she was a trooper. The child life specialist who was in the room with us had her singing and talking to distract her.  The therapist had Sunshine standing up and dancing to distract Avery as well as block her view of what the doctor was doing. At one point the pain must have gotten bad because Avery jerked Sunshine out of that lady’s hands and snuggled right up to her.

But, Avery is crazy. Period. Imagine her on laughing gas.

Some of the funnier things she did….

We were singing “Wheels on the Bus” and she would yank her mask off and yell loudly at us for missing a verse (even though most of the time we had already done it!). "YOU FORGOT THE BUS DRIVER!"  She also started yelling Will’s full name at the top of her lungs.  And she kept screaming (just because she is loud, not because of pain) for the medicine she had been promised. This was well after the procedure was over and done with!

When she was recovering, she started counting (loudly…Avery is loud) and when she got to about 80, she went back to 40, jumped around a bit and then all of a sudden was at 100.  Everyone in the room was so tickled. I told Matt last night that I just knew that the doctor, nurse and child life specialist all went home that night and told someone about Avery because she brought a smile to the face of everyone single person she encountered at the hospital.  Even the staff at the check-in desk came around to the outside of the desk to tell her good-bye.

She got to have a popsicle when it was all over, which she enjoyed immensely. 

One of the worst aspects, to me at least, of the day was the lack of food.  Her original doctor’s appointment that day was at 12:20. I had told her we would go out to lunch afterwards, but I did give her a bowl of cereal around 11:00 AM to tide her over. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The pediatrician told me Avery shouldn’t eat or drink anything else because they might have to sedate her once we got to the hospital.   So after her popsicle, she also got a carton of apple juice which she sucked down in about 7 seconds flat. Poor little girl.  She really was famished.

But she was such a trooper…..she never once asked for food or drink the entire time. In fact, she was really quite happy the whole time. Dancing, singing, reading books and playing on the iPad. Kept telling me she was “so excited” about everything! Ha!!   Here she is enjoying some one on one time with me (and the iPad) before the procedure.

Luckily, she came home to jelly beans and a Cheerwine from her sweet daddy and loads of grandparent love and gifts. I think if you ask her, she probably thinks she had a really fun day.  The maybe 5 minutes of pain were long forgotten!

One pic of our matching bracelets. She was not a fan of hers!

Hopefully this ordeal is behind us and her leg heals with no issues. Thankfully it isn’t painful for her at all, unless you touch it or get it wet. Unfortunately she is supposed to soak it twice a day!

You know, it's funny....I was a little blue on Sunday night in a selfish way because the weekend hadn't turned out quite like I wanted. I didn't get a ton of "me" time, like a trip to DSW and more sewing time. We had several things going on that kept us away from the house and Avery especially is very into having one of us, but especially me, play with her right now. Monday was just a gentle reminder that new shoes aren't all that important right now (although momma really needs a pair of brown wedges!!) and being with those who love and need you is. You only get one shot at this, ya know.