our journeys: Granite Counter Top:1/Spencer's Forehead: 0

Super Bowl Sunday brought our first visit to the emergency room.

Twenty minutes before leaving for church, Spencer was standing on the barstool in the kitchen reaching for a toy just out of reach. One minute, he was upright, the next thing I knew, he dropped to the floor. The holler from the other side of the counter spoke of more pain than usual, and as he rounded the corner, the biggest column of blood I've ever seen was prepared to cascade down his face over his left eye. I sat him on the stool on the kitchen floor and pressed paper towels over the spot to staunch the bleeding. Peeking at the wound, I was horrified to see the large area of skin pulled back from the skull. Swallowing to calm the mounting adrenaline rush, I called Morgan over to keep pressure on the area (with strict instructions not to look under the bloody towel) and raced upstairs to find a bandage. I tore apart the first aid kit, thinking to myself that as two veterinarians, we ought to have something that would work! I was also calling Mallorie's preschool teacher, Tammy, to find out where to take this kid. She has five boys and I figured she would know where to go for stitches, besides the veterinary clinic where my husband works.

Did I mention that Chadwick was already at church for meetings?

Tammy offered to come get the girls. I declined, swallowed the initial panic, and descended the stairs. Spencer was still hollering and sitting on his stool, Morgan obediently pushing on his wound. The bleeding had slowed and I got it bandaged without incident. Tammy arrived on my doorstep with a smile to get my girls (bless her heart!) and I loaded Spencer and his blankie into the Pilot to head to the urgent care. By then, his sobs had subsided and he was willing to try for a smile for the camera.

The urgent care was between patients and we walked right into the small room for vitals and history. After obtaining his height, weight, temp, oxygen saturation, and story behind the bandage around his head, the nurse asked to see the wound as we prepared to walk to the assigned room. I peeled the bandage back. Stunned silence greeted the revelation and the nurse looked at me, eyes wide. "Normally I can tell how bad it is by the mom....you are really calm. Um, we need to head to a different room." By this, she meant the "operating room" of the urgent care facility. Walking down the narrow hall, another nurse smiled and said, "another one bites the dust."

The doctor took a look at his wound, snapped a couple of pictures, and let me know she felt more comfortable with us at the emergency room in case we needed to sedate him. I was concerned about a concussion but as he was showing no clinical signs of such, I crossed that off the list of things to stress about.

Now, this is one of the worst flu seasons in recent years. As we sat in the emergency room waiting our turn, it occurred to me that this was not the ideal place for two healthy individuals. I went through a large amount of hand sanitizer that afternoon in an attempt to keep us healthy and calm my mom-germaphobia.

My little man was amazing. The doc placed a gel combination of epinephrine, lidocaine, and tetracaine over the wound, left us for about 30 minutes, and came back to suture the edges closed. By then, the skin had blanched and nerves numbed. Using 6-0 suture, he carefully placed 16 stitches in the v-shaped wound above the eye. Spencer lay obediently on the bed, flinching occasionally and happily watching "Snow White" on tv. When he started getting antsy, an orange popsicle calmed the wiggles and the job was finished.

A nap, dinner, and children's ibuprofen improved his demeanor. He proceeded to throw a massive fit when we refused to let him jump on the trampoline in the dark at a friends' house...um, no thanks! Sutures were removed by a friend's PA husband 5 days later and it's healing nicely. He'll have a lovely scar to add to his manliness and I have a great story of the first - probably of several - ER stories.