ER visit/Story

Whelp - just had my very first ER visit with a child. Could have been waaay worse, considering the hospital we took him too only hands out nightmare stories of all night waiting for doctors to do nothing. (That's Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids for those of you who have also heard the tales of terror.) Anywho, I digress.

My 4 year old and I went to school to pick up the 8 year old. Afterwards, we all congregate on the playground so our childrens can play. Today, PJ (my 4 year old) went down the fireman poll. His friend, Isaac went down after him (thinking PJ had moved out of the way). Isaac's mouth connected with PJ's skull and massive bleeding started. Holy crap, there was a ton a blood. Bright red stuff just pumping out of his little noggin. And poor Isaac was missing a tooth. We made sure the tooth wasn't still embedded into PJ's skull while someone called 911.

Even tho the hospital is a mere THREE blocks away, it still took it 15 minutes for it to arrive. (How's THAT for service?) We even called 911 back to ask where it was - cuz, ya know CHILDREN were hurt.

The bleeding was stopped, the tooth (top, front Adult tooth, or Central Incisor for all you dental nerds) was placed in some milk and ice packs positioned. The EMT checked PJ and couldn't find the cut due to too much blood. She said since he wasn't hurt in any other way or had blacked out that I could take him to the ER in the car.

Mind you, this whole time, Emrick was standing about 10 feet away pulling his hair and screaming: HE'S GONNA DIE! I DON'T WANT TO SAY GOOD-BYE TO PJ! I DON'T WANT HIM TO DIE! At this point, I had to leave PJ in the hands of some of the school staff so I could calm Em down. Poor kid.

OK, so Mike picked up Em and I took PJ to the ER. Isaac and his mom were before us. So all I had to really tell everyone was the PJ was the Head to the missing Tooth. :D We went back into Triage and they cleaned him up good. We found THREE perfect teeth marks from Isaac, the middle being the one that bled so much. We then waited for about 45 min while the doc worked on Isaac's tooth. Which I didn't mind. Ended up turning the boob-tube on for PJ to distract him. The doc came in, looked at the cut, and glued him up on the spot. Nice and simple. (So much better than having to deal with a knocked out tooth, I tell you.) Also, waiting did much for PJ's recovery. By the end I was ready to duct tape him to the bed he was bouncing off the walls like his old self again.

We were given a 3 day prescription for antibiotics because this was considered a "biting case" and human saliva was involved. But that was it. I took him home. Gave him a bath to remove blood and dirt - and then we all went out and had Chinese.

And poor Isaac (who is 8, by the way, and twice the size of PJ). He kept asking PJ for forgiveness and telling his mom he didn't want to go to jail cuz it was only an accident. After the ER doc got his tooth back in they still are going to have to deal with an oral surgeon. I'm thankful that we don't have to deal with that.