A Long Night In The ER

***Warning - This post contains graphic pictures you may find disturbing!


About a week ago I had the nerve to make the comment to someone that thankfully we haven't made a trip to the ER in the five in a half years we've had kids. Cancel that.

Last night Brad and the girls were having some fun after dinner...tickling and wrestling and chasing each other. In just one of those freak accidents Mckenna ran square into the corner of our kitchen table. Despite the fact that it is a rounded edge the impact was devastating. It knocked her off her feet and threw her back onto the ground where she hit her head hard. I didn't see her face immediately, but Brad did and his hysterical reaction instantly panicked me. Brad is usually Mr. Calm and Cool and I knew it had to be bad. Unsure of where was the closest place to take her and frightened by the huge gash on her cheek I panicked and called 911. The police arrived in about five minutes along with my good friend, Melissa, who I also called to come and stay with Baileigh and Brooke.

I started to feel a little foolish for calling 911. Despite the severity of her wound, we probably could have driven her ourselves to the hospital. But the early panic, our lack of knowledge about the local pediatric specialists, the blood, and the fact it was a head injury I didn't want to chance anything. Once we arrived to the ER, I was so thankful we did make the call because they were crazy busy and the charge nurse just wanted us to wait in the lobby. Ironically, this was the same hospital where Mckenna was born when we were previously stationed in NJ. Our EMT's were awesome and became our advocates to get Mckenna seen more quickly. After they created a scene in the ER that included a verbal confrontation with the charge nurse and mutual threats of filing complaints, we were moved to the fast track ER and seen within minutes.
A CAT scan was ordered due to the swelling that was occurring in the back of her head from hitting it on the floor and because of the blood in her ear. Everyone was pretty certain that the blood was a result of run off blood from the cut but they wanted to be certain. A plastic surgeon was called in to do the stitches.

We waited for about an hour for both the CAT scan and the surgeon. Mckenna was fairly calm during this time. It was almost 9:00pm and she was getting tired. They finally called us from our room for the CAT scan. I was told that "since you have reproductive organs that are more sensitive to radiation we'll let your husband stay but you need to wait outside that door!" Well alrighty then...not sure if I ever want to use those reproductive organs again but I guess I appreciated her consideration. I stepped outside the door into an area with a few small cubicles that was deserted. I stood and waited. I was suddenly aware of a radio playing softly from the desk around the corner. It was a Christian song by Mac Powell called By His Wounds. The song was on the verse that says,

We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace, we are saved.
We are saved.
And by His wounds
By His wounds, we are healed

That was a surreal moment where I was overwhelmed by everything that had happened to my little girl in the past two hours and and all the emotions I had been stuffing away so I could help comfort her. I slouched against the wall and began to cry. At the same time I listened to that song and had an immediate peace and awareness that it wasn't playing on that radio at that moment by coincidence. In a few minutes the door was opened and my reproductive organs were invited back into the room to be with our daughter. I wiped my eyes and did my best to freshen up. Considering I was grungy from cutting the grass and working out it wasn't too hard to improve my looks. Mckenna stayed calm during the CAT scan and did well.
Finally the plastic surgeon arrived. After some discussion about the gash on her cheek he began to prepare her for the stitches. He started with a local anesthetic on her face. She screamed and cried but held still for the 4 or 5 injections he made as he numbed the area. Although this was said to be the worse part and it was over, she melted down when the first few stitches began and just became hysterical. Despite our best efforts to comfort her it was pointless and determined that she would need to be sedated. This turn of events meant another 45 minute delay as they had to hook her up to monitors and prepare the injections. In the meantime she calmed down and fell asleep on my shoulder. She woke up briefly to the pain of the 3 shots but fell quickly asleep as the medicine kicked in. Neither of us wanted to sedate her since it runs a lot of risks and possible complications...but it was really our only option and the positive was the fact that the surgeon wouldn't have to fight a moving target.

After his examination the plastic surgeon assessed that her face was cut all the way to the bone! From our kitchen table. Incredible! The muscle was torn, too. The stitches took awhile as he had to repair the muscle, the epidermis, and the dermis. Afterwards we had to wait another hour as the sedatives wore off. We were initially told she would need to be fairly alert in order to be discharged. We kept reminding the nurse that it was almost 2:00am and regardless of the trauma and the medication she wouldn't normally be alert at this time of night anyway.
Eventually we were given the okay to head home. Despite the risks associated with sedatives it was nice to have Mckenna knocked out for the remainder of the evening. We got home and peeled her bloody shirt off of her and tucked her into bed. I decided to sleep in her room in case she woke up from the medications and was disoriented or nauseous.

She woke up perky and seemed relatively normal but within minutes everything seemed to hit her. Her face is beginning to swell and her appetite is minimal. I'm trying to keep her doped up on as much Tylenol and Motrin as I'm allowed to help with the pain. We're scheduled to return to the plastic surgeon on Friday for a follow up. He warned us it would be a good 6-12 months before the healing is done and the scar starts to look like it will long term. He also emphasized the need to keep her from getting any sun on her face so it doesn't cause more discoloration in the scar area and her cheek. That will make for a fun summer!

But she is okay. I keep telling myself that. She is okay. I kept thinking last night that if we had been in a car accident and she walked away with this little scar I would be elated. But it wasn't a car accident...it was a fluke thing at home at I'm still having a hard time believing that hitting a rounded table edge after only running about 7ft. caused so much damage!

Mckenna is a trooper though. A pathetic and adorable trooper right now with a puffy face who could get just about anything in the world at this moment. It may have damaged her cheek but it is already evident that it didn't effect her spunk or enthusiasm! Usually I'll appreciate that...except when she is running past the kitchen table!