round 2

Sigh. Yesterday was by all definitions a very "blah" day. It was raining outside. It was cold. The boys and I stayed in our PJ's pretty much all day (except when Ash went to school of course) and we literally had one of the calmest and most boring days you can imagine. The most exciting thing that had happened was our new coats from Old Navy had arrived and we tried them on! We ate dinner and went to church like normal and then in an instant our whole day turned crazy. At about 9PM, as the boys were climbing into their beds, Ash leaped for his pillow on the top bunk but overshot his jump and missed the pillow hitting his head on the wooden rail of the bed. Brandon was in the room with them and I was in the kitchen. I knew the instant I heard him scream from across the house that we were going to the emergency room. It's just a different kind of scream then the classic "he stole my toy" scream. I had just gotten in my PJ's as well and so while Brandon held a cloth on Ashtyn's head (there was a TON of blood) I quickly dressed and got Maddox out of bed to get him dressed too. We called a friend and dropped of Maddox on our way to the ER with Ashtyn. We were at the emergency room within a half hour. After the doctor examined Ash he told us Ashtyn would need 3 stitches. My heart sunk. We, as you remember, had just gone through this with Maddox about 8 months ago and it's so hard to see your baby struggle and cry as a doctor sews him up. Brandon took Ashtyn's legs, I his arms and a nurse held his head while the doctor gave Ash numbing shots inside his wound. Gross. Really gross. Once the area was numb we all held down Ash again while the doctor tried to sew up the cut. Unfortunately, Ashtyn was just a bit too strong for us and the doctor was unable to properly stitch up Ashtyn's wound. After a couple attempts the doctor made the decision not to fight Ash and instead sedate him to make the job easier. Before we knew it a nurse was in the room explaining a "concious sedative" and what the effects would be. Let me just say...this was the saddest and weirdest thing I have ever seen. The nurse gave Ashtyn a shot in his leg and within 15 minutes you could see that he was zoning out. I leaned over his bed and asked "Ash, are you OK?" His only response was to slightly turn his head my direction. He looked at me like he didn't know who I was and grunted. I also noticed his pupils were shaking back and forth very rapidly. I asked the nurse if he was okay and she gently explained that this was all normal and that even though his eyes were open he wasn't exactly in the room with us. Like I said, this was the weirdest thing EVER. After the meds took effect and Ashtyn had been hooked up to oxygen and heart monitors the doctor came back in to try again at stitching Ashtyn up. This time you could tell Ashtyn couldn't feel anything but he still tried to protest. This is where I began crying. As the doctor began stitching Ashtyn once again Ash puffed up his cheeks with air and began moaning very loud. It was as if conciously he knew what they were doing but couldn't move his body to fight against the doctor or verbalize any words. He wanted us to get away from him but couldn't make his body work. It was awful to watch. Within minutes though Ashtyn's stitches were complete and his wound was clean. They left us in the room with him alone so that Ash could recover from the sedation. We had to stay in the ER for another 45 minutes to allow Ash to fully wake up and then he had to keep some fluids down before they would release us. After Ash came through he did give us a good laugh as he explained the ordeal from his perspective. When he was finally able to talk again Ash looked at me, sitting next to his bed, and said with extremely slurred speeech, "Mom. I had a dream." I said "Oh! What was your dream about?" He answered, "Everyone was talking to me and I saw you there." He lifted a wobbly finger to point my direction. I was shocked and said "I was!? What was I doing?" His answer made me laugh out loud, he said, "I just saw your head and you didn't have a body and you had four eyes." They explained to us that because I was leaning over his bed talking to him while the doctor did the stitches that he probably just remembers my face and thinks it was all a dream. Luckily Ash remembers nothing else. We got home about midnight and everyone fell asleep really quick. Ashtyn is home from school this morning just to rest and to make sure no one bumps his owie causing more damage. I do want to thank Angie, the nurse who took care of Ash last night. I know she won't be reading our blog (we will probably send her a thank you note to the hospital) but she was the best nurse in the world! She explained everything they were doing in great detail and really put Brandon and I at ease. Also, when the doctor wasn't able to do the stitches with Ashtyn awake Angie stayed in the room after everyone had left and made sure we understood that "Ashtyn hadn't done anything wrong" and that "he was being very brave" but that "at 5 years old he is very impressionable and they don't want him to be afraid of doctors and nurses for the rest of his life because of this incident". She was just so calm and because she was that way it made us more calm. We were grateful to have her through the night! Pray Ash has a quick recovery and also that we don't have to use more sedation to remove the stitches. Yuck. We'll keep you posted!

(If you are a parent then you will understand this, but I can't post about another "Knight family ER visit" without saying that as I was sitting there watching Ash come out from under sedation I couldn't help but think that this month we make our very last payment to the hospital for Maddox's stitches back in February. Hmph. I guess when you pay off one medical bill with children another is quick to follow and replace it! Oh well. With kids, especially with boys, we're just going to have a running total with the ER for years to come!)