I'm sure everyone out there has had one too many ER visits in their life. They are scary, nerve racking and frustrating. Especially when they take forever! No one wants to have to wait in the lobby of any Emergency Room for three hours, but doing so with a very active 2 year old is just torture!
Especially when the one needing to see the doctor is that said 2 year old who is bleeding into his mouth from a large flap on his lip that has been ripped open thanks to a fight he had with the coffee table that he lost. We are talking about actual blood. That, as you can see from the picture below, is covering the front of his shirt. But apparently the triage nurse didn't think it was that important and he would be okay because we were forced to sit in a waiting room that was getting increasingly more crowded. Now we were told we would be "fast tracked", but after a four and a half hour wait I would definitely hate to see those that were not fast tracked! Bring a sleepin bag and a cooler cause youst gonna be waitin' awhile.
This is after the first hour waiting. Not bad. Bored, getting sleep and hungry. Still bleeding into his mouth. But we're dealing.
After FINALLY making it into the observation room we only had one more hour to wait to see a doctor! However, not long after getting settled into our observation room it was nearing the time for my oldest son to get out of school. Not seeing an end in sight to this whole ordeal we decided I should take our daughter with me to go pick him up before he boarded the bus for home. So I did, and it wasn't until I was gone and back before a doctor finally showed up! Only now my poor little guy had finally fell asleep. So when they started holding him down (it took three of em!) and poking him with needles he wasn't having none of that crap! You could hear him screaming all the way down the hall. Take that all those powers that be that made us wait! Enjoy your musical serenade of howls and screams!
This is after the stitches.
Mommaaaaaaaaaaaa
Overall it was quite a long day. Instances like this make me realize just how isolated we are in this little community. Where those that can, do take advantage. When you have so few options they leave you no choice. You can travel one plus hours to the next closest hospital or make due with what you have. Most will make due, next time, we won't be one of the most!