Getting Familiar With Our Emergency Services

October proved to be an exciting month in terms to medical emergencies. At the beginning of the month, we were enjoying one of our many after nap playground get togethers when I heard a loud cry that turned out to be Simon. I started walking towards him, holding his chin on the stairs, and then he took his hand down and I quickly replaced it with my hand to swoop his skin back up on his face. I tend to downplay injuries so I'm glad this was a clear case of needing stitches because there was no reason to ponder what to do next. Luckily our neighbors were there to help take over in Simon's care so that I could grab Arch, run back home for the truck, call Steve and get back to the park with all of the necessary items (special blanket, snacks- it was 5pm, and our new insurance card). Simon handled that all quite well and was very calm headed to the doctor. He told me things like, "They are going to fix my chin with string, isn't that funny!" (in case you are wondering our neighbor is a child life specialist and had him all prepped for the hospital). Steve beat us there so we were all checked in and into a room rather quickly. Because he was so calm they thought they may be able to do stitches without sedating him, hahahahaha. Well, I guess there wasn't much laughter at the time...

After some numbing stuff they tried shots for further numbing and sh*t hit the fan and we moved onto sedation. The staff were great and the stitches looked great. Steve eventually took Archer home and I stayed for the rest of it. Simon was groggy coming to and seeing double for awhile which was funny, but then also really upsetting for him. He kept demanding that he talk to the doctor about why I had 2 noses and 4 eyes. But then he'd start to cry about who I needed to get fixed and that wasn't as funny. It took a couple days for him to start feeling better about it all and he now has a solid fear of needles and shots. I'm hoping by the time he is reading this he is over that and can find some humor in the fact that they almost had to put him in a straight jacket to get the stitches out. :)

Still a little high at this point but no longer seeing double.

Not to be outdone, Archer contracted croup unbeknownst to us until midnight on Halloween night when he woke up with the most horrible sounding cough and then we discovered that his breathing was labored and I was certain his throat was closing. Luckily, he was calm and alert and it helped us to realize he was "ok" and that I could just drive him into the ER to get checked out (with my finger on 911 the entire drive). But I was panicked and when I pulled up I just left my truck in front of the main doors grabbed him and walked in instead of parking:) Once they told me croup I immediately calmed down and pointed out I should probably go move my truck, but they were nice and told me I could just leave it there and they'd make sure it wasn't towed. So we hung out at the ER again for about 3 hours while they gave him 2 nebulizer treatments and oral steroids and finally deemed him well enough to go home. It was 4:30am by the time we were in bed. He was fine through it all with the exception of getting a little freaked out when we walked into the room and saw the nurse pull up the bed rail of the hospital bed and I'm positive he only freaked because he remembered the bed Simon was in and how that all went down. Once we assured him there was no owies he was fine. He didn't love the first neb treatment, but in all it was no biggy. 

1st Neb treatment, sad face.

ER selfies are not super flattering for either of us. 

So now we know where the 2 closest emergency/urgency care hospitals are that conveniently both take our insurance. The closest option is only open until 11pm, so thank you Archer for waiting until midnight so we needed to figure out the middle of the night option.