Turn for the Worse

And the traumatic event continues…last night I woke up to Aston screaming at 2 am.  I have not had to go up there in the middle of the night for at least 6 months  or so.  I was convinced he climbed out of his crib and we were gonna have to make another trip to the ER.  So of course I was relieved when I found he was just standing there.  He was hysterical.  I picked him up and we rocked and when he was finally able to speak he said he wanted Daddy so we went to get Jeff and he told us his new Corvette fell down behind the crib. 

Jeff had to turn on the light to find the car.  As soon as that light went on my heart was in my throat.  His nicely sewn together boo boo had split open and was oozing blood and other fluids.  He was in pain.  It had swelled 2 fold and was red and hot to the touch.  I wanted to get him help right there and then.  I wanted to offer any decent Doctor our life savings to come to our house and fix my baby’s face.  I wanted to throw up.  I wanted to hold him tight. I was helpless. I called the on duty nurse at his Pediatrician's office and she said we could go to the ER but would be better if we waited.  I went online and researched Pediatric Plastic Surgeons in Charlotte.  I made a spreadsheet of names, numbers and addresses.  Aston was up until 4 am with Jeff upstairs. Then I watched him sleep on the monitor…I watched his every move…wanted to make sure he didn’t roll onto his cheek and further aggravate it.  At 7am I called one of the Plastic Surgeons (Dr. Matthews) office just to find out their hours and the call center actually paged the Doctor for me.  I was so excited I probably sounded like a freak.  He said he would be out of surgery at 10 am and to call the office at 9 and he would get me in.  Long story short after many LONG calls to many doctor offices we ended up getting an appointment with Dr. Matthews at 11.  

I went in thinking Dr. Matthews was gonna rub some magic cream on his face and it will be all better.  Instead he did nothing and said there was nothing he could do.  Dr. Matthews is a wonderful man…I just had that gut feeling.  Plus Jeff and Babs (yes Babs was there too for support and help…BB supplied support later so I could take a quick snooze) read an article that said he is known for performing craniofacial surgery on kids when no other doctor would touch them because of its risky nature.  He’s a very hippy doctor which I appreciate.  He prefers healing the body through nutrition and natural medicine…seems kinda like an oxymoron being a Plastic Surgeon and all.  He told us Aston had fluid that had built up  in his cheek (hence the golf ball size knot I wrote about yesterday) and that it needed to come out one way or the other.  A syringe would have been the best way but that had not previously been offered to us:(

He told us to keep it clean, apply a hot compress to encourage the fluid to release, insist on a very low sugar/starch diet, apply antibacterial cream and eventually apply a mixture of half castor half sesame oil to help with scarring.  We follow up with him next Friday.  Aston was a CHAMP…his goal again was the lollipop (yes, sugar free:)).

Just to have a photo…before stitch removal

Stitches out Mommy?

Before shots…at the School Playground

Today we had been talking up Aston’s stitch removal.  We kept telling him we are going to see Dr. Richter after school today and she is gonna take out your stitches and you will get a lollipop afterwards!  Anyway…all day his goal was to get this lollipop…so on the way to school he would ask “going get stitches out Mommy?”…then on the way to BB’s house “going get stitches out Mommy?” 

Aston and I had a play date after school today with the Mom’s and kids in his class.  It was great to meet his classmates and put names to faces.  From there we rushed to BB’s house to get in a quick nap before our 3:30pm doctor’s appointment.  Aston got in a 1 hour power nap and we were off. Again he asked “going get stitches out Mommy?” in his sweetest voice when we got in the car…his real question was “we closer to getting that lollipop Mommy?”

Bribing is the best…he walked right in and was totally cooperative throughout.  He sat still on Jeff’s lap as while Dr. Richter took out 5 stitches (we were dangling a lollipop and a car above his head…but still:)).  He was definitely tense and staring wide-eyed up at the ceiling tiles…he was in the zone…but very at ease.  There was one that got stuck and it did bleed a bit so there was a small whimper but we were VERY impressed as was Dr. Richter. Oh yeah…we topped it all off by sneaking in a flu shot…no crying for that either… He thanked Dr. Richter and we were off! 

It looks really good but he does still have a golf ball size lump under there so i am not sure about how to deal with that…hopefully it will go down soon?

The car… (a race car Corvette:))

and…the lollipop…

Joker Face

You may have noticed, in the previous post, Aston’s smile looked a little crooked.  I have been putting off writing about this for days.  I still feel sick to my stomach when thinking about it so writing about it brings about complete nausea.  Yesterday was the first day I didn’t cry about how my baby’s perfect face will never be what it once was and the guilt of being the one in charge at the time of the accident had slightly subsided.  Now that I have almost come to terms with the fact that Aston’s modeling aspirations are over;)…I feel strong enough to document the event…although I am in tears right now.

Last wednesday was one of the top 10 worst days of my life.  I tore Aston out of a deep sleep at 3 pm so we could make it to Carmel Park by 3:30.  I was hosting playgroup there so needed to get there on time.  As soon as we arrived Aston started playing on the little people play set (ages 2-5).  He discovered not only could he climb up on those scary arched monkey bars that lead to the top of the play set but that I was gonna let him do it this time.  On about his 5th time demonstrating to me that he was well and able to scale the thing I let loose and started talking to Amy about how her recent move to DC went and how Zoe had just been to the ER and gotten stitches across her forehead. Just as Amy finished her story, I heard a chorus of gasps from other mothers, I whipped around only to see Aston hit the ground with a big thud and seconds later he started screaming (Aston almost never cries unless he is REALLY hurt).  I scooped him up as soon as I could. 

Here’s where it gets blurry.  I remember seeing a hole in his right cheek that looked so deep to me I couldn’t bear to look at it (later we find out he sustained a 1.5 inch slice in his right cheek that went through all layers of the dermas except the last one leading into his mouth).  I remember walking through the crowd of Moms and telling them I was taking him to the ER.  I remember Denise and others helping me rush Stelly and our bags to the car.  And worst of all I remember Aston’s eyes rolling back in his head, his face turning white, and his body going limp in my arms. I thought about holding him in my arms as I drove through rush hour traffic to the Pineville ER but then thought better about it.

In the car, he was silent initially.  Then about mile 2 he started to ask for his friend Kate because she had just arrived before we left and he had been so excited to go to playgroup to see her.  At about mile 3 he said “Mini Cooper” and pointed to a Mini amidst all his hysterics.  Then about a mile before we arrived, between hyperventilating, he kept repeating, “I’m sorry Mommy…sorry Mommy”.  Ugh…It was at that moment I cried…but hid it from him the best I could.

Jeff arrived at the ER first and checked us in at about 4 pm.  After waiting 30 minutes we got in to see the triage nurse who told us we should be prepared for a 30 minute wait before we could see a doctor.  It was really odd because the nurse, who attempted and failed to put a bandage over the wound with anti-septic on it, looked as if she had never worked on a child before.  Of course he’s gonna scream at you and flip his head around.  Jeff and I put the shoddy bandage on ourselves.  For the next 3.5 hours we took turns walking around, holding, feeding and tiptoeing around Aston.  He was very sensitive.  He would start crying at any sudden movement or even if we looked at his boo boo.  Looking back he never did question where we were or why we were there as he usually does…he seemed to just accept it knowing something was wrong:( We felt so terrible for him…we were absolutely not above bribing/spoiling the heck out of him…he had more M&M’s than he has had in his lifetime. 

Waiting Room iPhone shots:

 

BB and Babs arrived after the first hour or so and helped big time with Stelly and keeping the focus off the accident.  BB ended up taking Stelly home to our house while we continued to wait.  Stellyn was inconsolable both at the hospital and when BB took her home:(  We were so thankful for their help.

At 4 hours Babs suggested we call Levine’s Children’s Hospital to see what the wait was.  They were full with 6 people in the waiting room.  At this point the wound was drying out and I was getting really scared.  We told the front desk we were leaving and going to Levine’s.  She basically said don’t go…you guys have been here for a while…let me see what I can do.  She did get us back…but…Lesson Learned: go straight to Levine’s next time.

I must say that Nurse Elizabeth and PA Michael gave Aston amazing care once we were in there.  The straight jacket freaked me out but Aston took to it quite well.  They numbed the area 3x (15 minutes between each application) with this numbing “juice” they called it. The straight jacket (really just a pillowcase behind him with his arms in it and then swaddled him in sheets) came in to play when Mr. Michael had to sew him up.  Aston did very well with it…much better than I did.  Jeff held his legs down.  I was at his torso so he couldn’t roll and Nurse Elizabeth held his head all the while we were promising him the world.  We promised he could go to Target and get the new blue flat bed diesel tow truck he’s been asking us for.  We promised him he could sleep with us…thank goodness he forgot about that one. There was no crying for the first couple…his eyes were just WIDE open and wondering when it was gonna end.  There were a few screams for the last few but overall he did amazingly well for a 2 year old getting 5 stitches at 9pm after spending 5 hours in the ER.

iPhone shots (nurse gave him the orange monkey and that shirt is so blood stained not salvageable…for dinner we had trail mix, Gatorade and bubble tea that Babs got across the street):

We got home at 9:15ish.  Stelly was screaming and wouldn’t take a bottle…poor BB.  Babs came over a little later because he snuck to Target and got Aston the VERY “blue diesel flat bed tow truck” he wanted…really by coincidence!  He was THRILLED as if it had all never happened…we asked him if that was the blue tow truck he wanted he exclaimed with his head tilted to the side and his left hand gesturing “ ooooooohhh yes!” a much needed hilarious moment.

That night we needed to wake him to be sure he was arousable because there was slight concern that he had endured head trauma…Jeff set his watch but there was no alarm needed…I of course didn’t sleep a wink…

The Day After…looking like a little version of the Joker:):

 

Aston’s friends Kate and Mia came over on Friday to provide him with a little fun time…poor guy had been cooped up with a crazy all of a sudden over protective Mom for 2 days:)

Thanks for the special SAS cupcakes + balloon Kate and Mia!:

 

Cute card Kate made him…she does some amazing work:

Card he got in the mail from Miss London…toooo cute…

 

On Saturday we went to the Pediatrician to be sure he was healing well.  I wanted to go on Thursday or Friday but Jeff kept talking me out of it…saying I was overacting he’s healing fine…so finally after not sleeping for days I was convinced that it shouldn’t still be swollen and there must be infection…Jeff let me go:)  The Doctor on duty said it looks great and the stitches were done very well.  I really just wanted that peace of mind and I got it.  Thanks honey:)

At the Pediatrician’s playing with antibacterial foamy stuff (all over his face):

Tomorrow we get the stitches removed which I have heard is pretty horrible…will give you a more prompt and much less wordy update…promise:)