Piya's Perspective

Last week was Simeon’s second trip to a hospital since the beginning of the year. I get the feeling Simeon is going to test my stomach strength a lot this year.

Just as I was starting an online conference call, my cell rings and I see it’s the daycare.  I quickly let my coworker know that I need to take this call and indeed I am being requested to come down.  Simeon has a cut on his chin and may need stitches. Apparently he was trying to flush the toilet with his foot and slipped. 

This incident report is a keeper – all the teachers and students of the school were now having to go to ‘bathroom boot camp’.  Seems the teachers have a tendency to flush the toilet with their feet (since the toilets are sized for 2-4 yos) and the kids emulate them.  Of course it would be my son who demonstrates why this is a bad idea.

Joy of joys, this is right before naptime.  I get down there, look and say…ok, here we go again.  Except this time I try to avoid ER.  It’s 12:30-12:45 and a trip to the ER could mean not getting back in time to pick up Caitlyn.  I call the pediatrician who says they would fit him in and can do stitches, but I’m really just looking for suggestions near my office at this point, not wanting a 45min drive.  So I then call a nearby Urgent Care Clinic asking if they do this. 

UCC: How old is he?
Me: 3
UCC: Where is it?
Me: His chin
UCC: Sorry, we won’t do that.

Basically, a 3 year-old’s face is still developing and they don’t want to risk liability issues with scarring.  I call the doctor’s office back and when I finally get somebody, I ask if it makes a difference that it’s on his chin.  They too, won’t touch it.  So…1:30, I’m finally on the road with two kids freshly woken from short naps and heading up to Ari’s office.  After agonizing over whether or not I should let Ari go or just go myself, I leave Caitlyn behind with Ari (who waits for his brother to come pick them up) and head to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

Thankfully it was a slow day and we’re seen quickly.  Slow enough that I think everybody there that could look in on him did.  Learning experience for at least one guy who came in just to watch.  And after this experience, if it’s not life threatening I’m going straight to Children’s again. The entire experience just felt so much better than the ER. 

In the end the cut was superficial.  The nurse practitioner gave me 3 options: do nothing, get sutures, use glue and steri strips.  I didn’t feel the need to put him through the trauma of stitches, but since I was there I gave the go ahead for glue.  He only whimpered a tiny bit and otherwise just wanted his popsicle – yeah, the association is probably starting to form already…get hurt at school, go to the hospital and I get a popsicle!  *sigh* I am proud to say I didn’t even get queasy this time.

And unsurprisingly, none of the strips lasted 24 hours – guess he’ll have a matching scar to daddy on his chin.