We have a winner

Ty wins the unspoken contest. I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd have to take one of these boys into the ER. If I'd have been a betting woman, I'd have put my life savings on Ty. Way to come through for me, honey.

Picture the drama: 8pm last night. It was bedtime. So close, and yet...BANG. I hear a loud noise in the bathroom and Ty starts crying immediately. Now I know the whiny cry and the angry cry, and the minor bruise cry, but this was the I-have-seriously-hurt-myself cry. I ran into the bathroom and saw (stop reading here if you're squeamish) blood literally squirting out of Ty's forehead. Blood all over the floor, running down his face, and onto his legs as he looked down at the horror that was our bathroom floor. He had been trying to jump over the step stool, got his feet tangled and bashed his head open on the toilet bowl. Glamorous, huh.

I knew instantly we were headed to the ER. It wasn't that large of a cut, but it was gaping. And gushing. I looked at the fairly new (and light colored) towel hanging on the bar and decided to go for toilet paper instead while I yell for Dan to come help me. Toilet paper is not the best choice for gushing head wounds, just FYI. I got a rag from the hall closet and pushed it on Ty's head which made him a bit upset. I picked him up and calmed him down with the idea that he was going to get a bandaid. He is in love with bandaids. If he had cut his arm off, the thought of a bandaid probably would have made him whoop for joy. And indeed, he did stop crying and I got the blood down to a trickle and pressed the bandaid in place.

Before we left I washed off his legs and feet and got most of the blood off his face, changed the already saturated bandaid, and I drove to my ER (I own it...oh wait, I just work there) while Dan stayed and put Jake to bed. Sweet side-story: Jake doesn't ever remember sleeping in a room by himself. He was climbing up into his top bunk without his bro underneath him, and he stopped half way up and hung his head. Dan said, "are you ok, buddy?" and he shook his head and started bawling. "Beebs hurt his head!" He was so worried about Ty. Such a loving big brother!

We got to the ER at about 8:45, and they put a topical anesthetic on Ty's head and we waited a half hour for that to work. I was preparing myself for the worst. I've held down many a screaming child during the stitching process, so the visions in my head weren't pretty. When they laid him down on the stretcher, I got up there with him, and held his hands while the other nurse (thanks, Julie Cappoen!) was holding his head. The physician assistant is also a friend of mine, and I could tell he wasn't exactly looking forward to the process. Almost 3 year olds are not typically the easiest patients. Ty got a bit of fear in his eyes, but I tried to distract him by telling him we'd get a treat on the way home. He had decided on a chocolate milkshake by stitch number 3. He winced a few times and said, "mommy, that's owie" but never pulled back or screamed or shed a single tear. Can you say PROUD MOTHER?

Oh my sweet baby, I couldn't have asked for a better ER experience with my child. Everyone kept saying how tough and brave and sweet he was. Yes, I know, my son: perfection. (Please don't read any of my previous posts if you think I'm serious.) We left the ER at about 10pm, just over an hour total. For those of you unfamiliar with ER's, that's extraordinarily fast. Thanks to all my co-workers who made it worth the half-hour drive and passing by another hospital!

Ty sipped a two-dollar and forty-nine cent small milkshake (seriously, JackInTheBox, we're in a recession here) all the way home, a huge grin on his face. He was out like a light by 10:45, and he slept in until 8:40 this morning. He's totally fine today, acting like nothing is wrong at all. Huge goose egg and stitches, what?

Now that I know what a great patient Ty is, I'm considering recreating that same bathroom scenario tonight so we can sleep in again tomorrow. Just kidding. There was too much blood on the bathroom floor to clean up. Not worth it.