I Will Try to Fix You

During our visit with the Caputos, we decided to go spend the night at the Indian Rocks Beach for one night. Abby and Louie have some friends that they rent a condo from often. It's just easier with all of our little kids to have a homebase to go to, if need be.

Once we got to the beach, we went to an early dinner. We got back to the condo in time for the kids to play on the beach for a little bit. Ford and Cati got in the water with their clothes on and played in the waves. Ford was lying down in the sand and having a ball.

When it was time to go in, we headed tot he condo and decided all of the sandy kids needed a bath. Scott was helping Ford get ready for his shower when I heard Scott scream for me to come there. Ford had gotten in the shower, slipped, fell backward and hit the back of his head on the shower threshold. When I got back there, Ford was screaming and Scott was holding his head and said he had a big gash in it. We put a towel over it to try and stop the bleeding and then I asked Scott if we needed to go to the hospital. He said he thought so. I looked and agreed. We threw one of Scott's tee shirts on Ford and headed out the door. We told Ford he had a boo boo that Mommy and Daddy couldn't fix and we needed to go to the hospital so the doctor could fix it.

If we learned one valuable lesson from all of this, it's to always find out where the nearest hospital is when you go out of town. Thankfully, Louie works for an HCA hospital and knew the name of the closest one. Scott was holding Ford in the back seat and looked up the hosptial on the GPS and I drove us there. Thankfully, Ford's head quit bleeding and he quit crying before we got the hospital.

We arrived at the emergency room in nine minutes. And, as far as an ER visit can go, it was as pleasant as it could have been. The hospital was small, so the ER wasn't crowded. The only staff people I saw were the three that helped us...the admin guy that checked us in, the nurse and the doctor.

The nurse was named Chris and he had to be a surfer. He was about as laid back as they come. I told him that I knew he did this all the time, but this was our three year old and our first trip to the ER, so please just keep that in mind. He was really nice and confirmed that Ford needed stitches. While we were waiting on the doctor, we called the Caputos to let them know Ford was going to be okay. Poor little Catalina was so upset about Ford. We let Ford talk to her so he could tell her he was okay. The doctor was just going to put some "band-aids" on his boo boo.

Nurse Chris got the doctor, the doctor came in, assessed Ford's injury and then told us what was going to happen. Ford had a 2.5 cm cut and it needed three or four staples. He explained that staples work better in the scalp than stitches. Since Ford wasn't crying anymore, my next question was if getting staples hurt. He said the shot to numb it hurts because it stings, but he shouldn't feel pain from the staples, just pressure.

Scott held Ford and I talked to him about popsicles when he got his shot and staples. Poor guy. I know it hurt and I think maybe it didn't get numbed all the way, because he winced and cried when he got his staples, too. He said the "clicks" hurt him (that's the sound the staple gun made). Ford was soooooooooooo brave. We couldn't believe how well he did and how little he cried. He got stickers from the nurse and some latex gloves to take home. We stopped at the store on the way home to get our brave boy a popsicle and a balloon. I think we were to the hosptial and back to the condo within an hour and a half. As far as ER visits go, I can't complain.

Here is the shower where Ford slipped and hit his head:

This picture was taken 24 hours later, but here is a picture of Ford's staples. It looks MUCH better than it did the night before, so I hope it's not too gory to post:

Here is a picture that Scott took with his phone in the ER. I was telling Ford about his "band-aids" (oh, and we did remember to bring Ford a change of clothes before we left the condo for the hospital):


Poor little Ford couldn't get his staples wet for 24 hours, so it made playing on the beach the next day challenging. He JUST wanted to get in the water and play. But, once again, he was a champ and did extremely well remembering not to get his boo boo wet.

The hardest part for me was knowing that something had happened to Ford and I couldn't fix it. It's a pretty scary and helpless feeling for a parent. We do praise God that it wasn't worse than it was and that Ford didn't have a concussion. And, also that Ford handled it so well and that the ER visit went smoothly. We also pray that we never have to see the inside of an ER again!