Cooper's Trip to Children's

(WARNING: Reader beware.  This blogs contains graphic photos.)

Well we've officially had our first big "boo boo"... LOL

So yesterday afternoon Brodie was sleeping and Cooper and Chloe were chasing each other around the house like crazy kids.  It was almost nap time, so they were all riled up and expelling the last of their energy.  Josh was in the kitchen and I was in the computer room entering my lunch into my calorie log when Cooper came running in here.  Not two seconds later, out of the corner of my eye, I see him falling, so I turn around in time to see the "second half" of the fall.  I think he was trying to climb on the cat tree, but lost his footing on the bottom of it and he fell straight backward and smacked the back of his head right on the very edge of the bottom shelf of the bookcase...

I knew as soon as I saw him hit that it was either split already or it was about to split so I yelled for Josh to bring ice, but it was too late. As soon as he sat up blood was running down his head, onto his back, and dripping on the floor.  I scooped him up and brought him to the kitchen where Josh had ice ready, but instead we grabbed a towel to get pressure.  I took a look at it and it looked to be almost an inch long straight across, so I knew just by the length that he would need stitches so we started getting ready to leave.  It was bleeding pretty good, but I knew head injuries bleed a lot so I didn't freak out.  I called my mom to see what I need to do about the bleeding on the way to the hospital and she said to wrap it as best as I could.  I couldn't find any wrap, but I made like a head band out of this finger bandage material and got it wrapped. 

Car ride

By the time we had his clothes on and got it wrapped the bleeding had slowed a lot which was a relief, so him and I loaded up and took off for the Children's Hospital.  He hadn't napped yet, so about 10 minutes into the ride he fell asleep, which was a little concerning since he'd just hit his head, but I kept messing with him every few minutes all the way there and he'd stir a bit, so I again I wasn't too worried about it.

We got to the hospital in like 45 minutes and got checked in. I had to wake him up when we got there so he was a little out of sorts for a minute, but he came around.  He started asking to go home, but I told him we had to have the doctor look at his head and see if it was okay, so from then on all he said was, "It's oh-tay", thinking that if it was "okay" we could go home LOL We saw the triage nurse who was asking him questions like, "What happened to your head buddy?" and he'd say, "Oh I fell, but it's oh-tay". LOL  Then she said, "Does it hurt?" and he'd say, "Nope. It's oh-tay".  Such a tough little man LOL Then she put a numbing cream on it so it would start working right away.  She had brought her own wrapping, but she thought mine was cool enough to reuse, so she used mom's rigged up wrapping instead of her own LOL  I was pretty proud of that. 

Watching "Bee Movie"

We got taken back to a room and another nurse came in and kind of gave us the low down about how they're going to clean it and what not then she said something about staples.  At this point I haven't even really seen the cut.  I saw how long it was originally, but it'd been wrapped up most the time so I never really looked at.  From what I'd seen I thought staples was probably kind of over kill, but hey I'm no doc so I didn't say anything.  After that we started watching Bee Movie and waited for the doc.  A resident came in, picked up the bandage, peeked at it, and also said something about staples...Hmm.  Then the doctor came in, also peeked at it, and said, "Wow.  He did this on a bookcase?!  He got it good."  At this point I'm getting kind of curious as to what exactly this cut looks like...but I don't want to mess with it. 

They gave the cream a little more time to take effect then came in with all the stuff to clean it and do the staples.  This is when things got difficult for Bubba and mommy...I had been preparing myself for it, so I tried to stay calm, but it's so hard when I could tell my little guy was hurting :(  We had to have him lay on his stomach and put his head down to the side.  I sat in front of him holding his hand, and at first he was upset when they tried to wash it, but he calmed down.  After washing it, the three women (some combination of trauma nurses and a doctor I believe) started looking at it further and one said to the other, "She only wants staples?  Are you sure she doesn't want deep sutures?  We need to have her look again."

We're not even pulling it open.  It was just open like that...

This is when I finally got a good look at the cut..."Cut" wasn't even the appropriate word.  More like a gaping wound.  It was huge and super deep.  The deepest cut I've ever seen in my whole life.  I was like in shock at this point, saying over and over again, "I can't believe that."  I was trying not to really freak out or anything because Cooper was doing great.  Just sitting on the bed watching Despicable Me LOL  I didn't want to freak him out, but I couldn't believe the size of this cut.  It was crazy.

Anyway, the doc came back in and looked again and moved it around and stuff, but even SHE wanted a second opinion, so she called in yet ANOTHER doctor who also looked at it and started saying, "Yeah. It's torn.  Do the deeps then the staples."  Now I'm kind of freaking out, but trying to contain it.  The new doc turned to explain to me what he's talking about.  He said the layer covering Cooper's scalp was ALSO split open and needed to be put back together with sutures on the inside to prevent infection.  I was glad he explained it, but also kind of freaked out.  The cut was clear to his freakin' skull!  Insane.  He had to have hit JUST RIGHT for this to happen.  I still couldn't believe it and was kind of in shock, but also worried now because I know sutures are WAY harder to do than staples and now Bub had to have BOTH, and they had to go find someone specific to do it.  The original trauma team could not place the internal sutures, so we waited for another doc to come.

Up until this point Cooper was doing great.  Watching his movie, talking with me, sitting on my lap, hanging out, talking to nurses, telling 'em his story, everything,  He was just doing awesome.  But...the suture doctor arrived and it was time to do his sutures...  I was scared for him, but really, really tried to stay strong and NOT freak out.  They had two nurses holding him down and the doc tried to start the sutures.  She got through once with the hook, but he started to freak out.  She tried to get the hook through a second time, but he was moving too much and they had to call in two male EMTs to help hold him.  It was terrible.  They had two female nurses and two male EMTs holding him down and the doc was still barely able to do the sutures.  I got him to open his eyes and look at me and squeeze my hand and he calmed down long enough for her to finish the hook part and she quickly tied off all the knots.  She was actually very fast and I'm sure it went quicker than Cooper and I felt like it did.  She finished the sutures and quick through in three staples on the outside and he was done.  Just that fast. 

They let him sit up and as soon as they stopped holding him he calmed down right away, so I know he just didn't want to be held down (what kid would?) and he wasn't really in pain.  I picked him up and he said completely calm like, "Doctor fix me right up!" LOL  All the docs and nurses were super nice and said he was absolutely the strongest kid they've EVER seen.  They couldn't believe it took so many people to hold him down and he was still pushing them off, even the men LOL  The doc left and came back with TWO Popsicles for him which he munched down on while they had to remove and replace one of the sutures that wasn't in the right spot, but that took all of 2.5 seconds and Coop just ate his Popsicle.  Then they gave him a Beeny Baby snake which I immediately said, "Oh sissy will love that!  Should we take it home to sissy?" because she LOVES snakes.  Loves, loves, loves them, so I knew she would like that.

Finally home with his new gun :)

At this point grandma was off work and came to see us, so we got our papers and got ready to leave, then grandma suggested we go to Wal-Mart to pick out a new toy.  Yay!  In the car Cooper said he wanted a robot man, but once we got in the toy aisle he went right past the robot men (Transformers) and went straight for the Nerf guns, so grandma got him a new semi automatic Nerf gun that's batter powered and shoots like 10 darts at a time. 

After we got home he told dad and papa all about his trip to the doctor and how they "fixed him right up" LOL Then we gave sissy the snake (which she played with ALL night and even took to bed LOL) and he got to open up his new toy.  :)

He's doing great today, running around and playing like nothing ever happened. LOL  He has to have the staples removed in a week and the sutures will dissolve on their own.  So a pretty scary experience, but Cooper was very brave and was such a good little man. We're so proud of him!