The Keys: Radley's Trip to the ER

One regular day of swimming with cousins turned quite eventful when Radley fell from the top of the pool slide. We aren't quite sure exactly what happened since I didn't see it, but one kid said he fell from the 4th step and Radley said he fell backwards. Either way, he fell face first on the the concrete. I was in the pool with Bentley when I heard him scream. I knew it was a painful cry when I heard it, and he was covering his head. As he got closer I could see some blood going down his face. I moved his hands and saw a really deep and wide cut. I knew right away we needed to go to the ER.

I grabbed a towel to try and limit the bleeding. Thankfully Kerry and Diana (two of my sister-in-laws) were at the pool too. Diana held the towel while I grabbed a cover up, shoes, and my bag. Kerry assured me I could leave my other kids and head to the ER. I grabbed Radley, later realizing I didn't even get shoes for him, and drove to the hospital. We were super close, less than 1 mile, from the ER. I was surprised at how little he was bleeding. I expected a lot more blood from a head wound, but it really wasn't too bad. Radley was worried that he would have to get a shot because I told him that we needed a doctor to fix his head. I knew there were several shots in the near future, so I kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. Once we got there he had already stopped crying and was quite under control. I was really impressed with how he handled it.

We were able to get back to a room really quickly. Kenney's brother who works at the hospital met us there to check on us. There wasn't much to do so he went back to his patients. The nurse practitioner looked at his head and thought it would be better to get a MD to stitch him up because he was little and it was on his face. Radley just laid back, closed his eyes and went to sleep while we waited.

I called Kenney while we were waiting. He was having a rough day at work and didn't know if he could make it. I told him not to worry and that by the time he could get to the hospital we would probably be done. It only took about 15 mins before the doctor got there and the stitching began. We had to wake Radley up, but he wasn't really talking. He seemed to understand the questions but refused to answer. I couldn't tell for sure if it was because he was scared and nervous or if he was kinda out of hit. He did smirk at the appropriate times when someone would say something so that help relax my fears. His calm demeanor disappeared quickly once the shots of lidocaine began. The doctor then tried to begin the stitching, but Radley was acting like he was still in a lot of pain. We all thought he wasn't actually in pain but rather scared because he could feel the pressure. However, the doctor added more lidocaine just to make sure. That was pretty rough too. Somehow Nana found out we were there and came in during the stitching.

He continued to scream and thrash during the stitching and had to be held down by 3 of us. He ended up with 7 stitches. Just to be certain that he didn't have an neurological problems and wouldn't need a CT Scan, we waited a few more minutes and got him up walking around. He got some stickers and a coloring page. His major neurological function was normal so they discharged us with instructions to get the stitches removed in 5-7 days. Nana met us at Kerry's house with M&M's for Radley, and we went to pick up the other kids. I had left the pool without think too clearly about the other kids and realized that I had all the extra clothes with me. Poor Kerry was left with a potty training Bentley that had no clothes or panties, just a swim suit. Oops! Kerry was great and found some clothes for all the kids and everyone was playing.

Overall, it was a long day, but nothing too serious. The hardest part of Radley getting a head injury was trying to slow him down the rest of the week. He wanted to sword fight, play basketball, have a Nerf gun fight, and jump on the couch the day it happened! He didn't slow down whatsoever. At one point after running across the living room he told Kenney, "It hurts right here (pointing to his injury) when I run." Um yeah Radley that throbbing is normal after a head injury!! The following week was a little boring and low key because we couldn't do a lot of regular summer activities, but we managed only a few hits to his head and never reopened it.

It was a pretty deep cut. I'm not sure if it went all the way to the skull, but I saw something white (which could have been a layer of fat) that made me think it could have gone that deep.

Once they put a warm blanket on him since he was still wet from the pool, he actually went to sleep waiting for the doctor to come stitch him.

All stitched up! Too bad it wasn't Halloween or he could have made a very authentic looking Frankenstein. I wasn't super happy with the stitch job. I thought the stitches should have been much smaller and closer together, but there was nothing I could do. He had quite the goose egg to go with his cut.