Kiddipedia
So recently, we had a major scare. My two lovely daughters were playing together which is usually great that they are playing pleasantly. However, this time not so good. My oldest pushed the youngest off the couch so she fell off and on the way down smacked her head into the coffee table edge. Yep, that’s right split her head open! A nice big gash of blood pouring out. I missed the whole thing because I had turned around to the bookshelf for just a minute at most and heard this loud thud and then screaming.
I had assumed something had been knocked down. I had no idea what I was turning around too. Luckily, my partner saw it and was straight onto it. However, that didn’t stop the freakout! Holding a heap of tissues to her head, running out to the car and waiting for him to grab what we needed felt as if it took forever. Then as quickly as we could driving to the hospital emergency and waiting to be seen was horrible.
I’m not trying to talk bad about our local emergency department but man… They assessed her and put her in the system where we were fast-tracked as she is 19 months and had a big head gash. But all we were given was some gauze to hold to her head which was a struggle. She was sick of us holding something on her head and she was getting restless. Then after about two hours of waiting, I go up to ask for a fresh bit of gauze and the receptionist tells me to ask the nurse. The nurse has a couple of people waiting to see her so I go and line up to wait.
Meanwhile, my partner is sitting with the kids and our youngest is sitting with an open head wound. After 5 minutes or so, the receptionist gets up goes, grabs me some gauze, and gives it to me. Would have been great if she had done that in the first place! Then a little while later, still waiting to be seen, my daughter starts to doze off and we’re sitting there like hell. And I don’t know if she is allowed to sleep. What if she has a concussion? No one has given us any instruction as to what to do/not to.
So I got up and ask the receptionist if she can sleep because the nurse is still busy. She asks the nurse about it and because we have been there so long, there has been a shift change. So now, it’s a different nurse and she wonders why we are still in the waiting room instead of out the back waiting or in a bed. She says she will come out and have a look at her in a minute once she is finished with the person she is assessing.
Finally, about 20 minutes later she comes out to us. She was done with the patient long before this time, and then she comes over with some fresh gauze and tape! YES! No more holding her head still. But then she says she will likely need stitches and can’t have any food or drink as she will need to fast to be sedated. Would have been nice to have been told that when we came in! She had dinner before the accident happened but we had given her some water while we were waiting.
The nurse then says she will see what she can do to push us through. Thank God! So not long after, she goes back to her desk and we were called through! Then back to waiting in the back waiting area. Finally, a doctor comes to get us and we were taken into a procedure room. A more senior doctor came in to look at her head and decided it should be okay to glue and she won’t need stitches. Good news we don’t need to stay in and she doesn’t have to be sedated.
If you’ve ever had your toddler injured to the point of needing something glued together it’s not a good thing to watch. They wrapped her in a sheet to hold her still and then they glued. She screamed and screamed then it was all over and we could go. The doctor said to keep it covered for 24 hours and keep it dry for 5 days.
Well, 3 days later it started to bleed. So I took her to the GP thinking it’ll be fine. It’s better than going back to emergency and waiting. I was thinking maybe it popped open somewhere, cause where else would the blood be coming from? Right?
The doctor and nurse said it wasn’t opened but they have put some steri strips on and a bandage over them. It did nothing but absorb the blood. So, I took the bandage off the next day and apart from a fair bit of dried blood on the bandage and steri strips it looked ok.
So we went about our day and it started to leak blood n weep again. I have put a band-aid on once home to keep it covered and to try to stop the blood. She has a reaction to the Band-Aid, great! I left it a couple days then took it off which pulled off the steri strips. I cleaned it up and it just doesn’t look right.
I booked her into the doctors for the next day; it confirms what I have been thinking. The wound has opened and should have been probably stitched. But they would have been reluctant to do at that time in the emergency department given her age. We were then sent around to the nurse to have it cleaned up and bandaged, it starting to look infected as well. Just what we wanted to hear! NOT! The nurse had put some gel to draw all the yuck out and bandaged. And we were told to come back in a couple of days to have it cleaned up and checked out.
Fast forward to that appointment, the nurse takes off the bandage and cleans it up. The doctor comes in and says that it’s infected and that really opened the door for going to need to go back to the hospital. GREAT NEWS! Not!
So off we go back to the emergency department waiting for a couple hours. My partner comes down with our other daughter then the nurse comes out to get us to put an iv in her arm. They have sent some photos to the doctor and we waited for a reply. So partner goes in with her to get the iv done so she can be given antibiotics. They can put her out of it if needed.
Then we were given a bed to wait while they sort out a spot on the ward for us. She has to stay in and fast from midnight to go into the theatre in the morning and be stitched up. So me and my daughter spent the night on the children’s ward which is actually a nice little break. Only one kid to worry about and no screaming. We had the room to ourselves till around 9 pm then another patient came in.
The nurses on the ward were amazing, such lovely ladies. We were given some dinner since she was allowed to eat until midnight. Then the doctor came and explained what was going to happen in the operating theatre. I could stay with her till she was out and then just have to wait till she wakes up.
So morning came and we were taken up to the theatre. A different doctor came to speak to me and explained it all. Then took her into the room to be given anesthetic and prepped. It was a pretty scary experience watching her just pass out and go limp before being put on the table and then having a doctor escort me out.
It wasn’t long and I was taken back up to get her. She was all fixed up but still pretty out of it and very sleepy. Back in the ward, she just slept for a bit then her daddy and sister came in to see her. We got her to wake up a bit to have some water and a lovely nurse got her some toast so she could eat. With that, we prepared to go home.
She still has stitches and had a follow-up visit just the other day and all is looking much better.
But man oh man, I do not wish anyone to go through that!
I have so much sympathy and respect for the babies, kids, and parents that have to go through much worse every day. That has to spend days, weeks, and months in the hospital. You have very strong souls.
The staff that works in paediatrics departments and children’s wards you is truly amazing people.
It was definitely a different experience that’s for sure.
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