A day we'll soon not forget

I suppose I should blog about a recent significant moment in our lives, although it is a moment we care never to relive again. So why am I putting it down in black and white to read over and over again and for others to read too? Other than to serve as a mini-therapy session for me? Because having to go to the ER with a two year old is very significant. It was the worst moment in Khloe's life and therefore was the worst moment in our lives.

Our Friday, the day after 4th of July, started out GREAT, with so much excitement and anticipation of a long beautiful warm sunny day of boating ahead of us... just our second day on the water this season to be exact! Kate Gostinger and Kristi were boating with us too. Around noon we all hopped in the boat and headed down the Black River, out into the St. Clair River towards Lakeside Beach. Everyone's happy and loving life, wind blowing through our hair. Kayla's in her favorite spot on the bow of the boat and I'm holding Khloe in the bucket chair while she's in her favorite spot, hanging onto the glass on the side of the boat. Then. Then a wave comes out of nowhere that none of us saw. Then Khloe cracked her lip on the side of the boat. Then all boating stopped. We never made it to Lakeside Beach.

(This part is painful to write about)

Khloe is crying hysterically and bleeding from her mouth. She has a wide open gash on her lip.

After ten minutes of trying to calm her down, we assess the injury. It's a gash that certainly looks like it needs a stitch. It's deep and big.

I didn't know whether I wanted to puke or cry. Or both. I felt like we deserved "Worst Parents of the Year" award for letting our fun-loving little sweetie get hurt so bad like this. How could we have let this happen?

We wondered what our next steps should be - turn around and go back in and rest indoors for the remainder of the day? She had calmed down and the bleeding had stopped, so do we boat for awhile and then go to the ER later? Nurse Kristi informed us we had 24 hours to have a wound stitched. We decided to call Allison Murphy, our ER doctor friend that lives on the lake and ask her advice. No sooner did I leave her a voicemail message, bobbing on our boat near the mouth of the St. Clair River, than Allison happens to fly by on her wave runner. We flag her down and she takes a look at Khloe's lip, looking so fresh and raw and painful. She says it definately needed one stitch, to help reduce scarring, but that Todd may have the equipment he needs at their house and could perform the "surgery" for us so we wouldn't have to go to the ER.

Whew. That felt like a little bit of relief in our super stressful ordeal. So we headed north up the lake shore to the Murphy's home where Todd assessed Khloe's lip too. He thought Dermabond would work and went inside to check his inventory of supplies. Unfortunately he found that he had neither the correct size of thread for a toddler's lip or the Dermabond. (Although he's making sure to acquire some now!) Allison also gave Khloe a dose of Motrin. After all this stress, a visit to the ER looming ahead of us, and an exhausted Khloe, we decided to call it quits for the day and head into the ER. Todd kindly prepped me for the fact that they put little kids in a straight jacket during those procedures. I was sure I wouldn't make it through the procedure without passing out or throwing up.

By the time we were cruising back into the river, the Motrin had kicked in and Khloe was (mostly) back to her normal self, walking around the boat, laughing and talking and eating chips and salsa with Kayla. Now we have to take this perfectly happy child and put her through the trauma of getting a stitch? That seems so cruel! And put me through the misery of watching her get a stitch? Somehow I needed to remain strong. Somehow.

Kate went home. Kristi took Kayla to a friends home, and the three of us went to the ER around 3pm. Well, I said, get ready to spend the next five hours of our beautiful sunny vacation day here.  We didn't even have to sit in the waiting room, they took us right back. The P.A. was in shortly after that and confirmed she needed a stitch. I asked if he would consider Dermabond, he thought about it, and then he agreed. Who's the new biggest fan of Dermabond? Me!

Another huge WHEW! Things kept looking up! Khloe at this point is running around, laughing, oblivious to what is going on. We numbed her lip for a few moments with a cotton ball, I laid down on the bed and held her down on top of me, and the nurse and the P.A. worked quickly to apply the glue to her lip. Khloe didn't flinch or move or make a sound. She was so brave! I kept my eyes closed the whole time because I was not brave. I might have even forgot to breathe. Other than the P.A. getting his glove stuck to Khloe's face and having to peel that off her skin (she winced), she did great! We were to watch her lip closely and return within 24 hours if the glue didn't hold.

In and out of the ER in under 45 minutes! That never happens! We were SO relieved at how well things had gone for us and Khloe that we decided to celebrate with... another boat ride! We picked up Kristi and Kayla, headed to dinner by boat to Quay Street and spent the next few hours at the beach with friends. We finally ended our boating day around 9pm.

As an update, the glue on Khloe's lip stayed for the 3-4 days it was supposed to, it eventually fell off as her lip healed and today we can't even notice where she hit her lip. God is good! I still get waves of nausea and  unease thinking about that moment she hit her lip and how painful that must've been, but I turn that into praising God for not letting the injury be worse, letting the doctor use dermabond instead of needle and thread, and putting friends in our lives right at the moment we needed them.

Now our once fearless girl is hesitant on the boat. Her calls for "more bumps!" and "faster!" have turned into "No bumps Momma. No fast. Go slow". She is nervous when we go fast and when there are bumps. It breaks my heart. But I know in time that will soon change and she'll be back to the fearless girl we once had on the boat. But, for now, I'm not letting go of her.

Not only was this ordeal significant to Aaron and I as Khloe's parents, but we later discovered it was significant to another little person, Kayla. Kayla did a good job on the boat during the whole ordeal of trying to comfort Khloe and giving her little kisses on her head. Other than that, she must've sensed that it was best to stay quiet and out of the way. Meanwhile, she was processing a whole lot of chaos and uncertainity that was going on with her parents and sister. The moment was incredibly frightening to Aaron and I, so it must've been frightening to her too. While we were in the ER, Kristi took Kayla to her friend Abby Henry's home for a pool play date. Kayla was estatic. What we thought would be a very long haul at the hospital turned into a short trip, therefore Kayla ended up not having that much time at her friend's home. Kayla asked a lot of questions about the ER before we left and had even more when we returned. We explained the whole process to Kayla especially emphasizing how brave Khloe was because it was an easy, painless procedure. We also said we should minimize conversations about Khloe's lip in front of Khloe because we didn't want her to remember there was glue on her lip and start picking at it.

During dinner we talked about Khloe's lip a few times here and there, or when Kayla would ask us a question. Finally Kayla leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "Don't talk about Khloe's lip because it makes me so sad." And tears just poured down her face as she buried her head on my shoulder and sobbed.

(This part is hard to write about too!)

What a sweetheart! So concerned about her sister and feeling so sad about it! All her worries and stress came pouring out! I carried her to a quiet place in the restaurant and held her. It was comforting to her to talk about the whole day and what we all thought and felt. After a long conversation, lots of hugs, and affirming words to what a GREAT big sister she was, we returned hand in hand, smiling, to our huge plate of nachos.

What a day!