Our 1st Trip to the ER

Last night we got to take our first trip to the ER.  (Well, our first trip because of one of the boys... we all know we've been their countless times on my account).  I know you're thinking Marco... being the crazy one... being the mischievous one... being the one that's in to everything... but you're wrong.  That's right... our first ER trip was on account of Baby Jonas! (Well, actually on account of Mauricio injuring my little darling angel baby Jonas).

In our house, Mauricio is the official nail cutter.  Because of my RA, I don't have to strength or steadiness in my hands for such a delicate task.  Mauricio has always been a pro at this chore.  He wrestles Marco when he has to, holds hands super tight and cuts quickly.

Last night, Mauricio was performing his nail cutting chore, beginning with Jonas.  Jonas was being a wiggle worm and as Mauricio approached the final finger on the first hand, he slipped!  The cutter went too deep and cut the nail too far, leaving a wide open gash.

Now, I know you're thinking, "you went to the ER for a NAIL?"  And, that's what I thought too... but you have NO idea how much blood that little nail produced!  I knew that we needed to hold the cut tightly in order to get the blood to clot.  So, I held, and I squeezed, and I wrapped, and I iced.  I played games... I'm not going to look for 10 whole minutes and by then it should have stopped.  After about 35 minutes of this, with blood still dripping down his little hand, I decided to call my dear friend, Stefania, who is a pediatrician and saves my butt on MANY occasions!

When I tell Stef what's been going on, she tells me to put pressure without looking.  Did it.  She tells me to ice it.  Did it.  When I told her it had been bleeding for over a half hour, she said "Sorry to have to tell you this, but it's time to take him to the ER".  Ahhh, bloody hell.  Literally!

So, at 9:45pm on a Sunday, we pack up the kids in the car, I jump in the back to hold the bloody hand, and we head out to the hospital.  Thankfully, the hospital was rather quick and empty.  Once the doctor came in, he glued his gash closed and bandaged up his little thumb.  We were back in the car with 2 sleepy but healthy babies by 11:00.

Mauricio feels so sad and guilty over what happened.  But, I've told him over and over that it was an accident and accidents happen.  Besides, with 2 boys, I'm sure we're going to have many, many, MANY visits to the ER in the future.  We'll probably have countless cuts, scrapes, broken bones, stitches, glue and casts!  That's just life with boys!