Yesterday sucked.
Oh sure, there were things that went well, like dinner, but overall there are two items that overshadowed the whole day.
First, I got locked out of the house.
It was the afternoon, Tevye and Grace were down for nap. I was working in the kitchen, cleaning things up, and I went to take the yard waste out. Because one of the cats has been trying to get out of the house lately I made sure to close the door all the way while I was outside.
That was a mistake.
I was only in my socks. Why would I put my shoes on to walk 15 feet over concrete?
Had Tevye been up he would have easily opened the door for me. Only he was upstairs. Sleeping. Knocking on the door wouldn’t do any good.
Walking around the house I checked the side door and the front door in case either of those were left unlocked – they weren’t. The windows were all closed as well.
At least it wasn’t raining, which this month in Seattle was a fortunate happenstance.
Making matters worse was the fact my phone was on the kitchen counter. I couldn’t call for help or anybody that might have a spare key.
Fortunately, after about 30 minutes of trying to get in and somehow not having the police called on me, I noticed one of the basement windows wasn’t quite latched closed all the way. Turns out it was the window to Kyle’s room and despite lecturing him on leaving the windows open when he isn’t at home, I was so very thankful for his carelessness.
Only now I had to remove the screen without damaging it. Easier said than done.
After prying the screen out of window pane and shimmying the window open I lowered myself down and into his room. I quickly changed socks (no, not in Kyle’s room), got Tevye and Grace up from nap and went to pick everybody up from school.
And just in time.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
I come home from dropping Ciarán off at karate. Laura is sitting in the front room almost completely enveloping Tevye, his arm wrapped in a towel. Speaking in the all-too-calm voice of sheer panic she said, “We need to go to the emergency room.”
Laura didn’t even see what happened. Somehow Tevye, while running around , most likely with Xavier chasing after him, slipped and fell into the display cabinet in the archway between the dining and living rooms. He did not get a major cut, but it was just large enough to not stop bleeding quickly and it was much more involved than a regular bandage would take care of.
After a quick, panicked, but calm rush to pack up and head out, I was on the road to one fo the two relatively close emergency rooms, Déla in tow. The two of them have always had a great relationship and she would be a big help.
The three of us arrived at the emergency room at 6:30, checked in and headed over to the waiting area. It was nearly 45 minutes before we were seen by Kevin, the triage nurse, who was ridiculously kind and did a great job with Tevye. After getting a brief look at the wound we were sorted back out to the waiting area.
Then we waited some more.
Actually, a lot more.
In the waiting room YouTube was a savior. Not going to apologize.
The whole time Tevye did good, really. He was a trooper and for somebody just shy of turning 4 years old was remarkably patient. It helped that Déla was there. Actually, having her there helped a lot.
We had a few things to help pass the time, but battery life is not perpetual. And we did not bring a charger. Or enough snacks.
Again, Tevye did great. There was a lot of counting of various items.
Overall it wasn’t a bad wait, but at that age it was difficult.
We finally got back to be seen at 9:50.
A different nurse took us back and yet another nurse got another look at the wound. She was going to get some cocktail of medications to numb and sanitize the area as well as make sure the bleeding stopped. Who came back with said medical salve? Kevin!
The salve was applied via cotton ball and a lose bandage to hold it in place while it worked. About 15 minutes later the doctor (finally) came in. He was also really great with Tevye.
How so? Let me explain.
After finally getting back to be seen we waited even further to be seen.
Before taking off the bandage and cotton ball filled with the medicinal cocktail the doctor said we might need to get an x-ray to make sure there were no shards of glass still in his arm. Tevye was almost excited about the prospect of having a picture of his bones (as excited as he could manage 3 hours past his bed time). Upon actually seeing the wound he saw there was no need for an x-ray as it wasn’t deep enough for any shards to remain.
Tevye’s cut was such that it was approximately two inches in length on his forearm, and maybe 3/4 of an inch at its widest part. The issue was that his skin was sliced down to the elastic part so his skin would not hold together. This meant glue would not be effective, and stitches would be too invasive for a cut that wasn’t very deep.
Instead the doctor used a type of tape that he glued on to Tevye’s arm to hold the wound closed and let the body heal itself. This all meant there would be no x-ray performed.
When the doctor was looking at the wound Tevye remarked “I don’t see any bone…”
Tevye was actually a bit disappointed he wouldn’t be getting to see a picture of his bones. So the doctor printed out a picture of generic arm x-ray for Tevye to take home.
In total we spent just over 4 hours in the emergency room. To say we were exhausted when we got home would be an understatement. Tevye insisted on wearing his hospital issued plastic ID bracelet to bed.
Because he got to bed so late my plan was to have him stay in bed, sleep in and not go to school the next day (today). Bright and early he was up and wanted to go to school. Not only that he insisted on wearing the ID bracelet and taking in the copy of the x-ray.
So yesterday certainly could have been a lot better. On the other hand, it could also have been a lot worse.