I'm completely exhausted. This has been a crazy week...and it's Monday. After a weekend of nursing my little girl through an ear infection, migraine, and some other sort of viral/bacterial issues, and sleeping in her room to ensure her 104 degree temp didn't climb to 105, today was definitely the cherry on that sundae.
We woke up this morning to get The Boy ready for school (letting The Girl sleep in after a, shall we say, "restless" night). She came along to drop off, in her jammies. Once we got home, we called to make an appt with the doctor, since she was still so sick and still complaining of an earache. So, just prior to lunch, we set off to see the amazing Dr. Rosenbloom (whom I love and am so glad we have as a pediatrician). He looked The Girl over and determined that she's really sick. Gr. The best solution was to put her on antibiotics, because "it'll kill what it kills and whatever's left can't be killed in any other way...the body just needs to fight it off."
After leaving Dr. Rosenbloom's, we head directly toward Safeway, where one of my favorite pharmacists was already preparing The Girl's drugs (the other favorite pharmacist is married to said pharmacist). By the time we arrived, he already had everything ready. This was fabulous, as I had been dragging around a 5-year-old in footie pajamas for far longer than ever intended.
We got home, ate a hideous macaroni and cheese lunch, then lay down to rest, as neither one of us slept last night. An hour later, it was time to retrieve The Boy from school. As I prepared to get him, I realized I may well have a migraine starting myself. I took some drugs, picked up Footie Jammies and loaded her into the car, and headed up to the school.
We picked up The Boy, his coat, backpack, lunchbox, and some homework for The Girl, and loaded the crew back into the Mamamobile. On the way home, I asked him to confirm he had his homework. The response was negative...so we turned around and headed back to school to excavate the papers in his desk until we could find his assignments (in the presence of the substitute, who was unable to assist us with the search). We came home and finished the first segment of assignments, then I allowed The Boy the chance to go play with the neighbors. He was so excited to go up to the cul-de-sac and play with the boys. It's the first time we've ever allowed him to ride his bike in The Sac, but at 8, I figured it was time.
Fast forward five whole minutes. There's a knock at the door. A neighbor is there, telling me to get to The Sac -- stat. The Boy had gone over his handlebars, face first into the pavement. Screaming, crying, blood, and part of a tooth in a kitchen towel belonging to someone (I'm not sure whom)... Chrizz came running down to my house to watch the cootie-stricken Footie Jammies while I took The Boy to the ER. That was at 4:00 PM.
Four hours, three RNs, one doctor, two X-ray technicians, and one radiologist later, we had our diagnoses: contusions to the mandible, concussion, abrasions, lacking most of one of his baby teeth (although we can't quite tell, because of the contused mandible), and needing stitches, this kid had had a tough night. In order to give him the stitches, they decided to "wrap him up" a little like a burrito...in a full-body straight jacket type outfit. Once they had him Velcroed in, they started by giving him a local anesthetic. I watched them insert the needle in the right side of his chin, and as they inserted the medicine, I watched it squirt back out the left side of his chin. I thought I was going to throw up. They gave him 8 stitches...one for every year of his life, and he looked at me and said, through a mouth which barely moves, "this is my fault. I wanted to go bike riding." I wanted to cry.
The outcome is as follows: he can't eat solid foods for a few days at least; he can't exercise for 10 days, for fear he might re-bruise the brain; he's frustrated, angry, and sad...and tonight, instead of sleeping with sick, ear-infected, headachey Footie Jammies, I'll be sleeping with concussed, contused, sad No Jammies. Aunt Struck was kind enough to bring food for me and liquid sustenance for The Boy. But, hey...at least I stayed home from work. I can't imagine what I would have done if this had happened when I wasn't here. Of course, if I hadn't been here, it probably wouldn't have happened.
