Nico's Turn in the ER

At this point, they really should just have a room on reserve for us at CDH. I had every intention of writing the follow up to the twins post but obviously Nico thought that part of the story shouldn't be told yet. I swear, it is almost like my family is jockeying to see who can be the star of this blog. I think Nico might be winning. (Still no word on Tommy's test results. I pray that no news is good news.)

I was getting ready for my big night out (Ruby Tuesday's and Barnes and Noble with a chance of Lifetime after) when I heard Nico scream, "Mom!" He screams that all the time but this time, there was a strain to it and it sounded so desperate that I ran downstairs yelling, "What?!" He said he hit his head on the door and was crying. I mean, I felt bad for him...I know how that hurts but I didn't think anything of it. He had his hand on his head and when he took it off so I could see if there was a bump, his hand was dripping with blood. He cried out, "Oh, God!" and I immediately went into flight mode. I calmly said I needed to take him to the Emergency Room and called Leo who was at practice with Tommy. He started to ask me a bunch of questions (if you have read previous posts, you know that Leo is not a fan of the ER). I started calling some of the neighbors to come watch Isabella and Gia but no one was home. I finally got in touch with one of my friends who said she'd be right over. I called Leo to tell him that she was going to be here and he said he was turning the corner. I called her back and told her not to worry about it.

Leo decided to examine Nico's head in the middle of the street. When Leo gets nervous, like when I get nervous, he gets...hmmm....less than nice. He wanted to clean it up and see what was going on and though I thought that was what the doctor should do, I said okay. He asked me where we keep the alcohol and I flipped out saying it would burn Nico too much to pour that on his open wound. Even now, the thought makes me weak. We argued about whether he should go to the ER and finally I said I was going to be a nervous wreck if a DOCTOR didn't check him out. He agreed and before we left, Nico showed us exactly what happened. He was outside shooting hoops when he stepped in dog poo (I don't even know what the mature or nicer way to say that would be) in our front lawn. This is a little frustrating since we don't have a dog. Anyway, he went in the house to clean it up (gross) and he leaned over to untie his shoe. When he came back up, he was close to the door frame and sliced his head on the part that sticks out from the square piece on the part of the door that doesn't move. I don't know a better way to describe that but I do know that the odds of that happening have got to be so small because I have never heard of anyone else ever cutting their head on that.

We went to the ER and I gave them our information which, at this point, should pop right up as frequent visitors. Head injuries seem to get priority so he was seen right away. It's just my opinion but the pediatric triage nurse was either having a bad day or needs to find a job where personality doesn't matter. Nico even said, "It's like she's mad that we are even here." Nico immediately started with all the questions: "Am I going to need stiches? Are they going to do staples? Can I hang out after this? Am I going to miss the Bull's game? Do they have the Bull's game here? When does the Bull's game start? What channel do you think it would be on? Can we go to Dairy Queen after this? Are you still going out?" The only answer I knew was that I was not still going out. The physician's assistant came in right away, cleaned it up and said he needed two staples. I saw the fear on Nico's face while he described having to give him a shot in his head. Nico is the one afraid of needles. I asked him if he was too old to want to hold my hand through it and he said no. I did, he squeezed and then it was over. No tears or anything. The whole visit took an hour which is record time for us to get in and out of the ER.

I think he was traumatized by the whole thing because on the way home he decided that I could get him Dairy Queen at some other time and that he didn't feel like hanging out. He just wanted to go home and watch Untamed and Uncut with me (just what I wanted...more blood and guts). At first I was bummed that I wasn't getting my night out but in retrospect, how many more times is Nico going to want to cuddle up and watch Animal Planet with me?