a trip to the ER....and not for work

on monday i was supposed to go to work for a meeting at noon, but shortly before i was getting ready to leave the house, i received a call from shari saying that my nephew, ben, had cut his ear open and they were on their way to the ER, would i meet them there? i told her that since i was going up to my hospital for a meeting anyway, i would be happy to meet her there (instead of an ER closer to her house in plano). to make a complicated story very short, i ended up not going to the meeting because of a miscommunication and got to spend the entire time with ben and the rest of the childers' clan in the pediatric ER at my hospital. i had a physician's assistant (PA) friend of mine look at ben's ear, who determined it needed stitches for sure, but thought because of ben's age (5) we should probably sedate him before putting the stitches in so he wouldn't be inclined to squirm and wiggle. the only problem with that is that you can't eat for at least 4 hours before being sedated and ben had eaten about 2 hours before going to the ER. so we waited. finally it was time and they came to put ben's IV in so he could get the necessary medications. he did SO well that the PA decided that he didn't need the sedation if we didn't want it. shari and i talked it over with each other and with ben and decided that we would try the stitches with just some "local" (lidocaine only in the area of the injury/stitches). i don't have any pics during the procedure (which some of you probably don't mind) because i took alex and alia to the waiting room so they wouldn't be bothered and so shari could focus all her attention on ben. he did beautifully and, when all was said and done, had 6 stitches in his right ear. it should be noted that the most distressing thing about the whole event for ben was the fact that he got blood on the new shirt his mom brought him back from new mexico, and the most exciting thing was that he got a wrist-band with his name and birthday on it, nevermind the injury and/or the stitches! gotta love 5 year olds! you know the drill...click here!