The Emergency Room with a One Year Old

Why is it that anytime you wait in the Emergency Room, you wait longer than you would for a “non” emergency??? 

Friday afternoon, I was mowing the yard.  Why?  Well, in my home, that is the only time that I get a bit of peace.  The deal is that if I mow the grass, Kyler’s daddy will feed him and put him to bed for me.  Trust me, this is a great deal!  I was on my last row when Kyler’s daddy came outside holding a bleeding Kyler.  I saw blood but Kyler wasn’t crying.  When I got closer, I saw a huge gash in my baby’s head.  I almost fainted!  So, to the ER we went a racing!

When I was pregnant, I had to go to the ER several times due to spotting.  As far as I was concerned, bleeding during pregnancy was a big deal.  We waited six hours on our first vist and four on the second visit.  Obviously, we were not the priority.  Now, I understand that they were probably more critical patients out there.  Also, they always took children in before me. 

So, this time, I just thought for sure that we would be “those people” who got rushed right in…I mean, we did have a one year old with a bleeding head!!!  Guess again.  Now, I’ve mentioned before that we do have a “difficult” toddler.  He’s not malicious (at least not yet); just ancy, fussy, and mad most of the time.  Just the drive to the hosipital was a challenge in itself in rush hour Dallas traffic.  We made it and Kyler was actually being a trooper.

Once inside, there were only a few other people in the waiting area.  “Great!”, I thought.  “We really are going to get right in to see the physician.”  Nope.  First, we had to wait fifteen minutes to be called into the “Triage area” of which I still don’t understand it’s purpose.  The hospital employee asked if Kyler was up to date on his shots and attempted to put a bandaid on his head…of course, it was ripped right off.  Then we had wait another forty-five minutes to be called again.  This time, we were called to fill out insurance paperwork and assured that we were about to be called back to the “rooms”. 

Meanwhile, Kyler and his daddy had to go outside because he didn’t want puffs, juice, or Mommy…he wanted to run around and scream.  He was in a good mood despite his gash.  The problem is that we were trying to prevent another gash, keep him off the dirty floor, and if possible, not completely annoy everyone around us.  (Later, I realized that we should have just kept him inside to annoy everyone.)

Finally, after another thirty minutes of waiting, a bleeding Kyler was called back to the “rooms”.  We were actually taken back to an area of single beds all in a row with other sick and injured people.  Apparently, we weren’t injured enough to go into a “room”.  What do you do with a one year old while in an emergency room?  We didn’t have time to be too prepared.  Fortunately, we did bring a few snacks, drinks and two toys.  Unfortunately, we have a toddler who doesn’t want to play with toys; he only wants to run around and scream (as mentioned earlier).  Kyler’s daddy and I were really about to pass out from trying to keep this twenty-five pound monkey on the bed and not on the floor or in the way of others.  It was approaching his bedtime and all we could do was wait and wait and wait.  REALLY?  This is the emergency room?  Another hour and a half went by when finally one of the nurse’s tried to speed up the process by applying a topical ointment to help numb Kyler’s head before the real numbing needle was placed.  Again, the band aid covering the ointment was ripped off.  Blood was all over everything and quite frankly, I didn’t mind.  I thought that maybe he would appear more “emergency-like” if he was bleeding all over the place. 

After I lost track of the time, the physician on duty came over and stitched Kyler up in front of all the other sick and injured patients.  The screams of my child were truly unbearable.  Even my husband was unable to stand it and had to go sit down.  It was incredibly sad to witness but the physician did do a good job (at least that is what I was told).

What did I learn from this trip?  I will try an Urgent Care office if possible; but if we ever have to go to the ER again, we’re taking the ambulance….those people do get to go immediately into the “rooms”!!