The first time to the ER
When Jan is abroad in the weekend I usually go and visit some family in order to get some adult conversations.
We were visiting my brother and sister-in-law that we don't see often enough because they are working hard in their successful bakery in the weekend. But I knew my parents-in-law were visiting as well and giving them a hand, so we dropped by. It was a nice meeting between 2 baby cousins while Kabouter immediately claimed the bigger toys to play with. Of course we had some yummie bakery snacks and then we got ready to visit my parents in the hospital in the next town.
I rushed over to the corner drawer where they were looking for some disinfectant and bandaid. When we managed to take off his hands from his head to apply the little sterile gauze, I saw in a glance that my gut feeling was right. I couldn't watch the wound for long and I really tried not to show my disgust to Kabouter as we had to calm him down but this was a too deep cut to just treat with bandaid.
It was a bit of chaos with the crying Kabouter, everyone looking for the bigger first aid box and more gauzes and me asking for a doctor while I was trying to clean the wound and hug and kiss Kabouter at the same time. I wasn't very patient with the others around me at that moment. Kabouter kept asking for a bandaid so when we had applied amateuristically another gauze, I went to show him in the mirror to calm him down. By then we all settled what: most of the bleeding had stopped and we knew the doctor on weekend duty was doing house visits so we'd have to wait a while for him to come.
Since we were about to head out to the hospital anyway, it seemed logical to do so...but to take the ER entrance rather than the regular visitor's entrance. Half of the family accompanied me, the children and our stuff to the car. My brother-in-law jumped in the passenger seat to ensure there were as many adults as children in the emergency room and when he handed Kabouter some candy, it became quiet on the back seat.
"Mommy really didn't have any cool band-aid right now. We'll go and ask the doctor if he has better bandaid, ok?" I said euphemistically. I didn't dare to use the word stitches when Kabouter was listening.
With a phone call I warned my parents, who were sitting on the outside terrace of the hospital waiting for our visit. The ER entrance was next by so they'd see us driving by. Indeed so, we waved graciously on the drive in and my mom was at the car by the time I had parked.
Turns out the Belgian emergency rooms aren't quite like the County General-Hospital in Chicago in the nineties. No big drama's rushing in, no doctor's riding on top of a patient through the hallways and no George Clooney either. It was a pretty boring reception where we had to register and then take a seat in a separate waiting room (fortunately with a wifi code posted). I feared we'd be there for a long time as I had recently been reading complaints about the ER's in Leuven where people had waited 4-5 hours. We had joked that there wasn't enough blood on Kabouter's face. He was just sitting there on my lap calmly.
Fortunately we got in after a reasonable time and the triage nurse checked out the wound, confirmed he needed stitches and we moved on to a treatment room where a nurse applied anesthetics creme that had to settle in for half an hour.
So we sat there each with a phone: the little one watching Thomas the Train on youtube, my brother-in-law messaging the home-front and I was in a messaging conversation with Jan, who was flying 10000m high up in the air with wifi at that moment. So he got live updates including pictures. ha, I love technology!
Kabouter was super brave and behaved so well. "It does hurt a little", he told the nurse but didn't complain and sat still when they treated. "I fell on a stairs". When the doctor came in for the stitches he had to lay down under a green sterile sheet that also covered most of his face. I could cuddle with him under the sheet to make him feel more comfortable while keeping his arms still. "I'm a little afraid" he said but didn't make a move while I tried to send him as much love as I could under that sheet. I was so proud of him.
He got a lot of congratulations from the staff on his excellent behavior and got to pick a little present from a goodie box. Obviously he found a race car in it. Ugh...please don't encourage him to make ER visits!
And so we were ready to go and visit granddad after all and Kabouter was talking and talking and talking :). Just by the time we got late at home and the bandaid was showing a little blood again, he got all emotional again in front of the mirror. Poor little man.
We were visiting my brother and sister-in-law that we don't see often enough because they are working hard in their successful bakery in the weekend. But I knew my parents-in-law were visiting as well and giving them a hand, so we dropped by. It was a nice meeting between 2 baby cousins while Kabouter immediately claimed the bigger toys to play with. Of course we had some yummie bakery snacks and then we got ready to visit my parents in the hospital in the next town.
And while I got my stuff, it happened. I heard a bump on the other side of the kitchen island where Kabouter was running around next to my brother-in-law, who was just awake, and my father -in-law, followed by a second of silence before the crying started. There's always that pause, when you keep your breath to know whether he'll just crawl up or whether tears arrive. A little pause to know how the coin will flip.
This time here were tears and my brother-in-law picked him up "ooh boom, you fell". In the swing that made Kabouter appear on his shoulder, I noticed the blood on the forehead and intuitively I knew immediately it was not just a scratch.I rushed over to the corner drawer where they were looking for some disinfectant and bandaid. When we managed to take off his hands from his head to apply the little sterile gauze, I saw in a glance that my gut feeling was right. I couldn't watch the wound for long and I really tried not to show my disgust to Kabouter as we had to calm him down but this was a too deep cut to just treat with bandaid.
It was a bit of chaos with the crying Kabouter, everyone looking for the bigger first aid box and more gauzes and me asking for a doctor while I was trying to clean the wound and hug and kiss Kabouter at the same time. I wasn't very patient with the others around me at that moment. Kabouter kept asking for a bandaid so when we had applied amateuristically another gauze, I went to show him in the mirror to calm him down. By then we all settled what: most of the bleeding had stopped and we knew the doctor on weekend duty was doing house visits so we'd have to wait a while for him to come.
Since we were about to head out to the hospital anyway, it seemed logical to do so...but to take the ER entrance rather than the regular visitor's entrance. Half of the family accompanied me, the children and our stuff to the car. My brother-in-law jumped in the passenger seat to ensure there were as many adults as children in the emergency room and when he handed Kabouter some candy, it became quiet on the back seat.
"Mommy really didn't have any cool band-aid right now. We'll go and ask the doctor if he has better bandaid, ok?" I said euphemistically. I didn't dare to use the word stitches when Kabouter was listening.
With a phone call I warned my parents, who were sitting on the outside terrace of the hospital waiting for our visit. The ER entrance was next by so they'd see us driving by. Indeed so, we waved graciously on the drive in and my mom was at the car by the time I had parked.
Turns out the Belgian emergency rooms aren't quite like the County General-Hospital in Chicago in the nineties. No big drama's rushing in, no doctor's riding on top of a patient through the hallways and no George Clooney either. It was a pretty boring reception where we had to register and then take a seat in a separate waiting room (fortunately with a wifi code posted). I feared we'd be there for a long time as I had recently been reading complaints about the ER's in Leuven where people had waited 4-5 hours. We had joked that there wasn't enough blood on Kabouter's face. He was just sitting there on my lap calmly.
Fortunately we got in after a reasonable time and the triage nurse checked out the wound, confirmed he needed stitches and we moved on to a treatment room where a nurse applied anesthetics creme that had to settle in for half an hour.
So we sat there each with a phone: the little one watching Thomas the Train on youtube, my brother-in-law messaging the home-front and I was in a messaging conversation with Jan, who was flying 10000m high up in the air with wifi at that moment. So he got live updates including pictures. ha, I love technology!
 |
| Wave to daddy in the plane |
Kabouter was super brave and behaved so well. "It does hurt a little", he told the nurse but didn't complain and sat still when they treated. "I fell on a stairs". When the doctor came in for the stitches he had to lay down under a green sterile sheet that also covered most of his face. I could cuddle with him under the sheet to make him feel more comfortable while keeping his arms still. "I'm a little afraid" he said but didn't make a move while I tried to send him as much love as I could under that sheet. I was so proud of him.
He got a lot of congratulations from the staff on his excellent behavior and got to pick a little present from a goodie box. Obviously he found a race car in it. Ugh...please don't encourage him to make ER visits!
.jpeg)
Comments
Just found your blog. Will go through your older post. Following you on bloglovin. :)