I will admit, I have actually had to calm down before writing this post. The event happened 24 hours ago and I am still reeling with the actual events that took place. But, instead of writing in a ranting, irrational tone, I decided to drink some chocolate milk and calm down.
I think I am ready now. Thank you for your patience.
Last night as I was slicing sausage to cook up for my girls, the oldest and the little one were playing school in the library and my middle daughter was asking me a million questions. This is the usual state of the house in the evening and I love this time of day. Sarah casually walked over to my desk and picked up a ruler I had borrowed from my neighbor. I did not think much of it and went about my business with dinner and answering her questions.
Next thing I know, I hear the ruler drop and Sarah is holding her hand and blood is pooling at her feet. And I am not exaggerating… literally pooling. I looked down – and it still gives me the heebie jeebies to even type this – and see that the ruler had a metal strip and she clearly cut herself with it as it was now hanging awkwardly off the side of the ruler.
My hysterical mother started to emerge as I saw my 5 year old with blood dripping down her little hand and arm to the floor, splattering as each drop hit the pool collecting. Buy my ‘I am who she needs to be calm, Mom‘ took over as I hurriedly walked to her and picked her up. I wrapped a towel around it and the towel was soaked in a matter of seconds, it seemed. I moved to paper towels trying to calm a scared child and as they were soaked one after another, I decided to call my neighbor.
She came over and, after about 10 minutes, we decided that we could not get the bleeding to slow no matter how much pressure we applied so a trip to the Pediatric Urgent Care Center was needed. She – God Bless her – gathered my other two girls to go to her house and Sarah and I and a roll of paper towels headed to the Doctor.
Sarah was a trooper and held a paper towel to her finger the whole drive. When we got there they saw us in about 30 minutes. The wound was still bleeding profusely when we saw the Nurse and she said she thought it needed stitches but would need the Doctor to see. The Doctor came in, took the towel off, noted the large amount of blood still and said that I needed to take her to the Pediatric ER – 45 minutes away – because the wound was extremely deep and she needed to be sedated and have stitches. He did not clean it or anything else. Just looked at it. He said they did not have the ability to sedate her there.
So my brave little 5 year old, a fresh bandage that was already bleeding through before we got to the car, and my ex coming from the other direction to meet us at the ER, headed to get her some stitches.
We enter the VERY BUSY Pediatric ER and checked in. They saw us in the Triage area in less than 30 minutes and the Nurse did not even take off the bandage. She said that if a Doctor said she needed stitches, she did.
And then it began. The long, irritating, changed her blood soaked gauze at least once, watched children sick with the sniffles, vomiting on the floor, babies coming up to us and sneezing on Sarah while the mom played on the cell phone, two and a half hour wait for the sole purpose to have stitches put in my daughter’s cut.
Two.and.a.half.hours.
We were FINALLY called back to the ER and put in a room at 10:20pm. Mind you, this incident was at 5:15pm. Sarah was not scared, was laughing and playing and I started to doubt that her injury even needed all of this.
But there we sat. In the room waiting on the Nurse and the Doctor to sew up her little finger,.
For an hour.
As I started to get irritated, feeling like a caged animal in a room, Sarah was hysterical with exhaustion and exhibited it in play. The ex went out to the front desk, asked them how much longer, I tickled and played with Sarah and glared out the little rectangular window to the Nurse’s station. I knew it was not their fault. I was just seriously sick of waiting.
Finally, right before I grabbed my child and went home, the Doctor came in. I told him the story and he said he would decided on his own if she needed stitches.
He took the gauze off, saw that it had, in fact, finally stopped bleeding, held brave little Sarah’s finger under the water and declared, “Well that is really shallow!”
Excuse me?
She just needs a little ointment and a really good bandage so she does not bump it but she does not even close to need stitches.
Um…. I’m sorry? Could you repeat that?
He went on to tell a story about a cut he had on his finger that took 6 hours to stop bleeding and his story took longer than it was to bandage up Sarah’s finger.
I.AM.LIVID!
Not that I wanted my poor little one to have to endure stitches, nor did I want to really deal with them, but couln’t the Pediatric Urgent Care Center wash the wound and ascertain that it was shallow and was just bleeding like mad?
As we walked out the Nurse handed the ex the left over ointment and said, “You paid for it you might as well take it!”
I felt my blood boil. Because, I bet -and I will share it when I get it – that I get a MONSTER bill for this ‘shallow cut’. If it is under $500 for a bandage, I will be shocked.
As I drove home, finally letting my daughter have a happy meal since she did not eat dinner and could not eat at all since they were going to sedate her, I got angrier and angrier. I put my daughter through a night of craziness, my neighbor through the stress of dropping her family to take care of my other two daughters and my ex the pain of having to sit next to me for 4 hours when he clearly did not want to be there. And for that, I will get billed for a bandage, ointment and the world’s most expensive ‘finger abrasion’.
Is this the state of our healthcare now? Pass the buck, collect the money and apologize never? If it is, I will happily decide the next time to spend that 6 hours of my daughter’s injuries in my kitchen – waiting for them to stop bleeding.
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Wow!! How mentally and physically exhausting for all of you!!! Glad she is on the up & up though, and hope the bandage was dipped in gold!! Ha!
Are you sure that they did not just miss the window to be able to stitch? I was told that stitches needed to be put in within six hours or they leave the wound open and just bandage it because of the risk of infection. I had the same thing happen with my son when he was in third grade. I had to pick him up from school, where the school nurse said he had a deep, gaping wound on his knee. I did not take the bandage off to check it, but took him straight to the doctor (after finding someone to watch his younger siblings at home and someone to meet his sister in first grade as she got off the bus.) Big mistake as our doctor is 45 minutes away. We got to the doctor’s office and were seen right away by a nurse practitioner. She took the bandage off and we both were shocked to see a small cut (it was about 2′ long) that was not very deep. I could have taken care of it at home with a little tape. Needless to say, I was not happy and talked to the school nurse to “thank” her for the eventful afternoon that fortunately only cost a doctor’s co-pay. This happened about 15 years ago and sounds like things are not any better. I really feel for you–I too had to calm down after all of that. On the other hand we had excellent care with my youngest when she was two and had a life threatening infection. Talk about things happening quickly. I guess I’m willing to put up with some of the not so great stuff to benefit from when the good happens. My fear is with the new health care system, things are going down hill fast. Hope you all are doing better.
You know what, it is possible, I suppose. He did say something about the possibility of infection with stitches outweighed the benefits. But it was just the shock in “Its so shallow” that sticks with me! LOL
I’m sorry to hear what you been through. It’s really frustrating. But sad to say that our healthcare is really going down hill. This is not what America looks like. I lived in Italy for more than 10 years. My mother almost died because they said its only bad headache. But after 3 days the headache is still getting worse. They did the X-ray but they didn’t see anything. They don’t want to do the MRI I don’t know why they wouldn’t. But after 5 days of constant headache they finally decided to out my mom into MRI. And they found out that there’s a vain the has a blood clot on it. And thank God it’s not too late. Social medicine is not good. That’s why we move here in the US but of course the POTUS you know what I mean. I just hoped and praying for the best for all of us.
I so agree with you Maddy!!
Crazy. I JUST witnessed this last night. I had to go with a bad perscription drug interaction. I got in there at just before 5 pm. This lady came in with her son shortly there after. He had a deep little 2 inch gash on his shin. Down to the bone! I was called back almost immediately, but never put in a room. Took tests and told to sit in this line of hard chairs. They call it “the fast track.” HA! I sat there until 10:30pm! By then, I was SURE I was next to see the doctor, get my tests evaled and released, but I the hallway was getting crowded and the doc just kept right on triaging with no thoughts of treating, let alone releasing. I gave up and figured I might as well go back out into the first waiting room. Everyone in there sees people going in and figures they are really moving, not knowing about the “fast track chair lane of doom!” The mom and her son were still sitting there and the mother was irrate! (so would I after 5+ hours of just sitting there with my son in need of stitches!!) She couldn’t understand how so many people were showing up and going back when they obviously only had colds and stomach aches, while her son needed stitches! I told her what I had figured out. True, higher risks first, but also, if you need a test done (blood lab, x-rays, pee test, MRI, EKG, etc.) you go back pretty much right away to get them done and then….. sit. Just as long. In less comfortable chairs. In a tight hallway. In the “fast track!” She finally got in and her son finally got his stitches. We left shortly after.
It was midnight.
If what I see across the border is any indication(they have universal healthcare) then yes…it will only get worse.