Parenting Woes

This past weekend was the first major scare my wife and I had as parents. A little background first. Most of you might already know that I am moving to York, PA in a month or so. Well, my wife and I have managed to “kinda-sorta” talk my brother-in-law into the possibility of moving to York.

We were in a model home in York when suddenly it happened. My son was running around with speed similar to when a fat kid sees cake, yes, thats light speed people! He was running so fast (for a 22 month old) that he was not able to turn the corner fast enough and slammed head first into a corner wall. My wife was behind him so she quickly picked him up. Needless to say, he was crying hysterically. Initially both my wife and I had the “oh, its ok” attitude since it wasnt the first time he has crashed into a wall. He is currently in the “terrible two’s” phase and for those of you who are parents will surely understand. Anyway. that quickly changed when we saw a bead of blood pouring down the side of his head.

My wife and I quickly gained our composures from a brief panic attack and started to clean his wound. The cut was big and deep enough that the blood never really stopped dripping down the side of his head. We rushed him to the nearest emergency room (York Memorial Hospital) which was approximately 6 miles away. When we arrived, we were quickly attended my the ER staff. We answered a barrage of questions and once they realized he never lost consciousness, they decided to staple his head shut since he was too young for stitches and the liquid kind would not hold that deep gash. If he would have lost consciousness, he would have had to stay for observation at the hospital.

The ER doctors came in assured us that it was common practice for these types of wounds because of the age of the patient. Once our nerves were calmed, I held Joshua in my lap with on hand while holding his head still. The ER doctor first gave him two shots of some type of numbing agent directly to the wound. After a few minutes of letting Joshua calm down, I held him tight once again so that the ER doctor could put the staples in and seal the wound. “Click!” “One down…”, the doc said. Joshua wasnt happy. “Click!!!” “Ok, I think he only needs two staples!”, as the confident doc puts the staple thingie away.

Man, am I glad thats over. Honestly, I think it was harder on my wife and I than on Joshua. Its been 2 days since he had the staples put in and you should see him now, the “energizer bunny” meets the “tazmanian devil”. I’m sure that this will not be the last time that Joshua will have to be rushed to the ER room for some type of injury. I just hope its not anymore severe that two staples. Being a parent is rough.