A Trip to ER

Since young, Lynn always has this tendency to show interest to do things by her self. Thus when she shows the sign to learn, Hb and I always teach her and let her do things herself. Before 2 years old, she can eat by herself, wear her own shoes. Before 3 years old, she can change her own clothes, bath herself, and even help me to feed Hao eating porridge. Since then, she and Hao have been bathing together. While I apply soap for Hao and she applies soap for herself. If not mistaken approaching end of last year, or maybe early this year, Lynn requested to bath by herself. And I think maybe it's time to separate them from taking bath together. However as she is not tall enough to turn on the water from the water heater, so I will make few trips to the bathroom to check on her as well as turn on and turn off the water for her.

The weekend before last, after I have bathed Hao, it was Lynn's turn to shower. As usual, I went to check if she had finished apply shampoo and soap. And seeing her still applying soap to her body, I came out. Within few minutes, I heard a loud "bang" and followed by a loud cry. I dashed to the bathroom, and to my horror, I saw a very big cut right above her eye brown and blood flowing out like pipe water. I quickly called hb for help. I was actually panic not sure what to do with her. She was standing there with whole body full of soap and blood on the floor. Hb quickly gave her a hug to calm her down. Then I quickly wash away the soap and shampoo for her. I dared not touch the wound. It was very deep cut. I did not take a picture; do not want to take a picture also. Trust me; you won't want to look at it. It is as big as her eye, exactly same size. She told me she fell down and hit the tile edge below the shower screen. (Later she admitted that she was twisting there and thus explained the fall.) Hao was frightened seeing so much blood. 

After cleaning up Lynn, hb tied a tower over her head, trying to stop the blood. Seeing Lynn in this condition, I did not want Hao to distract us in the hospital. Luckily our neighbor was at home and they were willing to help us looked after Hao for us while we attended the gal. It was past six o'clock in the evening. Traffic was smooth. We did not take long to reach the hospital. We went straight to the Emergency.

At ER, Lynn was attended immediately. The medical officers put a bandage on Lynn's head to stop the blood. Then a nurse came to take her blood for testing. The doctor said the cut was very deep until can see the bone. Thus they wanted to do an x-ray on her skull. I was very worried and prayed it was nothing serious. I also want to thank the friends who were praying for us too. I could not think of anything besides praying for her safety. Right before going to the x-ray theater, the cut was bleeding again. And thus another round of wound cleaning and bandaging.

Lynn while waiting for x-ray to be taken. She has stopped crying before we left the house. 

See the needle on her hand? Poor gal, she was poked twice (one on each hand) as the first one, the needle was out of position after the nurse took the blood, thus the injection did not get through. 

They took 2 x-rays in total. One from the back view and one side view. After the x-ray, we back to ER to wait. Not too long after that, the doctor came told us the x-ray results. Thank god nothing happen to her skull, so they were arranging Plastic Surgery doctor to come over ER to do stitches on her cut. We felt a little relief upon hearing this but still we were worrying. It breaks our heart when we thought about the nasty fall. Hb said the amount of blood that Lynn had lost was equal to the amount of blood that I lost during giving birth. 

Due to Lynn's young age, they wanted to sedate Lynn for the stitching process. Unfortunately, this gal has strong will and fight to fall asleep. Eventually she did not sleep at all throughout the whole stitching process. They wanted me to accompany her at her side. For the first time in my life, I watched how a stitching done on human skin, on my daughter some more, right in front of me. And how I wish Lynn does not have to go through this kind of pain. The plastic surgery doctor first stitched the inner layer, using absorb-able thread. And then he stitched the outer layer with not absorb-able thread. I did not count and did not ask how many stitches were done for the inner layer. But there were 10 stitches for the outer layer. Since Lynn did not sleep at all, she knew something was done to her. But she could not see it. I asked her to close her eyes; the doctor also put a paper to cover her face and head leaving only the forehead visible for him. There were moments where she complained pain and at one time, she even lifted up her arm trying to stop the doctor but we managed to grab her arm and calm her down. Whenever she was complaining, I would talk to her trying to sooth her. Despite some complain of pain, she did not cry at all and did not struggle or give any hard time to the doctor. I should feel proud of her for giving full cooperation to the doctor. But my heart was so heavy at that time. I really wish this whole thing never happen. :( If I did not let her bath herself, then this won't happen. But then, should I take away her wish to be independent? This is so contradicting. I remember my mom stopped bath for me before I reaching 5 years old. And I did warn both Lynn and Hao that they should not play inside the bathroom with wet floor. It is dangerous. That is another reason I separate them from bathing together because they tend to play together while bathing.

Waiting to go home after the stitches. Doctor put back the bandage as there was a vein at the wound (which explain why she bleeds so much), the bandage is to help to stop the blood.

This was taken the next day after removing the bandage. I have to take good care of the wound. Cannot touch it and cannot make it get wet too. 

Doctor gave antibiotics for one whole week and fever medicine to stand by. The antibiotics do not have nice smell and after 1 day, Lynn started rejecting it. She would stare at the medicine for very long time before having the courage to swallow it. At one time she even threw away the medicine and told me she had taken it. But I did not get cheated by her. I told her that it is very important for her to finish the antibiotics. Since then she obediently finished all antibiotics, and I also make sure she took it in front of me giving her no chance to cheat. 

We spent total of less than 4 hours in ER and it costs us RM 55. We are required to go back to hospital to remove the stitches after 5 days. And there will be a follow up appointment with the plastic surgery clinic 6 months later.


Next post: Removing stitches