PQotW: Have You Ever Been to the Emergency Room With Your Child?
This week’s Podcast Question of the Week is about emergencies:
Have you ever been to the emergency room with your child?
Everyone has accidents, everyone has oopsies. But big accidents can land a kid in the emergency room. Parents are panicking, kids are crying, and the wait time is infinite. Everyone seems to have an emergency room story about their kid – what’s yours? What happened to your kid? Some parents go for any little problem, some won’t go unless there’s blood or broken bones. But everyone agrees – it sure does cost a lot.
We want to know! Leave your answer in the comments here and we’ll read some of your answers on our podcast! Be sure to watch on Tuesday, 6/5.
May 30, 2012
First of all, I need to let you know that for some reason this page showed up as “read only” on my iPad, and I had to reload it in Safari in order to comment. Probably a glitch in my iPad, but I just wanted to give you a heads up.
I took Jonny (age 5, 1 week after his fifth birthday) to the ER for the first time for a 106.4 degree fever. He was treated at a beautiful facility that thankfully has a Pediatric Emeregency Unit, so you never have to even enter the regular ER. The whole facility is kid-friendly, lovely staff (except the security guard), and the whole visit cost me $25 co-pay. The only downer was that I had to carry his limp, boiling-hot body for half a mile (not really, but it was REALLY far) from the parking garage. It also took a LONG time to find parking.
We are fortunately enough to have PM Pediatrics very close to home. It’s a pediatric walk-in center that’s open from 5pm until morning, the whole place is decorated like a medieval castle and they have video games, Disney TV, etc. We made 2 trips here in April when BOTH of my boys needed staples in their heads!!! Jonny (5 and a half this time) got whacked with a golf club and split the scalp (I waited from 4pm for the bleeding to stop, since I cleaned the wound and the cut wasn’t very big, until 7pm… Bleeding didn’t stop so he needed staples). Chris, the following week run UP a slide, smashed his head on the top rail and split open his head. Again, the wound was small but bleeding a lot (as all head wounds do) and his father forced me to take him to PMP to check the wound. Ends up he needed staples too. The cost for BOTH trips to PMP PLUS the 2 follow-up visits to remove staples = $0.00 (well, maybe $2 in gas to get there).
I am VERY under reactive when it comes to injuries. Jonny has had 5 major cuts to his head, and the only time we went in was for the staples this one time. I will go from now on, just because I don’t want them to have a lot of scars (the stapled wound did not scar at all, but the other 4 times are visible in his shaved part of his Mohawk).
My parenting philosophy: walk it off, rub some dirt in it, and if it’s BROKEN or EXCESSIVELY BLEEDING, then we will go get it fixed. If it can fix itself, the doctor is pointless. But no matter how small a wound, mommy will give all the loving and ice cubes that you need to feel better.
May 30, 2012
At a large retail store, our 2 year old daughter tripped and fell against the foot of a metal display causing an inch long gash near her eye. We were all so lucky that it missed her eye by a centimeter. My wife and I rushed to the ER of a hospital with a good reputation for pediatrics.
The staff was terrific and we were fortunate that a pediatric plastic surgeon happened to be on duty that night to stitch up our daughter. However, it wasn’t without a lot of fear, crying and resistance. We all did our best to hold our frightened child still so the doctor can do what he needed. It took 20-30 very long minutes. I never, ever felt so bad in my life. I felt helpless. I blamed myself for putting my precious daughter through the procedure. While she was sleeping peacefully awaiting discharge, I walked to a quiet part of the hospital and cried in anger, upset and sadness.
Nine years later, a faint scar is still there and serves as a reminder of our only ER visit. And, I hope it will be the last.
June 1, 2012
My oldest was 3. She was jumping on her bed with her older cousin and fell off and hurt her neck. I met my wife, daughter, and in-laws at the emergency room. My daughter was wearing a neck brace.
My daughter asked me not to leave her alone.
I didn’t leave her side, in the waiting room, in the examination room, I told the X-Ray technicians I would be sitting in with her as she was put in the MRI machine. I held her hand as they put her upper body in. I sat on the gurney with her as the nurse pushed us down the hallways.
Turned out she had whiplash (thankfully).
June 2, 2012
With reservation we took our 1yo daughter to the ER after a persistent night of croup on her 1st birthday. We knew croup was a wait-it-out situation but my EMT husband saw her breathing struggle more and more so convinced me it was necessary.
As we get to the ER, hubs checked us in with a 90-3hr wait estimate so
I sat with daughter in the car. As her breathing continued to sound challenged, we decided to wait inside and before we could grab a chair, a passing nurse saw her, heard her and escorted us immediately to a room. She had a condition called stridor where her airway had begun to tighten and close from the non-stop cough that croup presents.
Thankful
June 2, 2012
I think the better question is HOW MANY times have you been to the ER with your kids! Don’t get me started on the time when my 1st-born was a teen and we were waiting in the triage area…Oy Vey!
June 2, 2012
I was at work when my older sister called me. Her dog had bit my three year old son on his arm. When I arrived at the ER. My son was crying and kept saying the dog bit him. When we finally got back to a room, my wife and I held him down so they could do the stitches. I don’t know if the numbing stuff they gave him didn’t work, but he screamed the entire time. My son still loves dogs and my relationship with my sister has been different since.
June 3, 2012
Countless E.R. visits, and a few “squeeze us in to see the doc” visits as well. Whooping cough, sustained fevers around 104, a split scalp, and one time when my oldest had to have his tongue sewn back on after he bit most of the tip off at age 2. My littles are always doing something to go see the doc, but I don’t really worry about cost. I have federally funded big-government commie health care, which turns out to be pretty good after all.