ER

On Friday afternoon I had first experience with taking an injured child to the ER. Y pulled down a very think glass mug I had on the desk and of course it smashed and then because it scared him, he promptly sat down in it. This caused a huge gash on his calf and when all was said and done required 6 stitches and they want us to see an Orthopedist when the stitches come out to make sure there is no permanent damage. They told us this after an Orthopedist saw him at the Urgent Care and told us we had to go to a real hospital to get him stitched it was so deep. Get my 1 year old stitched up was of course a bit traumatic and so I have a lot of thoughts on the matter.

I am dissapointed that I panicked instead of being calm. D of course was not home, he happened to be in Jerusalem for a brit milah, so here I am with three little kids and a major catastrophe. I am glad I had the presence of mind to tell S. to keep M. away from the living room no matter what and that he is old enough to understand. I washed off the cut to see how bad it really was, but even as i picked him up I knew it was bad. I am dissapointed that I did not wrap the wound and apply direct pressure. I am glad I got the neighbor kid to come and watch the other two while I ran down to the neighbors to if they were in as he is a doctor, but no such luck. I also should have had the presence of mind to just call our doctor, which the neighbors on the other side did for me, and he is the one who said to go to ER. But it made aware of just how unprepared we are for major emergencies. This is ironic considering D is a paramedic and we used to be prepared for anything. Now with 3 little kids we seem prepared for nothing. So I have made a plan of action that we will be putting into affect this week. And what is first and for most is to have 100 shekel (about 20$) cash on hand in the first aid kit so that we have money for a cab, parking, anti-biotics, what ever, so that we can get the important things taken care of. Since it is a pain for us to get to the bank I do most everything by debit card and D pulls money out on Thurs. on his way home, but since he wasn't home..... we had no cash around the house. We are very fortunate that the neighbors were able to take us and stay with us the entire time. Now that we will be living in Jerusalem there is not doubt we would have had to take a cab and with out cash that is impossible it could have been a very bad scenario. We could have called an ambulance, but if the patient does not stay over night insurance won't cover it. That is about 500 shekel around $100.00. So a very expensive cab ride. The other thing we will be doing is re-stocking and up dating the first aid kit. I thought it was good to go, but since we have not needed anything (Thank G-d) for the last couple of years, we need to rotate supplies. And of course as Y and M get taller I will be keeping a closer eye on where I put things. Y in particular is just an accident in the making and on Friday I had already saved him from two potential disasters, it just seems like he wasn't going to give up until he succeeded in giving himself a real boo-boo. I of course feel like the worst parent in the world, but not even the doctors and nurses in the hospital said anything. And Israeli's are known for speaking their mind when it comes to anything, but particularly the safety of kids. And the neighbors with the 8 kids assured me that have spent lots of time in various Urgent Cares and ERs. And my mom said she did with my sister as well. But I feel like this was just total carelessnous and should not have happened. Fortunately other than when he got stitches, Y was a real trooper and although he is clingy he is not bothered by it. I thought he would favor the leg or something, but not at all. And you would think he would learn not try and pull stuff down but he was up and at it yesterday fishing around on the desk for what to pull down, of course there was nothing there. The one thing I do have to say is that Israeli ERs are very efficient. Despite the fact that we had to go to Urgent Care and then an ER we were only gone about 2&1/2 maybe 3 hours tops. And that was from the time we left the house to the time we returned home. From my experience in America you could spend all day and all night in an ER before you are seen. I remember spending 2-3 hours in one ER room waiting for my sister to be stitched up. Maybe we got some priority because of the age of the child and the nature of the wound, but even so I am impressed. For as bearucraticaly messed up as Israel can be, their ERs are truly and properly efficient. So in the end I am truly grateful that Y will be fine, his stitches come out in 10 days and he probably won't remember a darn thing. But I can't help feeling a little guilty that it happened. Particularly since there are some people who I know who have never had stitches in their whole life!

OK M is awake I am off!