Another one bites the dust...

LITERALLY! I am finally settling into a routine with school and home life however everyday somewhat of a struggle. But I press onward because I have to. This week started out no differently than any other. By Thursday, I was exhausted as usual. However Thursday proved to be the day of reckoning, lol!

I dropped lil man off late (as usual...UGH) and came back home to prepare for an entire day of reading (I've been sort of slacking on my reading a bit due to mid-school/homework grade depression, lol); I wanted to re-read the material and review the slides for both classes as I felt I wasn't quite catching on to this week's topics. About an hour after I got home, hubby's cell phone rings... not unusual as he is on-call. The way he answered the phone was suspicious. He was finally told who was calling and the purpose of the call. Hubby whispered to me that it was lil man's school on the phone. My mind raced back the the incident at the beginnning of school (where he bit another child), my heart sank and I thought "what has he done now." Fortunately he hadn't done anything to anyone... BUT HIMSELF. He had an accident at school and tore his left ear. The school called to inform us, to ask whether they could administer Tylenol and if we could come and get him because it appeared to be bad.

We rushed to the school, which is about 3 -5 minutes from our house and walked into the principle office. We were greeted by the wonderful secretary who informed us about the brevity of our lil man. The principle came out to also comment on lil man's brevity. Everyone looked soo sad and I thought "Oh God, it must be really bad!" Hubby went into the principle's office to put the neosporin on the area so that it wouldn't get infected and to assess the damage; I lingered out in the office to talk to the secretary and the director about what happened. I was called into the principle's office to assist. Lil man wasn't crying; he stated calmly that his ear hurt really badly and that it was "blooded." We couldn't tell how bad it was and he didn't want us to even touch it. We spread the neosporin on the ear and headed to the nearest hospital.

As if this isn't long enough, I suppose I should tell you what actually happened. In a nutshell, lil man was playing soccer with his friend during P.E and ran to catch the ball to put it on the ground (because the rule of soccer is that the ball has to be on the ground). He dove to catch the ball and actually caught it, however his friend, running with him we suppose, fell on top of him and they both slid across the ground with lil man, face sideways, pinned under his friend. When they finally came to a halt and were able to stand, the teacher noticed the ear (and the oozing blood). Apparently the ear was folded down during the slide and the ground (dirt and rocks only... no grass.. THANKS AZ!!) tore the pinna (outer) ear away a bit from the head.

I must also interject here to remind you that we lost our health insurance since I no longer work. We feared that we would be turned away from a hospital and that we wouldn't find a place that could help him. I prayed as we left the school. Just being thankful that it wasn't much worse than it appeared; it could have been a whole lot worse. We came home (lil man appeared fine and in great spirits) and tried to find an urgent care that would take uninsured patients and that would bill us later. I'm sure there are places however we couldn't find one. After about 30 minutes of searching, we headed to the nearest hospital.

Anyway, when we arrived at the hospital, we weren't sure that we should go to the emergency room so we went to the main lobby after all, lil man was walking, talking and joking around... probably doped up on Tylenol, lol. The front desk personnel took one look at his ear and sent us straight to the emergency room which was on the other side of the hospital (one of the front desk personnel actually walked over there with us). We arrived a few minutes later and were promptly seen. When I say promptly, I mean PROMPTLY. I was given paperwork to fill out upon arrival and as soon as I sat down to fill them out, lil man's name was called. The emergency room personnel assessed the damage, checked it weight, blood pressure and temp. They gave us an arm bracelet and told us to wait in the waiting room to be called. By that time, hubby, who was parking the car called to find out where we were and rushed over (via foot) to the emergency room. As soon as he arrived we were called to the back and was put in a "room." The nurse came in to try to clean the wound and find out what happened. Lil man told her, word for word, exactly what happened. She was amazed, to say the least, that a 5 yr old could explain something with such detail but he did. She tried to clean it, but couldn't due to the pain it caused him. She went to get the doctor. After she left, We waited about 20 minutes for the physician assistant to come into the room. He assessed the ear and decided glue was best as it appeared to be just a surface tear and went to get the glue. He came back and cleaned the ear to find that it wasn't just a surface tear; there was a HOLE and that the inside of the hole was filled with dirt! He decided to do stitches instead and that he would need to clean it prior to stitching. He applied anesthesia to the area (with a needle) which promptly started a screaming session. Lil man cried and cried because it hurt sooo very badly. Once the area was numb, he cleaned and stitched the area. Lil man received 5 stitches and he actually felt the last one going in as that area hadn't had a chance to numb.

The physican assistant left after assessing his work and wished lil man well. After he left, the personnel from accounting and billing came in and asked us for his insurance. She was very nice and stated that it wasn't a problem and that there was another form for us to fill out; she left to go get the form. The MD appeared, assessed the assistant's work and asked us if we had any questions. When he left, another person came in to give us the prescription (for antibiotics) and to formally discharge us. We still needed to fill out the paperwork from accounting so we waited. The billing personnel reappeared and handed me the paperwork. I filled it out and she returned to pick it up. We were able to leave thereafter.

Lil man returned to school on Friday to a parade of sorts. Everyone wanted to see and hug him and tell him how brave he was for not screaming and crying. He was very proud and beamed from (good) ear to (busted) ear (hahahahaha). The teacher decided not to let the class go to the playground that day in "honor" of lil man. I'm sure the class was not too happy with that decision but they all pitched in to make him feel special. His ear was really swollen on Friday but by Saturday the swelling had subsided a bit.

Lil man is still in good spirits but is trying to be quite careful with his ear. He doesn't want it to be "blooded" again nor does he want the doctor to stick him in the ear again because it hurt.

I wasn't a basket case, as many (myself included) thought I would be... boys will be boys and things like this comes with the territory. I've come to realize that he will get hurt and my job is to make sure that he GETS through life, not that he never gets hurt. Boys will be boys.... and I have one of the most loving, rambunctious, God-fearing boy! Ahhh... the joys of motherhood! Can't wait to have more boys!