Christmas Eve in the Emergency Room

Isaac on Christmas morning, wearing his Jack Sparrow costume....stitches explained in story that follows....
On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house. After opening presents of glutton proportions we just hung out letting the kids play and eating too many Christmas cookies. My brother was there with his dog Toby. He got Toby right after Naissa was born, he is the only dog that my kids have not been afraid of. Toby got several doggie treats for Christmas, one being one of those rawhide dog bones that dogs like to chew on for hours. Zack was playing with Toby, throwing that bone and having Toby "fetch" it. He put it down and Isaac picked it up and threw it but instead of "fetching" it, Toby bit Isaac. This is the way Zack said it happened. No one else really saw what happened. Jim was asleep on the couch next to me, where I was blowing my nose for the ump-teenth time thanks to my Christmas cold. I heard Toby growl, which I've probably only heard a couple of times in 5 years. I looked up to see Toby in Isaac's face and Isaac looked unable to move. Naissa started screaming and then Jade and Zack. Toby ran to Eric and sat. Isaac's face was bleeding and he was crying (loudly...which is also something we don't usually hear). It all happened so fast. Growl. Screams. Blood.

Jim and I left the other kids with Grandma to calm them down and took off for the emergency room. It was so foggy it was frustrating. I'm trying to get my son to the emergency room and I can't see 5 feet in front of my car. I had to drive really slow, thankfully Clovis Community is 3-4 minutes away (in good weather).

We got there, realized his pants were all wet and he didn't have any shoes, we found another pair of pants in the car and put a jacket he had outgrown over his feet and headed towards the dark doorway of the ER. There was only one man sitting there, but no one to check us in. That's when I realized I was wearing my slippers. Oh well! After what seemed like forever, a woman came out and got our info and handed me a form to fill out on the "patient". It wanted to know where he worked, his driver's license number and cell number etc... It only frustrated me, they could be helping my son but first I have to fill out forms explaining why my 3 year old doesn't have a job??? More waiting. A man called us back, took our information again, got his weight and blood pressure and sent us back to the waiting (torture) area. Thankfully it wasn't TOO much longer that we were called back into a room with two other people, laying in beds, hooked up to all sorts of gadgets. We weren't given a bed, but a dentist like chair and then a nurse came in and asked all the same questions. She cleaned him up a bit, asked more questions. Because it was a dog bite, they are required by law to fill out a special form on the dog that did the biting. I dreaded this.....this wasn't the first time Toby had bit someone. It wasn't the first time someone had food that Toby wanted. But I couldn't lie and tell them I didn't know the dog when Isaac said the dog's name. I couldn't lie and tell them I didn't know that Toby was my brother's dog. I couldn't lie and tell them that I didn't know where my brother lived or his phone number. So I had no other choice than to give them the information. I only prayed that my brother would understand. I don't blame my brother. I don't even blame Toby. Toby is a dog....a wonderful dog. No matter how wonderful he is, he is still a dog. I think we forget sometimes because our "pets" are such a part of our family.

Anyway, the doctor came in and explained everything at a slow pace. He said he didn't want to cause Isaac any more trauma or for him to be afraid of doctors. He said they would give Isaac some medication that would put him into a trance like state, the nurse compared it to someone being on LSD, he would be awake but not really there. He wouldn't feel anything and when he came out of it he might not even remember anything that happened. I forgot to mention that this happened around 10:45pm. It was around 2:00am that Isaac was sleeping on the bed and they began the procedure. He looked as peaceful as one could with his cheek gaping open and his lip swelling....and then they gave him the shot in the leg that would give him the spaced out trip. He cried, "Owwww" and I rubbed his other leg, comforting him as best I could from over the bed rail. After only 3-4 minutes he was out of it. His eyes were open and would look around but he didn't flinch at all when the nurse began to clean the wounds...nor when the doctor started to stitch him up. In less than 20 minutes he had 6 stitches in his cheek and 1 above his lip. The doctor said the hole inside of his lip, where Toby's teeth had gone all the way through, would heal on it's own in just a few days.

After the doctor was done, we had to wait 2 hours for Isaac to fully wake up. This was not easy, because it was 4am and who wanted to be awake then?? We kept the lights down low and the room quiet because the nurse said it would help Isaac to come out of it better. (She said the last child that had that medicine woke up screaming and was hard to calm him down.) Jim slept in a chair while I hung over the railing, rubbing Isaac's leg and arm and smoothing back his hair and talking to him gently every once in a while. He finally woke up and I asked him if he remembered what happened....he said, "Toby bite-ed me". He remembered. After Isaac was able to answer some questions and touch his nose and take a few steps without falling, we were able to take him home.

We went to my parent's to get the other kids, who were sleeping peacefully, and loaded them and all our new treasures into the car and drove home. We got home about 5:45am Christmas morning and unloaded everybody and everything. We were too tired to "play santa" so our tree remained bare and Jim, Isaac and I were in bed by 6:30am. Naissa went to bed too but Jade and Zack were now awake, so they stayed up and watched movies. Zack let us sleep for about 1 1/2 hours before coming in wanting to open presents. We were so out of it we said okay but never got up. So Zack came in again and again and again until finally around 9:30am we got up. 3 hours of sleep is not good when you have a Christmas cold!! BUT it was Christmas, so we engaged in more gluttony. We made breakfast around 11am and were late to everything the rest of the day. We went to Jim's parents and then my parents, though we missed my Aunt and Uncles at my parent's house. We had planned on going home early and getting some sleep but Jim and I fell asleep at my parent's and just slept and slept. Isaac did too. The others watched movies and played with toys and such.

Christmas did not turn out how I planned. But life rarely does. lol! We didn't' have our "Birthday Party for Jesus" and we didn't make our "pull apart bread" for breakfast and we didn't read the Christmas story as we opened the Nativity boxes but we did spend time together and we have been talking about the Christmas story. It just didn't go as I planned.