Holiday Injury

Showing Off His Holiday Souvenir

First Aid Triage Iowa Style - Thank Goodness for Electrical Tape Eli Not Trusting His Sister the RN to Use Scissors Near Him

Well the Fourth of July has come and gone. This year the celebrations in our small town were strung out Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Saturday was the day for all the cousins to come together for fireworks. It also brought the "holiday injury".

My nephews' wife, Kim and I were talking about kids getting hurt and how you always jump when it's your first kid and by the time the others start injuring themselves you tend to overlook anything short of a broken bone and uncontrolled bleeding. Ha - Ha - don't laugh .....man did that conversation come back to bite me (and in under 5 minutes).

Eli came into my sisters' living room and plopped on the couch beside her, I was sitting across the room and thought hmmm, usually he's more timid but hey good for him. Then he says to me, "Owie" Before I could say what, he points to his knee, I glance down and see this trickle of blood start down his leg (couldn't see his knee) by the time I'd cleared the distance and had my hand under his knee (the mom/sister in me saying - "oh please don't bleed on the couch, carpet, someone") I had a handful of blood. I half way picked him up to get him into the bathroom (the kid has seriously taken a growth spurt) once in the bathroom and us on the floor to take a look (good thing we were on the floor) I pulled up his pants leg to find that there was a sizable chunk missing from just below his knee. Estimate 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, depth? ever seen the white below muscle?

Mom assessment: too wide to stitch, too deep to ignore, oh, crud there's gravel under that flap and now he's starting to panic. I'm starting to panic cause my brain is seeing parts of his leg nobody has seen since God. - Next thought we have a nurse and and x-ray tech in the house, thus my call for reinforcements to the bathroom.

The "medical professional/relative" assessments: wow! ok! let's clean it up (leading to Eli freak out #2). Everyone's opinion - yuck! I could continue with a very graphic description but you all probably would appreciate just using your imaginations and saving your stomachs. It is too wide to stitch, so deep that we are now dealing with an open wound and he's handling it like a trooper.

Mom Lesson #989 - don't EVER say anything about your reactions to kid injuries - you will just jinx yourself and your poor unsuspecting child!