that didn’t go as expected

Dec 30

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, caleb isaiah, family, me myself and i, parenting, ramblings, rants

We went to my Mom and Dad’s for Christmas yesterday. I wish we had never gone. I wish I had just let my mom come here for Christmas, and been done with it. They couldn’t leave my dog Maggie at home. She has failing health and could not be boarded. So we went there for the day yesterday. We got my mom and dad a digital frame, and loaded a memory card. I didn’t have time to test the frame before we went. Of course, it didn’t want to work. We could see the pictures, but it wouldn’t ever run the slideshow. Scott went to Best Buy to get another memory card to see if we could fix the problem. Still no luck, but all hell broke loose will he was gone.

My mom has this rotten little dog, she’s a fox terrier. The professionals can say what they want, animals do act out of spite. When I bring my baby and he gets all the attention, so she hops up and takes a leak on my bed…that is spite. When she seeks out our older dog’s bed to take a dump…that is spite. She’s very unpredictable. She attacks Maggie (the older lab) at random times. My mom has gotten her hands caught in the tangle four times. She’s had stitches more than once. Whenever she senses a weakness, she decides now would be a good time to go ahead and finish them off. Well she decided that was what she would do with my child yesterday. My mom has been asked to keep Gilda clear of Caleb. To put her outside or in another room. Just because she is so unpredictable, you can never tell when she might turn on you. My Dad put her outside twice yesterday, but Mom brought her back in. She puts her leash under a chair like that will help. Caleb doesn’t understand not to go near her. He doesn’t understand that his height makes her feel threatened or that his quick moves agitate her.

He was sitting on the floor a few feet from the side door yesterday. My mom was trying to take Gilda outside to potty and she attacked his face. My mom tripped over the leash and fell across the room, but blood was already streaming down his face. He was screaming, I was screaming, Mom was screaming. She got him right underneath his left eye, I guess in that respect, it could have been a lot worse. I just couldn’t believe how much it bled, his face and shirt were covered, my hands, shirt, the washcloth. My mom thought he had another place on his ear because when I laid him down, it poured in his ear. A doctor lives across the street from them, he works in the ER. He has three small stairstep children, and the wife is a RN. Mom called her, Dr. Anderson was at work, so she asked Kelly to come over and look at it. I was in tears by the time she got there. She said it looked deep, and thought we should take him. About that time Scott came in. So that meant at least the carseat had returned. We put him in the car and my Dad went with us. Kelly called her husband and let him know we were coming. There must have been over a hundred people in the emergency room. I think we waited about 30 minutes before jumping ahead of 85% of the people. They didn’t even have a room to send us to, Dr. Anderson met us right behind the triage reception area in a triage supply room. Caleb was so good, he let the doctor clean it and he was able to use the liquid stitch/glue stuff. For that I am so thankful. Otherwise, they would have had to sedate all three of us. The only part that upset him…his eyelashes are so long that when he put the liquid bandaid on, it caught some of his bottom lashes. He had to get some scissors, and Caleb kept closing his eye as an automatic reaction. I did NOT want his top lashes getting trimmed! Which we managed not to do. So you can’t even tell, except for the few you can see if you look closely at the glue.

By the time we headed home last night, it had already started swelling. We stopped three times in the two hour trip, for drinks, snacks and motrin. I put him in the bed with me last night, and he seemed to sleep okay. I’m not sure whether it was him laying on that side, or the swelling, or a combination of, but it bled some during the night, and has continued to seep today. His eye is nearly swollen shut.

We are having a hard time. We’ve both been pretty upset that it ever happened. My mom is blaming herself. It is nobody’s fault. Could it have been avoided? Yes, probably. And part of me is still angry over that. I don’t want my baby to have to be a hero or a trooper. I wanted it to be me 10 times worse. I just wanted to bawl this morning when he whimpered that his “booboo hurwt weawwy bad.” He uses Charley’s tail (his stuffed giraffe) for comfort, and he will tap it lightly on anything that hurts, so he keeps trying to put Charley’s tail around the cut, and we’re trying to keep it as clean as possible… He says “Charwee make my booboo feel better. Charwee can heawl it.”

And trust me, his shirt is no art project gone wrong. I came home and treated all the clothes, and they came clean.

So my little guy has had his first ER visit. I think Scott and I are having a harder time today than he is. We just wish it was us instead. We wish it had never happened. We’re thankful it wasn’t worse. Needless to say, Gilda is no longer allowed here, nor will she be in the same room with him ever again. I shouldn’t have let my guard down.

Comments

2 Responses to “that didn’t go as expected”

Lauren
December 30th, 2007 7:26 pm

AWWWWWWWWW Rachel I’m sooooo sorry!!! That looks so painful! I know it hearts mommy’s heart worse than his eye!! I feel your pain! Thats soo wonderful that they could glue it!! Aww poor baby! How is my little boy doing now? Poor baby! Give him bunches and bunches of hugs and kisses!!!