Head injury Henry
Long story short(er): A couple weeks ago, Henry hit his head. Then he started throwing up so we went to the ER where he got a CT scan and was declared fine. The next morning, he was running in the house, hit his head on a corner, and needed four staples in his head to close the gash. It was literally 18 hours from the time we went to the ER one evening until we left urgent care the next morning with staples. When we went to get the staples out, one got stuck and while they were trying to get it out, the whole cut re-opened so once it was finally out, he got 4 more staples. In the end, he was very nervous about the idea of getting the staples out again so David did it while he slept (urgent care let us take the remover home, they would have thrown it away).
There are only a few things I want to remember about this ordeal, so here goes:
While waiting in a room in the ER, Henry seemed really tired (which made us nervous). David started making faces to try to make him smile, and Henry promptly stuck his tongue out at David. That made us feel much better.
The CT machine was like a huge vertical donut with a narrow bed coming out from it. There was no talk about sedating him, and I wondered if he'd be ok without me. The nurse said it would be better if I wasn't in the room, but I could stay if I had to. Henry was calm, so I told him I'd be right through the window and left with the nurse and CT technician. The donut moves around a bit to scan different planes of the brain, but Henry just lay still the whole time (probably less than 90 seconds, really). I could see that he was staring at me the whole time - he did great! Once the CT scan was over, Henry was talkative and alert - much more normal behavior. Was he reflecting my relief that the scan was over and went well? After that, he just wanted to go home.
Henry also did great when they put the staples in his head. We brought an iPod touch and he was playing "Cut the Rope" the entire time. They'd used numbing gel on the cut, and he didn't even seem to notice the first two staples go in. I think he felt the next two a bit, but he quickly went back to playing his game.
The first attempt to remove the staples was a horrible ordeal, but whenever the "insult" was over (be it shots of lidocaine or the doctor tugging on the staple / cut), he'd immediately be back to playing his game. We even managed to get his attention on it during the tugging, sometimes.
The day before the staples were due to be removed, I mentioned to Henry that he was getting his staples out soon. He was nervous about it, so I demoed removing a staple from an orange with the staple remover. I thought he might want a try, but he didn't want anything to do with it. I quickly put them away and decided that we'd try to get the staples out while he slept, and if we had trouble then we'd do it awake at the Dr's office.
David did a great job of removing the staples. After playing with the remover on regular staples in an orange (a poor facsimile, but practice nonetheless), he figured out what went wrong the first time and had a plan to be damn sure it wasn't happening again. With Henry asleep, I held his head and David took the staples out using a flashlight in the dark room! He didn't even wake up.
The next morning we told Henry his staples were out and showed them to him. He was so relieved! He immediately wanted to play with the orange and staple remover. I think he took 100 staples out of that orange over the next couple of days! (and his brothers did, too)
There are only a few things I want to remember about this ordeal, so here goes:
While waiting in a room in the ER, Henry seemed really tired (which made us nervous). David started making faces to try to make him smile, and Henry promptly stuck his tongue out at David. That made us feel much better.
The CT machine was like a huge vertical donut with a narrow bed coming out from it. There was no talk about sedating him, and I wondered if he'd be ok without me. The nurse said it would be better if I wasn't in the room, but I could stay if I had to. Henry was calm, so I told him I'd be right through the window and left with the nurse and CT technician. The donut moves around a bit to scan different planes of the brain, but Henry just lay still the whole time (probably less than 90 seconds, really). I could see that he was staring at me the whole time - he did great! Once the CT scan was over, Henry was talkative and alert - much more normal behavior. Was he reflecting my relief that the scan was over and went well? After that, he just wanted to go home.
Henry also did great when they put the staples in his head. We brought an iPod touch and he was playing "Cut the Rope" the entire time. They'd used numbing gel on the cut, and he didn't even seem to notice the first two staples go in. I think he felt the next two a bit, but he quickly went back to playing his game.
The first attempt to remove the staples was a horrible ordeal, but whenever the "insult" was over (be it shots of lidocaine or the doctor tugging on the staple / cut), he'd immediately be back to playing his game. We even managed to get his attention on it during the tugging, sometimes.
The day before the staples were due to be removed, I mentioned to Henry that he was getting his staples out soon. He was nervous about it, so I demoed removing a staple from an orange with the staple remover. I thought he might want a try, but he didn't want anything to do with it. I quickly put them away and decided that we'd try to get the staples out while he slept, and if we had trouble then we'd do it awake at the Dr's office.
David did a great job of removing the staples. After playing with the remover on regular staples in an orange (a poor facsimile, but practice nonetheless), he figured out what went wrong the first time and had a plan to be damn sure it wasn't happening again. With Henry asleep, I held his head and David took the staples out using a flashlight in the dark room! He didn't even wake up.
The next morning we told Henry his staples were out and showed them to him. He was so relieved! He immediately wanted to play with the orange and staple remover. I think he took 100 staples out of that orange over the next couple of days! (and his brothers did, too)
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