Emergency Room

Now, I know that I am an intelligent human being with a college degree and work in the medical profession. I am also a mom. Up until a few days ago, I thought those two states of being were melded into one person. I quickly realized that there is a point in time were all reason and thought fly out the window and the mom part takes over your brain. Here is my story.

I picked up the kids from daycare and was told that William had somehow hurt his finger on a crib rail during a fire drill, it bled for a minute but was OK. He had a small bandaid on the finger and seemed fine, I was not overly concerned. We got home and he became increasingly fussy, crying and refusing to eat. He was holding up his finger and saying "Mama, mama". I took a closer look at the finger and saw it was swollen and red, then the band aid came off. (This is where rational thought left). I saw blood, lots and lots of blood and a hunk of skin hanging off his finger. Off the the emergency room we went.

By the time we get there and the triage nurse admits William to the ER, rational thought and sanity slowly begin to return and I realize that I have completely overreacted, William is fine by this point and I can assess the damage. Yes he had a deep cut, but NOT ER worthy.

As I begin to feel really stupid, the doors burst open and this woman having a heart attack comes in receiving full CPR. So right next to us, separated by a curtain, a full code with paddles and intubation.

At this point, I not only feel stupid, but sorry that we are taking up time from all these doctors and nurses. So in the midst of all this chaos, the doctor comes in and I looked up at him and said "my son has a boo boo, It really looked a lot worse at home". He laughed and said all the right things. Evidently it was a very bad skin tear and would have required stitches if there was enough skin left on the stitch. So I felt better about going to the ER, but not much.

William's finger is healing nicely, but my pride is still a little injured:)