Tulip Festival and 10 Stitches

Hello hello. Dog sitting is going well. He slept in the girls room last night and they loved that. The only glitch was that I didn't wake up early enough to let him outside to go potty potty, so he peed on the carpet in the music room, drat. It wasn't his fault. Chewie is just trying to help me prep for when Peter gets potty trained and we have accidents again. 

This morning we did some chores, homework, and music practice this morning, and then headed off to the Tulip Festival. We had plans to meet Stephani and family down there for a picnic, and we had also invited Father David and Iveth and her kids. We left home at noon and got there on time for our 12:30 reserved tickets. Father David and the kids were waiting for us. Iveth was sick so she wasn't able to come. 

Corey parked the cars while I headed in with our group. It took me a while to locate my tickets on my phone... when I couldn't find them in my gmail, I logged into the Thanksgiving Point website and there they were. Yay, in we go to see the lovely garden! It started off like any other previous we've had to the Tulip Festival. Well, there was one thing we did different. Usually we take the counter clockwise meander around the grounds. This time we went past the waterfall first and over to the Light of the World Garden. We thought Father David would like that. 

He and Corey began their visit to each sculpture while Abi and the kids ran ahead. I headed towards the kids with Peter. And there we were at the Woman taken in adultery scene, John 8:7...

...and now that I have had a chance today to think about it, it probably was a pretty appropriate place for Daniel to get his head split open with a rock. Being stoned must have been a bloody way to die. 

So you can see Abi there on the left holding a bandage to Daniel's head.  Zoom in and you'll see a bunch of blood on Daniel's head. That's cause he got a major gash in his head. He was running on the grass and was about to come up over the rock to the pathway where Peter was standing, when he tripped and hit his forehead on the roughly cut corner of one of those big stone rocks. The kids started screaming to me "MOM!!!!" and the kids were watching him slightly horrified as blood came running down his face. I laid him back on the grass and it ran back into his hair and some pooled up in his eye sockets. I looked around like "Ok.... um, anyone have wipes?" A nice family that was close to us gave me some wipes and we started to wipe and a nice lady gave me some wipes and her husband said "You stay here with him, I'll go get security" and he ran off. I felt so grateful for how wonderful people are and how eager to help. He arrived back shortly with the EMT lady, in black in that picture above with her bag (1:20 pm). We answered questions about what happened and how he was acting - if he'd lost consciousness or anything. He was crying/wimpering but he was good. She asked what they could do to help and what I wanted. They could get an ambulance or they could take me to my car... I thought I would be ok to take him, so the EMT lady paged for a golf cart and they came and drove me and Daniel away, with Abi as my "keep pressure on the wound" helper. Our friends that we were meeting for the picnic lunch arrived just as I was headed out on the golf cart with Daniel, which I felt was another tender mercy and blessing, as they were able to stay and help Corey with all the kids and I didn't feel like I was totally abandoning him. They had food and friends to be an extra set of eyes and I would be back in an hour or two (so I thought...). It was like 1:09. Corey had parked the car but we found it right away. I think Daniel really liked the attention and, despite his wound, I could tell he was doing little grins when they told him how brave he was. We were in the car on our way at 1:35.

We got on the freeway to head toward home, cause my phone wasn't working and I couldn't get directions to an IHC clinic in Lehi. But right after I got on the freeway, it worked, and it was close behind us, darn! I knew we should have gone straight! So we drove for a few minutes, then got off the freeway and turned around and went back to Lehi to the InstaCare. It was not busy, yay, and we were checking in there at 2:00.

Unfortunately, the guy at the Lehi InstaCare said that the wound was too deep/big for his comfort in repairing/his level of expertise. 

I was able to get a good picture if it now though - yikes...

As the doctor was moving it up and down to see how to fit it back together, I could see the little strands of tissue still holding on to each side, and the big hole that went all the way down deep to his skull. I was doing ok but then I felt a little queasy and sat myself down before I fainted. Viewer discretion is advised

Abi is a frequent fainter when it comes to shots, and she passed out once when a neighbor friend stepped on glass in our backyard, but she didn't have any problem with the blood at all today. She did great! I was glad to have her help and her company (but she was really bored and neither of us knew this was going to take the rest of the day...) So.... he told us to go to an Emergency room - either American Fork or Riverton. Riverton was a little closer so we went there. Boo, I guess would have been better if I hadn't turned around on the freeway 30 minutes ago "to save time" and to avoid ER charges, blast. Oh well. The doctor wanted to put a bandage on Daniel. He protested "I don't want a bandaid"

He was not happy. "Well, just try it and if you don't like it you can take it off at the next hospital..."

Daniel said "Once my mom put a bandaid on me and when she took it off it hurt..." Oh, this bandage won't hurt, this one is not sticky. He was ok after he learned that. We headed to Riverton. We arrived there at 3:00. Daniel was smiling now! 

I was texting Corey the whole time letting him know how things were going on my end (aka slow) and he said that his phone battery was low, they had left the Tulip Festival and were going to the Museum of Curiosity. I told them that last time I went, we got a little lecture for not having a reservation, so to just play the "My kid is at the hospital getting stitches and I'm stuck here without a car" card. He said that that worked, yay. I was glad that they had a good place to kill time. I guessed we would still be another 2 hours...

90 minutes in to this thing and we're starting our wait time over again. I took Daniel to the restroom and tried to clean the blood out of his hair a little bit. After 15 minutes we went in and saw one lady for the basic info again - 

Temperature, blood pressure and other vitals, I was asked if he's passed out at all or or how Daniel was acting compared to usual. I said he was acting fine, although this was a more tame and sober version of our little Daniel. 

He was a trouper and was super cute to the nurses (cause he's a ladies man). I know he enjoyed the attention from everyone and the praise for how brave he was being. 

Back out to the waiting room...The Lehi doctor had told me not to let him eat anything, just in case he had to be put under for his stitches. But the poor kid hadn't had lunch. At 3:40, I said oh well and "I'll just pretend he never told me that..." and bought them both a fruit snack and Abi some chips from the vending machine. 

Abi was bored and really wanted to go back to Thanksgiving Point. She asked if Father David could come pick her up. No, I'm not going to ask. You'll just have to deal with this sweetie, I'm sorry. But then, since we had already been waiting for 40 minutes, I asked the receptionist if she could tell if we'd be going in soon or if not, and if not, if it would be possible for us to leave and I take Abi back, without losing our place in line at the ER. They basically said I'd lose my spot, so we're not leaving, sorry Abi. While we were there waiting, I overheard a lady who had just been discharged ask the receptionist if there was anyone to take her home. She just lived north of the hospital, and she could/would walk but she had just had knee surgery. They told her it would be an hour before anyone could take her, and she seemed upset and anxious to get going and said she's pay them. I offered to take her. It was just close by at an assisted living place. So I left Abi and Daniel there and took her home. She was in there because her cat had bit her arm. I was glad to be an answer to her trial and didn't accept any payment. She said God must be looking out for her. When I got back at 4, Daniel has been moved back to a room. Yay. And then we waited and waited. 

Daniel colored, his crayons all broke (cheap crayons) the nurse said she's come back with new crayons, and then she didn't. She also said someone would come to put some numbing stuff on his wound. They didn't. Then another person came by and asked "Has anyone put the numbing stuff on" No. "Ok, I'll go get that... be right back". Abi commented "People keep saying 'Oh! I'll go get that, be right back!' and then they aren't." Kinda funny. I can't remember how I brought it up, but somehow I mentioned that my husband is stranded at Thanksgiving Point with all my kids without a car, and then they seemed to remember about us. At 5:00 they put the numbing stuff on. "I'll be back in a minute..." 20 minutes later they came back. They set some towels behind him and got ready to clean out his cut. 

Took off the bandage - the numbing liquid stuff made his skin slightly lighter in color 

cleaned out his would with some power pressure water bottle that shot water hard into the wound and the skin was flapping around, looked a bit nasty. Then at 5:40 we were waiting again to get stitched up.

Daniel was happy to have an ipad movie. He watched Incredibles 2. 

The nurse offered him a toy car for being so brave and brought him two of them, but he rejected them cause he wanted blue. "Actually I want this" he said pointing to the ipad. Funny kid. They came in and did the stitches at 6:00. Daniel had proved himself brave and chill so they didn't knock him out and he just held still for the stitches, good job buddy. The nurse Jodie held Daniel's left hand and also held the ipad up for Daniel to watch, I held Daniel's right hand and kept a comforting hand on his tummy. Another nurse held Daniel's cheeks to hold him still and the doctor Justin did the stitches. It took 20 minutes to do it - he got 10 stitches!!! At one point Daniel started laughing really hard and then asked the guy nurse who was holding his cheeks "Are you going to kiss me? It feels like you're going to kiss me!" and he kept laughing and we all laughed too. Daniel got three deep stitches on the muscles, and 7 on the skin! They told us to come back to get them taken out in 5-7 days and I said I'd probably just do a house call to our pediatrician, who is our neighbor. They asked his name - turns out that Dr. Schmidt is Justin's pediatrician too! And they went to school together, fun. The nurse Jodie brought Daniel a big blue car. And then she left, and then we stood there for a bit, seemed like we were done? We wandered out to the waiting room and asked if we were good to go. No, get your discharge papers... so she opened the door for us again and we went back in, they brought the papers at 6:45, Ok, now we are really going, yay! And Jodie handed Daniel a popsicle as we walked out - 

We were in the car on our way when I got a call from a neighbor - she said that she was at Thanksgiving Point and saw Corey there! "And his phone is dead..." Yes it is. Wow, perfect timing to run into a friend. She handed the phone to Corey and I told him we were in the car on our way and would be there in 20 minutes. I had told Daniel we'd get him fries and ice cream when we were done, so we did a quick swing by Wendy's and then we got back to pick up Corey a little after 7. I wasn't sure if Corey took any photos of his side of events today, seeing as his phone was about dead, but he shared these with me after he was able to charge his phone. 

Sophi and Natalie were able to do a ropes course! 

That looks fun!

Peter in his favorite spot - 

And his second favorite spot -

The Curiosity Museum is a good place to be stuck if you have to get stuck with kids for several hours. It occurred to me on the drive there that I had left him without any diapers. He told me that Peter did have a poopy diaper, but he was able to borrow one. There were just nice people  everywhere today helping us out in our time of need. We got home at 8. Our little Tulip Festival lunch turned into a whole day event! Corey was a trouper, I was a trouper, Daniel and Abi were troupers, all the kids were troupers, I was grateful that we packed a big lunch for them cause they were ok on food even though they were delayed several hours. I'm glad we were on our way home though. That was our long and unplanned adventure filled day!