We drove down late Thursday night to Glide to spend the Christmas weekend with the Grahams (john's parents and sister heather). Friday our plans were to drive the 2 hour drive out to Diamond Lake where we were going to play in the snow, do some fun sledding, stay the night in the cute little cabins by the frozen lake and then get up Saturday and do a few hours of snow mobiles before heading back to Glide in time for Christmas Eve traditions.
Turns out we only got about an hour of play time, well at least for John and I and Bear. After checking in to the cabin and unloading all the food and gear inside, the boys got to do some small sledding and snow angel making, but we were planning on driving over to the other side of the lake for better sledding and snowman making saturday morning. After about an hour of that, we decided to walk around the lodge and check out their Christmas decorations and see the changes they've made there. While walking in between buildings, the walkway was covered in ice and Baron, who happened to put his hands in his coat pockets at that moment, slipped and did a full on head plant straight onto some jagged ice since he couldn't get his hands out in time to catch himself. John was able to be there right away and immediately saw that it was going to be a bad one. There was lots of blood. Grandma Sue and I sprang into action getting a towel and a first aid responder since John couldn't do much but hold his head shut until we got some help. John, using his eagle scout skills,( haha, mom that was for you!) was able to get most of the serious bleeding stopped and we got help wrapping up his head before loading him up into the car and heading back down the very windy, long, 2 hour trip back to Roseburg to the ER. LUCKILY, he had no signs of a concussion. I feel so blessed by that.... it would could definitely have been much worse. Because he wasn't concussed and is the best little trooper ever, the drive was actually ok.... we got him some tylenol and turned on Toy Story and he was pretty happy the whole way. It was more John and I's nerves from the slow windy roads that seemed to take FOREVER that was the biggest pain of the drive back. Baron was great, even laughing at good ole Buzz lightyear and the gang.
I hate ER's.... they take forever and never take you serious at first. The first nurse/doc that we finally got back to see pretty much balked at us (before even taking a look at his cut) when we asked for a plastic surgeon/specialist if available, a trick my parents told us about for face wounds this bad. The doc even had the nerve to tell us that most likely she would just have to put a little glue on his "cut" and we'd be on our way. I WANTED TO THROW SOMETHING AT HER I was so MAD. HELLO! We've done the super glue 3 times on this same little guy's head before.... we know the difference between a small split and a huge gash. ANYWAYS, she finally took a peak and immediately changed her tune with a "OH!! yeah, he's going to need much more... lets get a room set up for him!" YOU THINK?? URGH. Luckily, we got put into much better hands at that point and didn't have to deal with her anymore.
A few hours later, some GREAT guy nurses and a wonderful doc had it all numb and clean and stitched up with 8 stitches. Baron did great... he really did for the situation. Of course there were some cries and a mighty strong effort to get loose (they kept saying, "this is a strong little guy!") and some mommy tears shed from the hall, the closest I could get without breaking down, but, he was a real trooper and brightened right up after they were finally all done and one of the nurses gave him his very own little teddy bear as a souvenir. I think they really liked him. Who wouldn't like our sweet Little Bear after all? =)
After a quick drive through Wendy's for some burgers and well earned frosty's, we headed back to Glide where we stayed at John's parents place for the night (his parents and heather stayed back with jackson at the cabin for the night). It was tough to hear him whimpering half the night and I had to calm him back down after some night mares and complaints a few times, but over all, he did pretty well and is feeling MUCH better this morning. And I really don't blame him for his nightmares and flashbacks.... I also had a tough time sleeping just seeing the image of his cut and how ginormous and wide it was in the hospital after they cleaned it all out and before the finally closed it up -which we were surprised how long it sat like that! Seriously- like an hour. It was making me sick, but I guess they wanted to make sure the anesthesia was really working well and it wasn't bleeding as much. We are very happy to be done with that and out of there. He will have them in for at least 7 days if not longer most likely they said since it was so deep. It was pretty long too and could have put a lot more stitches in, but the doc did a great job spacing them out and using the smaller thread which will hopefully help with the scaring. Good thing he's a boy though (which I kept saying the whole car ride to the ER), and hopefully the girls will actually like it rather than be turned off from it :).
And now for the pictures.... don't worry, we did NOT take any gruesome pre stitches photos. We both thought about it so we could show just how nasty it was to the parents, but then decided we did not ever want to see that again... it was bad enough it was stuck in our heads already!
On the way to the ER in the Car... really hoping all the blood on his jacket (and all over John's) comes out in the wash!
This was right after they finished and put some antibiotic ointment on top of the stitches. We had to wait forever afterwards for all the final paperwork. So annoying. I just wanted to take him home! This was probably the best picture that illustrates how big it was for his little head.
Back in Glide with some new Christmas Eve pj's opened early... we needed all the joy we could get. I even let him open a small toy present early that night too!
I know this next one is blurry, but I love his cute little smile (and am really loving the cute pj's Grandma Sue and Heather picked out!), This just shows what a happy little trooper he really is.
This morning watching some cartoons with his new little Bear he got from the nurse and of course his ever present puppy dog. Like his HUGE forehead bandaid?
All in all, we are just so happy our Little Bear is OK and many prayers were answered! LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!! Let's not do this again though, especially so close to Christmas. Not exactly what we had imagined for the weekend :)
