Oh, What a night!

So the very next day after turning 5,
Li'l J earned himself a visit to the ER.
Oh WHAT. A. NIGHT!!!

(Think Frankie Valli's song...the first verse at least!)

Here's how it all played out:

J-rod was upstairs getting ready to go work a NIGHT shift.
M and I were cleaning up the LAUNDRY room.
C-sta was in her HIGH CHAIR working on a snack
and quickly, getting VERY grumpy
that SHE didn't get to go with me when I left the room.
Li'l J was SITTING at the table, also working on a snack.

All of a sudden
we all heard a blood curdling SCREAM
come from Jacob,
quickly followed by
lots of uncontrollable CRYING and sobbing.
You know, THAT kind of scream.
The kind that PIERCES your soul
because you KNOW you're little one is hurt,
BADLY.
Because it was THAT kind of scream,
I was certain Li'l J had fallen out of his chair
and BROKEN something!

M and I ran into the kitchen,
soon followed by J-rod,
to find Li'l J holding his head in his hand.
When asked what happened,
Li'l J managed through his tears to tell us he had HIT his head on the table.
When asked to move his hand away from his forehead,
BLOOD started to gush.
Evidently he'd had JUST the right amount of pressure on it.
Quickly we had him put his hand BACK on his forehead
while M went and got an ice pack,
I got neoporin and a large bandage,
and J-rod, seeing that M & I had the situation under control, went back to getting ready for work.

O-SO-sad!!

Once we got the wound dressed, and Li'l J situated on J-rod's coveted recliner we asked,
"HOW did you hit your head on the table???"

The following is probably THE. BEST. part of all this:
"I was trying to help C-sta be HAPPY."
HUH???
Say WHAT??
"She was so-o sad, so I was BANGING my head
on the side of the table to make her laugh.
And then I got hurt...WAAAA."
More uncontrollable crying.

So SWEET.
SILLY, but sweet.

Trying hard not to laugh,
and/or be mad,
I took another look at the CUT on Li'l J's forehead.
As expected with a head wound, it was STILL bleeding.
A lot.
And it looked like a DEEP cut.

Deep enough for STITCHES?
Neither J-rod nor I felt confident enough to rule them OUT.

NOW I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
It was AFTER 5pm at this point,
of course.
It had happened at 4:45pm.
Now it was too LATE
to get a hold of our pediatrician's OFFICE
for over the phone advice.
Grr.
AND J-rod was leaving for work,
for THE. NIGHT!
That meant it was going to be me and the three kids, ALONE.
Again.

J-rod gave Li'l J a blessing,
which made me feel a LITTLE better.
Before J-rod left we decided
I would take Li'l J to URGENT CARE.
You'll REMEMBER at the beginning of this post
I said ER...hold that thought.

Once Li'l J heard the words,
"DOCTOR" and "maybe stitches?",
he INSISTED that M be allowed to come with us,
to "keep ME company...
so I won't be SCARED!!"
Awww!
Ok, done.

Because I was WAY
too UPSET at this point...
my EMOTIONS were starting to set in now...
a delayed REACTION,
J-rod called a DEAR friend,
told her what had HAPPENED,
what our PLAN was,
and ASKED if I could drop off C-sta.
J didn't think twice about it and told J-rod YES!--
bring her RIGHT over!

J-rod helped me get everyone and EVERYTHING ready,
and off he went to work.
The kids and I got into the car
and off we went to DROP OFF C-sta.

Next, off we drove to the 'nearest' urgent care
that J-rod and I were aware of at the time:
15 miles away,
RIGHT. NEXT. DOOR. to the pediatrician's office--no joke!
in rush hour traffic,
through construction.
Ugh!

(We've since learned that there is one about 5 miles closer,
AND a NEW one
recently opened up
in our very own little town--
less than 4 miles from our house!!!--
good to know for future reference!)

Anyway...
after CREEPING along through traffic and construction,
the boys and I finally arrived at the urgent care center.
Thanks to the LONG ride, Li'l J is now asleep.
So now I'm doubly worried, thinking CONCUSSION?

Also worried that the URGENT CARE
might already be CLOSED (it was now close to 7pm),
I told the boys to stay in the car while I ran to the front door to check their hours.

As I got out of the car, the thought occured to me:
WHERE. IS. MY. PURSE?????
I ran back to the car and searched EVERYWHERE,
then had M search EVERYWHERE,
AGAIN, just to be sure I hadn't missed it.
Guess in our rush to get EVERYONE and
EVERYTHING out the door,
we missed THAT important detail--OOPS!

Yep,
NO PURSE.
NO WALLET.
NO ID.
NO INSURANCE CARD.

Are you KIDDING me???
UGH!

I head back to the front door, then the front desk
to assure myself of their hours.
The nice lady at the desk confirms what I feared,
though they are still OPEN,
there is NO WAY
they can see Li'l J WITHOUT:
an id, insurance card, and a form of PAYMENT.
BUT...
as long as I get THROUGH the door within the next hour,
even ONE minute BEFORE they close,
then they would see him.
Nice.

Back to the car.
Back to tell my boys,
we just drove all that way for NOTHING!!!

We drive out of the parking lot, and on comes my GAS light.
Again, NICE!
The kids are now HUNGRY
and I'm feeling like MOTHER. OF. THE. YEAR!!

I start calling neighbors and friends with
spare keys and the alarm code to our house
to see if ANYONE can go to our house,
get my purse,
and meet me half-way?
No such LUCK!

I call my sister A, in TEARS.
Can ONE more thing go wrong?

A helps me calm down.
I start driving back home,
PRAYING the whole way
that I won't RUN OUT of gas.
In my frazzled state, it didn't OCCUR to me that
I'd at least make it home on my reserve.

THANKFULLY we did make it home.
I pull onto the drive-way, open the garage door and
leaving the boys in the car, run inside to find my purse
and run back out to the car.

With purse now safely in my HANDS,
we pull off the drive-way and
make it ONLY as far as our neighbors drive-way when...
Li'J THROWS UP!
Really?
SERIOUSLY?
Can this be HAPPENING?

I back up onto our driveway,
wipe him and the car seat down,
open the garage door, RUN inside,
AGAIN,
get him clean jammies, a blanket,
AND sleepover stuff for M.

I figured at this POINT
I not only WOULDN'T make it the urgent care,
but if he DID have a concussion
(with the sleepiness and vomiting?)
that if he needed an MRI or something,
we'd end up at the ER anyway.

THANK YOU J (and family)
for BEING there for us...
AGAIN!!!

I texted J-rod at work.
The ONLY way to reach him at work.
And gave him the update.
Called and then dropped M off at J's house,
where C-sta was,
stopped to gas up the car,
before driving through the nice, new, McD's
for a SPRITE and some fries for Li'l J.

Off to the ER we went.
22 miles away...
well, there is one 5 miles closer,
but we've only ever heard: NOBODY should go there!

Though the ER was a pretty BUSY place,
we didn't have to WAIT too long.
Plus, I remembered to have Li'l J bring his DS along
to help keep him DISTRACTED. : )
It worked!

FORTUNATELY, Li'l J did not have a concussion.
The SLEEPINESS was just due to the
CRAZY night we'd had so far.
He threw up from getting CAR sick.

The ER doctor said it was a nice CLEAN cut,
the kind you'd WANT to have if you had to have a cut.
Rather than further TRAUMATIZE Li'l J with stitches,
they achieved the same results with DERMABOND.
Skin GLUE.

Put back together with DERMABOND

He now has a nice little SCAR with which to

REMEMBER this

CRAZY night.

But oh wait, it wasn't OVER once we left the ER.

Oh NO.

Not quite YET.

As we were heading back to the CAR.

J-rod CALLED to say they were

OVER-MANNED for the night--

this NEVER happens,

and his boss said he should GO HOME to be with his family!

AND J-rod said he'd pick up

the other two kids from J's house.

Can you hear the angelic choir singing here:

HALLELUJAH!

I cried.

AGAIN.

Tears of JOY this time!

Half-way home I get a FRANTIC call from J-rod:

Did I know ANYTHING about how

a CAT could have

POSSIBLY gotten into our house?

Huh?

Ha, ha, very FUNNY!

Uh, except he WASN'T joking!

When he brought our SLEEPING beauty in

to take her to her CRIB,

out darted a BLACK cat in front of him and

bounded UP the stairs.

He wasn't LAUGHING, but after the night

I had just had--

I WAS!!

After checking, and having M DOUBLE check

that the little introduer WASN'T in C-sta's room,

J-rod put her to bed and proceeded, with M,

to check EVERY nook and cranny upstairs.

Each time they determined a room to be cat FREE,

they closed that room's DOOR so they

KNEW the cat

wasn't in THERE!

They finally managed to CORNER the cat

UNDER our bed.

In their feeble attempt to "SHOO" the cat

downstairs and OUT the front door,

they LOST her somewhere in the house--

AGAIN!

This time DOWNSTAIRS.

A CAT wondering around

might not seem a BIG deal to some,

but with our ALLERGIES,

especially those of our kids,

J-rod was well, a BIT concerned shall we say?

PLUS concerned that it might be a stray,

J-rod didn't just want to PICK UP

the cat for fear it might CLAW

or BITE him.

When I came home and SAW the cat,

I immediately recognized HER

as our neighbors cat and NOT a stray

as J-rod FEARED her to be.

Elvira, who if she were a HE, I would call

Houdini after his ESCAPE tactics,

turned out to be HIDING

on the seat of one of our CHAIRS

UNDER the table, in the shadows.

Easily done when you're ALL black.

Probably her originaly hiding SPOT

and probably why she DIDN'T

set off the ALARM

when she FIRST snuck in.

Probably in all my RUNNING in and out,

one of the MANY times

I left the garage door open

EARLIER during the crazy night!

Elvira managed to sit STILL

on the chair long ENOUGH

for me to WRAP my arms around her

PRY her off the chair

and CARRY her home.

Clearly we are NOT

destined to live a NICE,

QUIET,

NORMAL life.

WHAT. A. NIGHT!