Rulers are Evil!!

So last week I had just left the house to attend a RS Stake Conf. (for several well-deserved hours of spiritual upliftedness), when right after the opening song and prayer had finished, my phone rang. Scott was frantic, telling me that Kaleb had stabbed himself in the mouth with a ruler and was bleeding really bad. So I ran home to find Kaleb still screaming and crying, and still bleeding. We decided to leave the older older kids home by themselves for a minute while we took Kaleb to the Urgent Care. He had stopped bleeding by this time. The Dr. checked in his mouth and said he hadn't punctured it, but had lacerated it really bad. So, off we went to the Emergency room.

At the ER, we were informed that he had a "gaping" wound that would require an oral surgeon to repair but they wouldn't be able to get him in for another 3-4 hours. During which time, we were not allowed to let him eat or drink anything. They knew he was going to have to be sedated for the surgery, so they needed to put an IV in. I don't know who it was more traumatic for, me or him?! It was awful! Due to his chubbiness, they were having trouble finding a vein. They eventually put one in on the top of his foot, which he then proceeded to flex and popped it out! So they had to put it back in and put a splint on his foot so he couldn't move it.

Luckily, we did not have to wait the 3-4 hours to get into surgery. And Scott got to ride on the gurney with Kaleb up to the OR. :) I don't think they should be able to take your baby away from you to preform surgery on him, without being able to watch some way. It was hard to let him go! The surgery, which ended up being 6 stitches, took only about 30 minutes, but the recovery was much longer!! He was soooo tired and kept getting woken up!

He was only given Tylenol for the pain and he was very unhappy. I started to feel bad for the nurses who kept coming in to check on him, if they got within 5 feet of him, he would start crying. :( The Dr. wouldn't release him until he would eat or drink enough to stay hydrated all by himself. Well, he wouldn't drink at all. Not his bottle, his sippy cup, or out of a straw. He did eat a little yogurt but not enough. So, he and I got to spend the night in the hospital while he was hydrated through his IV. He slept pretty well, even when the nurses had to come in to check his vitals, but I did not! Finally around 6am the next morning, he drank a whole bottle. At about 8am, the Dr. came back to check him and decided he was okay to go home. We were finally able to leave around 10:30am. Not fun!!

And what was going on with our other 3 children during all of this you may wonder??? Well, we just might have the best possible neighbors/Home Teacher in the world! They came over and watched all 3 of ours, along with their 4, plus a cousin too! All during the hours of 11am to 10pm!! We are so grateful to them for doing that for us! Thank you Julie and Tristan!!

Kaleb had his post-op check up a couple days ago and passed with flying colors. All but one of the stitches has dissolved and there was no sign of infection. He is eating and drinking fine now and is back to his happy chubby self!