A Stitch in Time...

Sleeping after the ordeal

Well, Sunday was an eventful evening.  I was giving both girls a bath, and they were playing with toys as they usually do.  Cecilia plopped down from standing, and she started crying.  I assumed she landed on a toy and hurt her bottom, but when I picked her up to comfort her, there was some blood in the water.  I grabbed her towel and laid her down in the hallway to assess the damage.  When I saw a pool of blood in her vagina, I told J that we needed to take her in.  He got Genevieve out and dried while I grabbed some paper towels to put pressure on Cecilia's injury.  I grabbed her a diaper and a shirt and held her while Genevieve got dressed.  J pulled the car out and got the girls in while I packed the diaper bag and grabbed a few things.

In the waiting room at urgent care

I really wanted to go to Phoenix Children's Hospital, but it is quite a drive from us.  We opted to try the pediatric urgent care affiliated with PCH.  We got in to be seen pretty quickly, but it seemed to take forever for the doctor to come in and examine Cecilia.  While the nurse was asking questions, I could see that Cecilia's diaper was becoming quite red.  When the doctor opened her diaper, it was filled with blood.  The three paper towels I had put in there were soaked, and she was still bleeding.  The doctor said he couldn't get a good view of the actual damage because of the bleeding, and he suggested we go to PCH.  We put a clean diaper on Cecilia, and that's when I almost passed out.

I knew the signs of fainting as I had done it once before and almost done it about 3 times before.  Immediately, I sat down.  I became extremely hot and sweaty.  My skin was clammy, and the walls seemed to be closing in on me.  My vision blurred, and my muscles went weak.  My hands tingled, which is something I don't remember experiencing before.  While I didn't wish for them to take so long to discharge us since Cecilia was still bleeding, I was thankful for time enough to collect myself.  At least now I know with 100% certainty that I will never have a career in the medical field!

J drove about 95 mph to Phoenix Children's Hospital. Genevieve sang. I prayed.  Please don't let the injury be very bad.  Please help the doctors and nurses take care of Cecilia quickly.  Please help J and I to be calm.  Please don't let us get in an accident.  Thank you for my sweet friend Dina who would be coming to pick Genevieve up for us.

Cecilia fell asleep on the way, but we weren't sure if she was sleeping or passed out.  I kept seeing her foot move or her head move to the side, so I wasn't too concerned.  Soon enough we arrived at the emergency room.  J parked, got Cecilia out, and headed in through the emergency entrance as I got Genevieve out.  Through the whole event, I was trying to remain calm for Genevieve.  I didn't want her to be freaked out or overly worried. She was jumping around and acting like her crazy self as we were getting checked in.  She didn't have a nap this day and had gotten up very early, so she was bouncing off the walls, which didn't help J's nerves at all.

While in the waiting room, I nursed Cecilia.  Her eyes were rolling back in her head, and she looked very pale to me.  I wasn't sure if her eyes were rolling back just from being exhausted or if it was something more.  When we got into an exam room, we met our nurse Claire.  Almost the first thing out of her mouth was "Does she look pale to you, or is that how she is?"  I told her that she is fair skinned, but she did look really pale to me. Claire said her lips looked really pale.  She left, and we met her assistant Deb.  A child life specialist (or someone with some such title) came in to try to provide entertainment for Cecilia, but she could care less.  She didn't want to play on the iPad.  She didn't want some stranger talking to her.  She wanted mommy milk, and she wanted her owie to go away.

I'm not sure about the order of all of the events, but we had to hold hot water filled gloves on her arms to help her veins pop out in case they needed to put in an IV.  They were also talking of the possibility of a blood transfusion.  I think they may have used a blood clotting pack of some sort on Cecilia, but I can't remember if they ended up using it or not.  They talked about it.  By now Dina had arrived to pick up Genevieve, and we were so grateful that she had somewhere fun to eat, play, and get ready for bed.

When they assessed the damage, they said it was a laceration much like an episiotomy that would go straight from the vaginal entrance towards the anus (midline episiotomy?).  They determined that she would require just a couple of stitches.  Thank the Lord that it was nothing more serious, but I still felt so bad for my little angel.  My heart broke for her many times during this night.  I had stitches after she was born, and let me tell you, that was no picnic.  A one year old should not have to go through that!

Fighting to get comfy in Daddy's arms while she is monitored

They wanted to monitor Cecilia and give her some time to calm down before they did the sewing.  She nursed a little.  She watched nursery rhyme videos on YouTube while eating some snacks.  She's teething on top of all of this and has hardly eaten anything in two weeks.  I had just given her some ibuprofen before the accident happened in the hopes that she'd want to eat some dinner after her bath.  It wasn't too long before they came in, cleaned her up, gave her a shot of lidoaine, and put in her two stitches.  J and I held her hands and loved on her while a nurse held her legs in a froggy position for the doctor.  Of course Cecilia cried through the whole thing, but it was probably more from being held down; she hates that!

They said to just keep the area relatively clean and dry.  No baths for a few days.  The stitches would dissolve, and we should follow up with her pediatrician on Friday just to be sure that everything is healing correctly.  I breastfed her again as we waited to be discharged, and she fell asleep nursing.  Poor thing.  Nurse Claire said she'd probably sleep well tonight, and we joked that she didn't know our child very well.  I prayed for her comfort and good sleep though.

Cecilia fussed some as we put her in her car seat, but she immediately went back to sleep.  We made the drive to Anthem to pick up Genevieve who was watching cartoons and playing at Dina's after having a short rest in bed.  Dina said she kept saying "We're just resting right?"  Did I mention how thankful I am for Dina?  Of course the freeway exit we needed was closed, so we had to detour, which took a little longer.  We arrived at Dina's a little before 10:00 PM.  I collected Genevieve, Dina gave me a hug, said some prayers for us, and then we were off.  As soon as we got on the freeway, Geneveive said, "Mom, can I take a little nap in the car?"  Thirty seconds later, she was asleep.

As soon as we arrived home, J carried Genevieve to bed.  I unloaded the car, and J came and transferred a still sleeping Cecilia inside in her car seat.  J and I got something to eat, and then we both went to bed.  I slept on the couch near Cecilia to wait for her to wake.  I am grateful that I got a good hour and a half sleep before she woke at 12:45.  I gave her ibuprofen, changed her diaper, and took her to bed with me where she actually did sleep very well.  Praise God for a healing rest for both of us.  Now, if we can just keep her a little less active so she can heal.  Yeah right!