Jason is back! Yay!! We (ok I) went from counting the days until his return to the hours and then the minutes. What a delightful sight to see them come up the driveway. It was lovely the evening of his return to review all the lists pictured here and recycle them! I was no longer in charge (with Mom as my side kick!) of the outdoor and indoor plants, composting toilet, eggs in the incubator, hatching chicks, and all the chickens. It felt like an accomplishment to have been able to tend things well and have the place in good shape upon his return, but what a delight to be able to share around the load again. He seemed very eager for the opportunity to dive back in!
In anticipation of his return, I thought it might be a fun time to do what I had been hankering to do for quite some time - chop and donate my hair again. I'm on the "haircut every 2 years" schedule and had a good foot I was able to send off. It was just getting too long to manage (since I have very little time to devote to personal care) and I will admit that I was getting tired of it serving as Terah's security blanket or stuffed animal replacement (she pretty much needed to be stroking or tying it in knots to be able to fall asleep while nursing). So it was for that reason that I was both eager to do it but worried about how it was going to go for her. Let's say that there were a few tears in the first nursing sessions and mostly I moved from having knotted hair to kinks in my neck from trying to bend down far enough for her to reach it. Thankfully, now 5 days out, she seems to have mostly adjusted and I only have to offer her my head for very short stints. Phew! Very grateful that my favorite hair dresser was able to do the honors. Thanks sister!
The other major focus of the days/hours before Jason's return was monitoring (closely day and night) the two incubators full of eggs. We started with 80 eggs, took out 3 infertile in the first candling and 1 in the second. So there were 76 potential chicks under our care! I was worried about messing something up. Thankfully, we had a good hatch and had a total of 59 chicks hatch - my that many chicks can be noisy! Since hatching one has died, Jason had to do one mercy killing, and 18 went off to PA to Jason's brother and girlfriend. So we are still enjoying 39! Here's a very common scene in our home of late!
All the girls love to spend time up there watching them but Terah is more or less obsessed with our fuzzy friends. In the first few days she was cracking us up: saying "boo" at them as they all were trying to take a nap or playing peek-a-boo or just letting out a spontaneous shriek of delight or even reading them stories. I can't say gentleness is yet her forte but she really is doing pretty well, though we do have to watch her closely as she will try to swipe for one and pick it up if she can get close enough. Sadly, it was her enthusiasm for the chicks that was literally her downfall yesterday!
It wasn't long before she sacked out for a nap and I modified my afternoon plans so I could get home early and we could troubleshoot what we needed to do. Initially the thought was that no stitches were needed but then that decision started to come into question - the placement of it made scarring pretty likely and the scarring, we started to fear, would possibly include a healing of tissues where there could be a lump or divot or both on her lip. Once I was home and Terah was awake we checked in by phone with our neighbor who had been an ER nurse. Kali and I did a blitz picking of the spinach patch until he got home and graciously came over and gave us the news we really didn't want to hear, but were grateful for his honesty in giving it. He was clear that if a child came in with that cut he would want to stitch it. He was concerned about how it would heal up and the potential for a nasty and obnoxious scar. He was also clear about the process of what they would do at the ER and that it would be traumatic for her (and us) but would not last long.So my folks agreed to take Kali and Alida to soccer and after Kali and I had a teary parting Jason and I were off to the ER with Terah. She was not even in RMH's system yet since she had been born at home, which tripped the check-in woman considerably. I feared we were not off to a good start when Terah screamed bloody murder while they tried to get her pulse by putting the little pulse-ox on her foot. She was also not impressed with her ankle hospital band. I was fearing the worst at this point, honestly!
We were put in the fast track waiting (thankfully) and so were called before we had gotten through our full bag of toys and books. The next part was about the worst - getting her weight. Yep, she HATES the scales - she could stand or sit on it but it meant me putting her down in an unfamiliar place with people she was not feeling inclined to be warm and friendly with. They graciously allowed us to get creative and Jason stepped on the scales without her and then with her. She still didn't like it but they got her weight...
The consult affirmed our coming. They would put in one stitch to pull it back together. They kindly explained the process and agreed to put some topical numbing on before doing the needle numbing and stitch. The minutes felt like they went by slowly as we tried to keep her calm and to keep our own anxiety in check. Soon enough they were there with the little board and velcro vest used to restrain her. She screamed, she gagged, she threw up as they tried to clean it with iodine, they cleaned her up again, flushed the spot, she's still crying but not as intensely, they give her several shots of numbing stuff, I sing to her, she cries but is not kicking or fighting, he puts in one stitch, we all breath a sigh when it is in to the point that he almost lets go of the needle before tying it off, she keeps crying but is hanging in there, Jason is rubbing my shoulders while I comfort her, he ties it off and proclaims us done, we unvelcro her, I lift her up and feel a surge of emotion, my ears start to close and I realize I better sit down with her, they leave us alone to nurse, gather our emotions and then we are free to check out and go home!
Oh, it felt so good to be driving AWAY from the hospital. And we even beat the girls and grandparents home from soccer. We found ourselves getting back to our original evening plans - I started washing and processing the spinach, while making popcorn for testing and our first round of fresh spinach dip. Terah did a lot of nursing throughout the evening and was a tad more tender (maybe) than usual, but honestly was such a trooper! Her night was not even so much worse than is normal for her (not saying much, but basically I noted in the morning that I wasn't about to complain - while woken a lot, I spent the full night in bed rather than the chair). She has a little cold two so is contending with multiple uncomfortable sensations.It feels good to feel like we did the right thing. As soon as the stitch was in and we could see how much of a difference it made, it felt like the wise path to have chosen (even if the hard one to consider initially). Jason and I both felt emotionally weary in the evening. There were aspects of the day, especially for Jason who was with Terah when it happened, that brought back some of the trauma associated with Kali getting burned with hot water around the same age on Wolfe St. Jason noted that Terah falling into the kiddie pool felt similar to how it was when Kali fell into the bath tub - that feeling of being right there and kind of like it was happening in slow motion and he just couldn't get there in time. I was glad in both cases that we could be with our injured daughter together AND that I was still nursing her. Can't quite imagine either ER visit without that method of comfort. It struck me that our neighbor was working as an ER nurse the day we took Nora in the day she was air lifted to UVA. And, this time, while not working at the ER, he still played an important role in our experience; one that we felt very grateful for once again!
So I think the worst is behind us and as we ate last evening I commented on all the things I felt thankful for (little and big things alike): that my parents were around and could help with the older girls, that it was easy for me to clear the last few hours of my work day, that she got a long nap that afternoon and I was able to get a walk in with a friend before coming home, that the ER wait wasn't too long, that the staff there were kind and patient and gentle and competent, that her injury was not worse, that I was still able to get the spinach picked and processed before today's storms, that she did not seem traumatized by the experience and even handled it with a bravery I had not anticipated, that Jason and I were able to be with her and with each other through the experience, that we had my dad's counsel and our neighbor's second opinion to help us make a good decision...So, I'm certainly not looking for more ER visits in our future (no need for Alida to take a turn), but do feel glad for the support and care we received.
Now, I better work on my work backlog from the unexpected hours off yesterday...
No comments:
Post a Comment