An ER visit recap- Lex had a staple removed from his knee

Yesterday was very busy, and very productive. My sister, The Quilter, came over with her kids, and while they ran amuck, she helped me work on adjusting a pattern. We were all done, and had the kids cleaning up, when Lex started crying, seemingly in pain, out of the blue. He stopped as soon as I picked him up, so I thought he must just want to be held. Once he started trying to help me with cutting out the last re-sized pattern, The Quilter took him and put him in the exersaucer. After a few minutes, he started crying again, kind of like he was in pain, but not horribly. I decided he must need to poo. He hadn't gone in a day and a half so I thought it must just be painful. I sat him on the potty and when I adjusted his legs, I felt something sticking out of his knee. I hollered at the The Quilter, and we inspected it, then gave it a gentle tug. It wasn't going to come out easily. We both thought it was probably a broken straight pin, I thought one with a flat metal end, which was why it wouldn't come out. I don't use those pins because I live in constant fear of this type of situation, however, I had made a tablecloth for someone last week, and the fabric came with some of those pins already in it. After discussing options, I called a friend that's a pediatric nurse. I was pretty sure we were headed for the ER, but I just needed verification. She said GO, and so The Quilter loaded up her kids and began her 45 minute drive home, while Eliz and I got ready to take Lex to the hospital. I showed Eliz Lex's knee, and told her we had to go to the doctor, and I wanted her to quickly pack a bag with some toys and books. It was so sweet, when she showed me what she had packed-it was all stuff for Lex! I explained that I meant for her, and once she had repacked, we were on our way. The people at the front desk were giving me a funny look as I came in, Lex was all bundled up, hat on, blanket wrapped around him, except his left leg was naked. I set him on the counter and said,

"He has a straight pin in his knee."

They all did that hiss of sympathetic pain. Then since Lex was smiling and flirting, they began remarking how good he was being. They had me sign one piece of paper and then had us sit down. Within ten minutes they had us in a room, within a half hour they had ordered the x-ray. The whole time Eliz and Lex were so good. Lex had only cried when you really pulled on the pin, otherwise he was content and happy, which is his normal state of being. Then a woman came in to finish check in and registration; I had thought it was odd that I only signed one sheet of paper! Next we went to x-ray. He was a champ, and Eliz was so great. She had to sit off to the side where she couldn't see very well, but she just sat quietly and asked if she could get up when she saw Lex and I coming around the corner. The x-ray showed that the metal thing was just in the soft tissue, and nowhere near his joints, Praise Jesus, however, it did have some sort of tip on the end. We went back to the room, and the doctor was in real quick to pull out the offensive thing. When she first tried, he screamed and squirmed enough that she decided to numb it. I told her I had been thinking she was going to have to do at least a small incision. She really wanted to avoid that, so she gave him a shot to numb it-not very much, and then she pulled it out. I was holding him the entire time, and worrying that I was going to bruise him I was holding him so tight. Once she pulled it out, we saw that it was not, in fact, a straight pin. The part that had held it in was folded over. It took me awhile to think what it looked like-then it came to me, a broken staple. They gave us a script for an antibiotic, and sent us on our way. The whole thing took 2 hours, maybe 3. We ate dinner, and Lex crawled around as if nothing had happened. After the kids were in bed I was walking barefoot through where Lex had been when he first started crying, and I felt something scrape the bottom of my foot. I searched the carpet, Bry-D helped, then I found a broken embroidery needle. The eye of it was broken off. That was what had stuck him in the knee. What's odd about it is the needle is no where near my sewing desk, and I haven't had my embroidery needles out in about a month. Ugh. I get the shivers just thinking about it. Anyways, I am now even more determined to replace our carpet with hardwood. Or laminate, whatever. Since my Dad does home remodeling I asked him to keep a lookout for some nicely priced laminate. Well, I'm still stressed from it all, and the little guy has woken from his nap, so I'll talk at you later.