Morris Family in Mexico: First Trip to the ER

Wednesday marked our first trip to the emergency room. I feel like that’s a small victory with four year old twin boys! Here’s the details:

We were playing at our cousin’s house in Estacada. At one point in time there were 9 kids four and under. The kids were having a blast! And the moms were having fun too; by the afternoon the “big” kids (Seth, Sam, Harlee, and Judah…4, 4, 4, and 3) were happily playing outside and we were chatting on the couch patting ourselves on the back for having such independent kids.

Then the screaming started. Sam’s cry is SO loud. Bryan ushered him to the front door bleeding on the front of his face. I assumed bloody nose. Then I saw his mouth. I was thankful Alicia, who’s a nurse, was there to help me. I sat Sam on my lap and tried to calm him down while she got ice and a compress, and tried to examine it further. She mouthed to me “ER” and stitches. Ugh.

So apparently Sam had a rope attached to a bike and was pulling it up the driveway. The bike got stuck, Sam tugged harder and his hand slipped from the rope. He fell forward—hard—into a log that was on its side and cut in half (so there was a 90 degree angle for his face to hit). Truthfully we don’t really know what happened because no adults were present and the only accounts are from four year olds. That was fun to tell the doctors and nurses at the hospital.

I was so thankful that I had just pumped and Josh had already ate and was due for a nap. Kasie gathered all my stuff and got the kids in the car; Alicia held Sam and tried to get the bleeding to stop while I called the doctor for advice and Ben to meet me at the ER. It was stressful because I was in Estacada and the nearest ER was 45 minutes away in Oregon City by back roads. But God really took care of us. Josh fell asleep immediately in the car and didn’t cry the whole way. Sam calmed down and actually conked out as well (I think he was exhausted from screaming so hard for so long). And Seth chattered away like nothing happened (which actually probably kept me from bawling and freaking out).

Ben got to the ER just seconds before me. Again, God is so good. Josh was due for a bottle and I couldn’t have done it on my own. Plus, Ben is just my rock. I needed him. I needed him to hold Sam. Sam needed him. Thank you God for a wonderful husband and daddy.

We ended up being at the ER for about 3 hours and Sam got eight stitches. They were able to put a topical numbing on Sam’s lip and then do a mild sedating spray in the nose (no shots!). Ben was there for the stitches, and me and my weak stomach could go into the waiting room with the other two. Seth was disappointed he couldn’t watch (I’m sure he would have been VERY helpful…cue sarcasm.) Sam was loopy for a couple hours afterwards and I may have taken a tiny video in which he said some pretty hilarious things.

So we survived our first ER visit. Sam is healing great. I was anticipating a rough first night after the injury, but he didn’t wake up once. And the next morning he woke up saying he was hungry, that the cut didn’t hurt at all—just itched. He doesn’t really like us to show or tell people and seems self-conscious of it. We’re so proud of how brave he was.

Pre-stitches.Post stitches (loopy!)At Subway where we stopped for dinner on the way home. We got Sam a milkshake at McDonalds. He was still loopy and told us that he had to have a milkshake “because it was tall, so it wouldn’t hurt his lip.” He also said that he was “going to eat all the strawberries in it.” It was pretty funny.