First ER Visit in Mexico

Well, we have officially survived our first (and hopefully last) emergency room visit in Mexico. 

It happened so quickly on a Wednesday two weeks ago. Wednesday's happen to be my maid day. Nachi comes once a week and cleans for around 3 hours and often makes us a meal--it's fantastic, definitely a perk of living here! Usually, I make an effort to not be around so that she can clean without Josh under foot, but I had hosted Bible study that morning. Everyone from Bible study had left about 20 minutes before and Nachi had just told Josh to be careful because the marble floors were wet. I heard her telling him that and interrupted to him to "be careful because the floors are wet!" And of course, two minutes later he slipped and landed smack on his chin. I could tell by his cry that it was a major injury and when I took a closer look, I almost passed out. His chin had a HUGE split. I cannot even express how thankful I was that Nachi was there to help me, as I'm so horrible with blood. She helped me tape a gauze badge on it to help stop the bleeding, and I quickly called Ben to hurry home and take Josh to the ER. Thankfully he was able to leave immediately, so he could head to the hospital, and I could pick up the big boys from school, and meet him there.

We have so many things to be thankful for with this event, but one of the major things is that it didn't happen 5 months ago when we first moved here. No one (the nurses, the doctors, the pharmacy, the insurance secretary) spoke much, if any, English. However, we know a sufficient amount of Spanish now to survive in those situations. That feels like a massive accomplishment!  

 12 stitches for my brave boy!

 We had to wait for 45 minutes or so for the surgeon to come stitch up Josh's chin. Thankfully I had grabbed the tablet on the way out the door and Ben spent the time reading him a new book we had just checked out from the digital library. It was a life savor! 

 Ben was a rock through it all. The poor guy had to be there all through the shots and stitches. Josh did a great job and was very brave. They didn't even give him any laughing gas or anything! 

Meanwhile, the twins and I hung out in the outdoor patio space. As I said, I'm a total wimp when it comes to blood and gaping open wounds. Yuck. These salvia plants were full of hummingbirds and bumble bees.

 Would you believe that immediately after Josh was all done with stitches he tried to play tag? Ben and I were definitely more traumatized than him! 

 We spent the next few days laughing at Josh's blue whiskers.

 Sweet, sweet boy

This is the view from the waiting room of the pediatrician office where we were waiting for his stitches to be taken out. Unfortunately we ended up having to go twice because the doctor had to leave 4 stitches in the first appointment, as the wound was starting to pull apart again. 

Now, all is well and the wound is healing nicely. I may or may not be totally paranoid about the floors in our apartment being wet and someone slipping again, but I'm sure that will go away with time. And now Josh officially has the injury with the most stitches in the family. I'm hoping that it stays that way!