10.02.2013

Stratton’s broken nose.

Monday morning I was busy, to say the least. Big meeting coming up on Tuesday and Wednesday. Still working on my presentation for Tuesday, along with my normal workload and a new project that could have me on a plane to Delaware . . .but Arden had been having diarrhea really bad over the weekend and her diaper rash was horrendous and we were out of prescription cream I called the doctor’s office to see if they might could squeeze her in for an appointment. They said they had an opening at 11am! I was convinced that her tummy troubles was the result of switching formulas from soy to one with milk proteins, so Sunday night Jarrod ran to the store and bought Soy milk for us to try that. The doctor agreed. So we are now on regular soy milk (Silk) and she also told us to cut out any fruits and juices (not that she gets much juice- it’s more like flavored water) but that actually makes diarrhea worse! We will see what happens on the soy milk and everything gets better we will try some milk again in 3 months. If it continues, after being on the soy milk for a couple of weeks, then we will be looking at doing an allergy panel to see if we can pinpoint what she is allergic to. Ok, that’s figured out, so we decided to go ahead and get her first dose of the flu vaccine over with since we were already there.

Then suddenly my phone starts to ring, and it’s not a number I recognize, but’s it’s a local number so I answer. It’s one of Stratton’s teachers. The first words are: “Has the nurse called you yet?”, I said no, and the rest is kinda a blur. . . ."Stratton, was in an accident. . . .ran into another kid. . . threw up blood. . . .pale. . .not acting like himself. . .I’m worried”. I try repeating all this to Jarrod, who then jumps up and says he’s going to get him, NOW. I tell the teacher that Jarrod is on his way.

The nurse comes in to give Arden her shot as Jarrod is leaving. We really like this nurse and have developed a relationship with her, so I tell her what’s going on and ask her if we can make another appointment for Stratton. It’s 11am, she says can you come back at 1:30- we will work you in! {Whew! Man, I REALLY love this clinic!!} She quickly gives Arden her shot, I grab her up and we are gone! I did talk to the nurse (she finally called) And she told me that Stratton and another boy had run into each other out in the gym. Stratton threw up, but she thought it was from the blood from his nose draining back to his stomach which made him sick. She said she thought he was fine now. I told her that my husband was on his way to come get Stratton as we speak, and again she said she thought he would be fine if we didn’t want to come get him. . .So far I am not impressed with this school “nurse. . . I explain to her that he has had a bad concussion before and we’d just feel better getting him looked at and we’d already set up and appointment. IMy first stop was the pharmacy and of course there were some issues there- some miscommunication between the clinic and the pharmacy. Luckily we have a fantastic pharmacist (we go to church with) and he fixed it! I decided to take Arden back to daycare, since I didn’t know what the afternoon appointment would hold and besides she was sound asleep before I could even get her medicine picked up at the pharmacy.

After I drop her off I call Jarrod (about 100x before he finally picked up!) and found out he was headed home and Stratton is now acting pretty normal. He’d perked back up and just had a red spot on his head and nose. Jarrod didn’t sound worried. So, I ran to the nearest Walgreens to pick up some cream the doctor recommended using on Arden’s diaper rash in between the prescription cream. By the time I got home Stratton was on the couch munching on crackers and acting fine. We actually debating on whether or not we should take him in or not! We decided to go ahead, it couldn’t hurt and I would feel better getting him checked out.

So, back to the doctor we go! They checked him over really good, and other than a little fever- which apparently is normal after an injury-he looks ok. No signs of a lingering concussion! Then the doctor said she wanted to get some x-rays of his nose to make sure it isn’t broken. . . . Wait. Do what?? I mean it’s a little swollen and there is a red spot, but, broken?? I thought to myself “Really? It seems a little overkill, but I guess it won’t hurt”. She explained that a kid’s nose is almost all cartilage, except for one small part. . .and guess which part Stratton got hit? Yep.  So they gave us an ice pack to help keep the swelling down and we head all the way to the other side of town to the hospital to get x-rays done!

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Waiting to get a picture of his nose!

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FYI- it’s like 2:30 by now and Stratton hasn’t had a nap and has had very little to eat (Luckily we had his church backpack in the car and it had snacks and toys in it!) but surprisingly he is being very well behaved. Even though he doesn’t like the idea of having a broken nose, he’s ok with getting the x-rays done. He did so good! He did just as the radiologist said and it was over in no time! They told us that the doctor’s office would be the one to call us. And with that we headed to Andy’s for ice cream!!

While we were enjoying our ice cream Jarrod’s phone rang. This is what I heard: “Ok. Ok. We’re on our way.”. . . .I couldn’t believe the news! He HAD broken his nose! They wanted us to go see the ENT right away! {Seriously?!!} We just happened to be close to Arden’s daycare and it was already 4pm, so we ran by there and picked her up while Jarrod tried to arrange for someone to come get her since we had no idea how long we’d be or what they would want to do! My friend Lori met us at the ENT office and got Arden, and it’s a good thing because we had a pretty good wait. After the annoying old lady got taken back it was much better- but we still had to wait almost an hour. When we finally got in a room it didn’t take too long, and it didn’t take long for the ENT to decide that there was just too much swelling for him to see anything and he’d need to see him back on Wednesday.

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This was Stratton telling Jarrod that he had an idea. . . .when the doctor opened the door we needed to run out! Haha. He did so good at all the appointments. He even let the Doctor look in his nose with plier-looking things!

We left the ENT’s office about 5:30, ran to get Arden and then went home! It’s funny how tired you can be after sitting in doctor’s office’s all day!! I decided to stay home with him on Tuesday. Jarrod needed to work and my mom was in Canada (oh, yeah She and a friend had left on a bus tour trip on Sunday!) And I had already gotten a text message that I didn’t need to worry about my presentation on Tuesday, there would always be another time. Everyone would understand. I do work with some great people! I got several texts and emails checking in on Stratton on Tuesday.  He acted pretty normal, other than running a low grade fever. He took about a 3 hour nap and after he woke up from it he acted like he felt much better!

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We played with the Lincoln logs and other stuff that “Arden messes up”

Wednesday he wanted to go to school, and he was acting normal and surprisingly his nose wasn’t that swollen and he didn’t get a black eye! Which is what we were told would likely happen! His appointment was at 4:30pm so I got to work most of the day- well, I say work- the conclusion of the meeting was on Wednesday, then we went to lunch, then we had another marketing meeting. . . Then it was time to go pick the kids up. I went and picked up the kids-I decided that we might as well get Arden since it was such a late appointment and it was church night. I let Stratton get a happy meal to eat before his appointment (big deal, since Mommy hates Old MacDonald’s- he will tell you!) and even though they warned me that they had overbooked Wednesday’s appointments and we’d probably have to wait awhile, we didn’t wait very long at all! The appointment went well, the ENT thought that it looked good and it would probably heal back together just fine on it’s own! What a relief!!

It could have been much worse (I was terrified of them having to “set it” or surgery to correct it) so I am counting my blessings!