You know the one, the one that’s different from any other, the one that makes you realise instantly that something isn’t quiet right. It makes you feel sick to the stomach.
Well I had that scream on 17th July this year.
It was just your usual Sunday morning pottering around, the kids had just woken their dad up and we’re playing like normal. We wandered into the kids room to examine their broken blind when we heard it, I felt my stomach drop.
We both ran into the master bedroom where they were last seen playing and I found Kayleigh knelt over by my bed. Instantly I’ve picked her up and she had her hand over her mouth crying hysterically. Placing my hand over her’s, I realised just how bad this was when the blood started to drip through my fingers too.
We have had a few accidents with bumps and bruises but nothing to this extreme.
Once we had managed to calm her down and call the grandparents to come get Ethan we managed to get a look at the damage, she had managed to split her bottom lip from front to back down to the bottom.
So off to the A & E we trotted with a damp towel on the lip, getting there about 9.40am for it to be empty! Thinking we wouldn’t be very long i didn’t take much with me other than my purse etc. I was still dressed in my house clothes which were covered in blood and Kayleigh was still in her PJ’s which were covered in blood too.
After being sent to another part of the hospital and then back again to see someone else they agreed she needed to be put to sleep to have the stitches in so we commenced our wait in the A & E waiting room to be seen by the MaxFax team and be taken to the children’s ward. This must have been about 10.40 and by then the bleeding had slowed down and Kayleigh was in a good mood all things considered. We was also told nil by mouth as they were unsure when the surgery would take place.
So my little baby sat with her lip like this:
And then we waited…
and waited – still in A & E Reception…
Till just after 2pm! when they finally took us into the Major side of A & E. This was when someone finally looked at the damage done then set up Kayleigh’s numbing cream on both hands and sent us up to the ward to wait to be called.
By this time Kayleigh was extremely hungry and thirsty but we had to keep distracting her, hoping the IV line would go in soon to rehydrate her.
After a very long wait we eventually got taken down to theatre at 7.30pm for them to finally sort out her IV line in preparation. I was due to go in with her whilst they put her to sleep but I just couldn’t, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it so sent her dad in instead.
The guilt I felt was immense, never before had I been in this situation and I couldn’t be there for her. I wasn’t brave enough to watch her go through this yet since we had gone to the hospital she hadn’t cried or whimpered about her lip.
Even when they put the IV’s in she didn’t cry once, she was my brave girl.
After what felt like the longest 40 minutes of my life we were called in to recovery to go see her. I wasn’t expecting them to put her straight in my arms and let us take her back to the ward so quickly.
As we were wheeled back to the ward I snuggled her close, she was out cold and almost snoring!
By the time we were settled back on the ward only one of us could stay so I sent DaddyvsWork home to get us both a change of clothes and supplies as I decided to stay ready for when she woke up and needed me.
That was at 3am when we sat eating terry’s chocolate orange and fruit shoot. Everything I am against but she was hungry, in pain and had been so brave I just wanted her to have a bit of comfort.
We eventually got discharged from the hospital at just after 3pm the following day. After 31 hours in hospital I was just glad to get home!
So there you go, probably one of the worse days of my life since becoming a parent I just hope I never hear that scream again. Kayleigh on the other hand recovered well enough to go to her end of pre-school party and got transformed into a ladybird – I on the other hand took a lot longer to recover from the whole incident.
