Jacob now has TWO hospital gowns, one from his cochlear implant surgery and one from his dog bite accident. Two too many if you ask me, but hey, what doesn't knock us down, makes us stronger, right?
On Saturday, the boys were going to have a sleepover at grandma's and papa's house. I took them over there around 10:30 or so for the community snow day and we went back to grandma’s for lunch. After lunch, I left the boys there and went home. I got a call from Matt, who was at work, around 4:45pm and he said "Mojo (my brother in law's dog, who has been vaccinated) has bitten Jacob and they are on their way to minor care for stitches." Normally the dog is not around the kids because he has never really been around short people :). My brother in law went to work and the dog was laying in the living room. Jacob got down and crawled towards him and he bit him. My mother in law was in the room, but had her back to him, so no one really saw it, so we are going off of what Jacob described happened.
After the call, I was still calm at this point, I am thinking minor care, a few stitches, this shouldn't be too bad. Matt and I arrived at the minor care place at the same time. We both went in the room and I broke down crying. The lacerations were too much for me to see on my baby and there was so much blood. Yuck! Jacob wanted me, so I scooped him up and held him tight. The nurse walked in and put some numbing gel on his wounds to his face and the back of his head. There was one open wound behind the ear that was VERY deep and a wound on his face with scratches that were pretty severe looking as well. The wound on his face was so open that we were worried about major scarring. Not like this kid isn’t going to have enough to be picked on about with his implant, a huge scar on the other side of his head will even it out, right? Not likely, kids can be mean. Anyhow, I called my sister and asked her to find the name of a plastic surgeon and call me back. She called right back and said that a friend of the family was a doctor and would be calling me. Dr Dryer called and said, get him to Texas Childrens Hospital, which is where he needs to be. She said that she already called ahead and they are waiting for us. We told minor care that we were leaving and we jumped in the car and headed to TCH.
THANK YOU DR. DRYER!
Once we got to the medcenter, which anyone from Houston knows, is ALWAYS under construction, we could not find the entrance to the ER or parking with all the construction going on. Matt finally dropped me off the closest he could to the entrance and I walked Jacob in. We were in triage right way and seen by the doctor in an hour. Looking back, we were so impatient that it took so long, but typing it out now…one hour doesn’t seem that long in ER filled with children. Anyhow, we got into our room and had to rip Jacob’s shirt off to put the hospital gown on. Our nurse that helped us in triage happened to be the nurse we had when we got a room. Her name was Stacy and in my opinion, our little angel. She was absolutely amazing. She came in to start an IV for Jacob. She brought in another nurse to distract him and Stacy went to work She had the IV started, taped to his hand, and pain meds in his system in less then 5 minutes. When the IV was removed, there was less than a small dot left as a reminder. I really can’t thank her enough for being so wonderful!!!
THANK YOU STACY!
Not that I ever in a million years would want to go through this again, but it was sort of cute when Jacob started feeling the affects of the meds. His head started to sway and his eyes glassed over, like he had one too many glasses of wine. I am so glad that his pain had lessened and he was feeling a little better. Jacob didn’t complain about pain, not once! When asked if he was in pain, he said no, he just wanted to go home. When I asked him how he was feeling, he said fine, he wanted to see Noah. The doctors and nurses were so amazed at his strength and calm behavior.
Our doctor was Dr. Patel, we were blessed with the team of doctors and nurses attending to us. She treated us as though we were her family. Talking about everything they were doing before they did it.
THANK YOU DR. PATEL!
The plastic surgeon came in to start stitching Jacob up and Dr. Patel assisted him. They gave him a conscience sedative and set to work. The difference between completely sedating him and keeping him somewhat awake is because he is so young; they don’t want to have to breathe for him. The monitored his heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen level, while the suturing was in progress. Jacob’s eyes were opened, he moaned, and kicked around, but remembered nothing when he woke up. There were six lacerations that needed stitching, but becuase it's a dog bite, they can't stitch them up completely. They have to put less stitches, so that if there is any infection, it would realeased and not kept in. I held it together ok, but it was hard to watch. The nurse told me I could wait right out the door if it would be more comfortable for me….hmmm….let me think about that, uh, no! Are you crazy, that is my baby! HA! I know this is horrible, but I can not remember the name of the plastic surgeon, sorry Mr. Surgeon. You were amazing and I thank you for taking good care of my boy.
THANK YOU MR. SURGEON
We finished up around 11pm and they asked us to start waking him up around midnight. They would not let us leave until Jacob was awake and drinking liquids. I tried and tried to wake him, I wanted to get him home, but he was zonked out. Not only was he still a little sedated, it was midnight and he’s 4! I finally woke him up enough to be able to talk to him and I told him that we were not able to leave until he was awake and drinking. I tried to keep him talking and he was talking so funny. I asked him what he wanted to eat and said nuggets and fries from McDonald’s. I said ok, but we have to get out of here first, so Jacob kept his eyes open, very wide, as though it was a struggle. It was so funny, I should have taken a picture because I do believe he was still out of it, but his eyes were wide open like he had toothpicks stuck in them. At 2am, he had finally had enough to drink and was alert enough that we were discharged.
Since Matt just dropped us off and ran inside, he wasn’t 100% sure where he parked the car, nice, right? Crazed daddy on the loose. We tried to walk up the ramp that he drove into, but the gates were down and we couldn’t get it. We walked back into the ER and asked security to help us, but they were so unfriendly and no help. Sad really. Anyhow, we walked back outside and there was a security officer walking around that asked if we needed help and we did, so he helped us get inside. We finally made it to the van and Jacob looked up and me and said “Can I please go to sleep now?” I said “Absolutely big guy, you are amazing and mama loves you!” He sacked out and stayed asleep as we laid him in bed at 3am. He woke up in major discomfort at 9am. He said he couldn’t even lift his head off of the pillow, so I got some Tylenol and gave it to him and we laid there looking at each other for about 20 minutes until the meds kicked in and he could move his head a little. We laid there and watched who knows what on TV; I just couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I got up and showered, so I could go get his meds filled and he said that he was hungry. I asked him what he wanted and he said “you already forgot, I want nuggets and fries from McDonalds, silly mommy.” Oh, Of course!
The day before Matt worked a 4am-5pm shift and then all this, so he was up for 24 hours and I was trying to let him get a little rest and I could do all the running around. Jacob slept in my bed and Matt was in the playroom, so I told him to go lay with Jacob, and that I would be back. When I got home, Jacob had his McDonald’s and seemed to be content. Matt asked him to feed our dog a french fry just to see how he would react and Jacob said OK and did just that. Sandy took the fry then got in Jacob’s face and started licking him and Jacob was just fine, not scared at all. What a kid!
We had a very low key day and laid around watching TV all day. Jacob was asking for Noah and Noah was still with grandma and papa, so they brought him over and we ordered pizza for dinner. Noah is struggling a bit with all the attention and get well gifts Jacob is getting, so that has been a bit of a challenge, but this too shall pass. I have just been trying to give him some extra snuggles and lovin’.
We are supposed to clean Jacob’s wounds twice a day and boy does that stink! Monday morning it was just me and Jacob and I cried, he cried, we were a mess, but last night when Matt got home from work, I laid down with Jacob on my chest and read him a story while Matt cleaned him up. He squirmed, asked how much longer, and whined a bit, but all in all, he did amazing!
We have to go back for a follow up in a week, so please pray for fast healing with no infection.
Now, questions that I have been asked.
Is the dog dead- no the dog is not dead; it’s just not something I am dealing with at the moment or ever really, because my focus is on my child and the fact that he’s not dead. No worries though, the kids will not ever be around him again and this enabled us to have a great conversation about animals and how all animals are not as used to little kids like our dog is.
How are we doing- well, after the initial shock wore off and we got some sleep, we are all doing well. God is so good and His angels were definitely watching out for Jacob on Saturday. It could have been a lot worse, it could have been his implanted side, the dog could have done damage to his ear, or the dog could have drug him around and knocked him unconscious, which thankfully, none of the above happened. Many praise reports out of a horrible situation. We will ALL heal just fine.
Do I blame anyone- Of course not, how could I? Not one person involved would have ever wished this upon anyone and it was an accident, it could have happened while anyone was there with them. I feel so lucky and blessed to have so many people in my life that love me and my kids that this was just a freak ACCIDENT and no one’s fault. In my opinion, blaming anyone for this would not heal Jacob any faster, it won’t take away what happened, and it would allow hatred to enter my heart which pushes me farther away from my Savior!
Ok, so I believe I have covered it all and wrapped it up with a nice and neat bow. Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and positive thoughts. We are on the mend and will heal just fine. Keep the prayers and positive thoughts coming :)
I will leave you with this one photo of my little one right after he got his IV. You can tell by the look on his face, he was so over all this.
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