Trip to the A&E - again!

It's one of those moments you wish you could rewind, un-do, whatever. But too late, blood everywhere.

Russell's forehead hit the metal gate at home. I was the one who let go of him while he lunged for his new shoes. The force left a big gash near his left eyebrow. I thought it was a normal knock but when I picked him up, his face and clothes were already covered in blood, the blood had pooled at his left eye (and so he shut it) and so it looked like one of those scenes from CSI where the victim has his eyes gorged out. I swear I thought he lost his eye while he cried in my arms looking at me pitifully with his right eye. I went nuts as panicked gripped me, I really lost it this time. Renee was already half-way to dreamland but she immediately became alert again, in shock that I had lost my cool. In an attempt to help pacify me, she kept asking Russell to shush, don't cry, eh, keep quiet. My pillar of strength that girl, oh ya and then the other pillar of strength Eugene, who rushed upstairs to get some towels to stop the bleeding. We pressed hard on the gash and grabbed our stuff and headed out to KK A&E.

When we reached the A&E, my heart dropped, there must have been a thousand people there with their "emergencies" and three-quarters of them had face masks on. What a bad time to have to go to the hospital, what with the H1N1 going around. If you weren't sick before treatment, you sure as hell will be sick by the time you're done 3 hours later. I wanted to turn back home and wished the gash would somehow miraculously close up by itself.

No dice. After waiting almost 45 minutes to be registered, Eugene decided to cut queue and approach the male nurse for immediate attendance. The nurse immediately attended to us, covered up the gash with a cotton pad. I suppose we were a more "urgent" case than those with fevers. We proceeded into another waiting area where many more people waited their turn.

Finally after 1.5 hours, we got to see the doc who reassured us the gash wasn't that deep (ya right, what do doctors know?) and we went through the formalities of determining what kind of pain relief and what type of stitching we preferred. Waited another hour before Russell was finally placed on a restraint, imagine psycho all wrapped up. The nurse held on to his head and the doc sewed 3 stitches. I was sent outside cos the doc thought I was pregnant (she feared I'd faint) damn that dress, never gonna wear it again. I heard his cries from outside and when they emerged, Russell was holding onto 2 sweets, eyes red but no longer crying and gave me a smile (loves him). According to Eugene, since his head was held down by the nurse, the tears couldn't quite flow down and it accumulated like a pool in his eye sockets. My poor baby.

We could finally go home and by which time Renee had woken up from a "nap". The kids stayed awake till 2am, giggling like normal. Mummy-me feels damn guilty.