We started our adventure by going to Rohr Park near our house during the late morning. It's a very nice park with a running trail, outdoor fields, plenty of grassy areas, a couple playgrounds, and an outdoor rail system for some small trains (think amusement park size where 8-10 kids ride on it). One of the playgrounds has equipment with wood beams and boards as the primary material where the kids run and play supported by a large metal framework. Most of the boards are 2X4 size or larger. One pair of beams (these are probably 3X4 and about 12 feet long) is in an area where the kids have to walk along the long narrow beams to get to the other side.
After we'd been there for about 15 or 20 minutes, RJ was playing with another boy and running all over the play set. Ryleigh, who, by the way, had on a skirt and was crawling around the set with bare knees, was doing her typical own thing and playing on another section of the play set. While crossing the narrow beam, RJ slipped, caught himself, and stood back up. He quickly started pulling up his pant leg. With her Mommy senses in high gear, Amy immediately detected that something was wrong and asked RJ what was going on. This is where I entered the picture because I had been in a position with my back turned to RJ playing with Ryleigh. I ran over to RJ and saw that he had a splinter about 1/4 inch long sticking out of an area above his right knee. I snagged the splinter and slowly pulled out what I thought was a short splinter. A little bit came back out. Not knowing there was more there, I pulled him off the play set and went over to a bench. You'd have thought, at this point, that somebody had lost a leg based on how loudly RJ was crying. We had one of the other small kids playing on the playground come over and ask us if RJ was going to be okay. While on the bench, I looked again at the area where the splinter had been and felt it with my finger. A) RJ screamed when I did that, and B) I could feel there was still something under his skin. Uh oh.
We decided to leave the park and on the way to the vehicle, debated on how we were going to get this splinter out. We decided to let RJ calm down, finish running some errands, get some lunch, and then try to dig out the splinter. Lunch at Applebee's was good, the errands in Mission Valley were successful, and the kids fell asleep in the vehicle while running around. We got home mid-afternoon and once settled back inside, made our attempt at splinter removal. RJ had been wincing and complaining about the pain all during lunch and the errands. Knowing our son, we weren't sure how much of the "Ouch-ing" was drama and how much was legit.
RJ flipped out any time that one of us got near to his "wound" so my efforts to use a small needle and tweezers to retrieve the remainder of the splinter were completely futile. Several attempts later, Amy and I conceded that a trip to see a medical professional was warranted.
Amy called Tricare and got authorization for us to go to a local Urgent Care Clinic while RJ and I packed a bag with snacks, water, juice, the iPad (I'm sooooo thankful I grabbed this!) and some headphones. At about 4:30 p.m. we took off on our adventure, and what an adventure it turned out to be!
The doctor at the urgent care clinic looked at RJ's knee, confirmed that there was definitely something still in there that needed to be removed, but was hesitant to try anything because RJ absolutely freaked out anytime that someone's hands got within a few feet of his knee. He was apologetic, but recommended that we go on to the ER at Balboa Naval Hospital, or to the ER at the Children's Hospital in San Diego.
After a quick consultation with Amy, we loaded back up in the car and headed off to Balboa Hospital--less hassle to go there than to get the proper authorizations to go to the Children's Hospital. We walked through the door of the ER at Balboa at about 5:30 p.m. Vitals were taken by around 6 p.m. About 6:30 RJ had a few goldfish for snacks (this would later come back to bite us), and around 7:30 p.m. we were called back into the ER. The nurses and docs that came in were greeted by tears, screams, and "I want to go home!" RJ was NOT a model patient during our early hours in the ER.
The doctors tried to numb the local area to allow for splinter extraction, but RJ was just too freaked out to let them touch on it, let alone stay still enough for a scalpel to be anywhere near his knee. The decision was made to sedate him, but alas, the earliest we could do that was 10:30 p.m. since RJ had eaten the goldfish crackers at 6:30. Another delay due to only one CRNA on staff pushed us to 11:30. The efforts started in earnest at about 11:45.
While all this was transpiring, RJ transformed into a much better patient. He had "stickers" on his chest for monitoring and starting about 11:30, he had oxygen in his nose. He didn't complain very much and he laid flat on his back the whole time. Thankfully, the iPad was with us so he watched segments of several movies and some Looney Tunes. On an interesting note, while the oxygen was in his nose (a canula) he made a statement like, "Now, I'm like that Grandma." I asked him who he was talking about and he stated that it was like "the Grandma in the snowy mountains." Who he was referring to was MY grandmother who passed away in early 2011. The last time he saw her, he was about 1 1/2 years old -- over three years ago. Somehow, he had this memory of her stashed away in the back corners of his brain.
Finally, at around midnight, RJ was given the shot to start his "dreamy sleep" so the splinter could be removed. It was very hard for me to watch him start to fade out and go to sleep. His last words to me before going out were "Dad, my eyes are getting dizzy." Once he was out, the docs started working to get the splinter out. I'm actually kind of glad that RJ was out because they had a hard time locating the splinter and getting a good grip on it. Two small incisions were required to extract the splinter. In the end, it turned out to be about a 1/2 inch long sliver of wood (see photo below). RJ ended up with a bandage and no stitches.
For the next 1 1/2 hours, RJ very, very slowly came to. He took longer than the average kid, according to the nurses, and even after we left, he was still super loopy and dizzy. He talked a little about what he was dreaming about and it appears that his dreams were heavily influenced by Wall-E, the Pixar film. He talked about "after we land" and having blue and red people carried around on floating things.
We finally got back to the home ranch just after 2 a.m. What a day!
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| Hanging out in the ER waiting room. |
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| The cause of our long ER adventure. |
Wow, that sounds painful for everyone involved! Happy it's out. Hope you both got to rest up from your ER experience.
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