I don't handle blood streaming out the back of my son's head too well. Update!!!!

"i don't want to die!"  oh my gosh---what a classic child moment!
 
i'm glad he's ok, and i probably would've called 911, too.  that's what it's FOR! (speaking of tax dollars[])
 
boys have a knack for split heads... my brother was always doing that and he turned out ok!

aw, you guys are making my eyes water!

I was cleaning the house earlier and he was complaining that he was bored. I allowed him to play with this sponge bob bouny ball that he has, downstairs. I swear not EVEN 1 minute into playing with the ball, I had taken a break to pee, got my pants unbuttoned and I heard...CRASH! So, I run downstairs with my pants practically falling off of me and I go, "OMG! Are you OK!?!?" He said, "I'm sorry, mom! I did it on accident!" and I said, "WHAT DID YOU DO? ARE YOU OK?" and he said that he had broken the lamp. I had him run upstairs and I shut the door so that neither he nor Ella could come downstairs and I vacuumed up all the broken glass. For like 20 minutes. I just envisioned in my head him stepping on a piece of broken glass and taking a toe off! I wanted to make sure there wasn't a chance in Hades that I missed a piece of glass.

MAN! He is an accident waiting to happen!

Dear God,

Don't you think I've suffered enough from adrenaline attacks in the past day???
Can you lighten up, please?

Oh, and looking over my son so that he DOESN'T get hurt would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
one of your frequently praying creations

I felt SO stupid for calling 911, but I seriously thought I was going to pass out. I got real hot and nauseous and dizzy. And NO ONE was home except for us. It took a lot for me to be able to even call 911 and speak coherently to the lady!

 
Rebecca - my DH is an EMT with the fire dept. and trust me, they don't mind calls like this at all.  They appreciate the situation and most of all they (I think I can speak for the majority) love kids.  I would've done the exact same thing as you did, including panicking and almost passing out []

In 1972, I was riding my skateboard and dodged a kid learning how to ride a bicycle. I fell back and cracked my scalp open on power transformer (when they first became popular to set on the ground.) That wasn't my first electrical experience. Anyway, I had a nice little scar on the back of my head for quite some time. My first electrical experience was when I was 3. I stuck a bobby pin in a wall plug.

ORIGINAL: ron2
My first electrical experience was when I was 3. I stuck a bobby pin in a wall plug.

[sm=eek.gif] Wow! Your poor mom.

Completely OT, but Janobonano I love your avatar. What a puppy!

Paula

My son came home early from school yesterday complaining that his head hurt. I didn't think anything of it, figured that he is probably just now feeling the actual pain because the head is healing and the skin is tightening.

I gave him tylenol and had him lay down on the couch and watch some cartoons. He felt warm to me, but I thought at the time my skin was cold.

Last night he was fine during dinner and he ate everything and even dessert. Around 7 pm, he started to complain that his head hurt again. I went downstairs and this time I KNEW he was warm. He was shivering like he was cold. I took his temp and it was 101.3. I gave him tylenol and called the ER. They didn't seem concerned and said that it was probably unrelated, but that if he's still running a fever, to bring him to the doctor today or back to the ER.

The wound itself is not swollen and looks like it's healing up just fine. I was FREAKING OUT and my fiancee calmed me down by telling me that he probably is just now feeling the trauma from the incident and his body is reacting. It's not sitting right with me. If he's still running a fever this morning, then I'm taking him either to the doctor or to the ER.

I have tickets to a concert tonight that I am not only wanting to go to, but I have to go to because I have to write a paper on it for my Humanities class. Obviously if my son is not well, then I cannot go.
I'm freaking out.


Any suggestions??

They're likely right about it being unrelated, but I'd feel the same way you do.  If you have a family Dr., I'd call them today and ask about it.  Sorry you're all going thru this rough week and I hope the fever drops and it was all nothing serious.

I think you did the best possible thing, by calling 911. It would have been much worse to load up your bleeding child and drive, in a panick, to the emergency room.

I hope his little head is feeling better soon. Tell him that scar is going to look VERY cool[]

The wound itself is not swollen and looks like it's healing up just fine. I was FREAKING OUT and my fiancee calmed me down by telling me that he probably is just now feeling the trauma from the incident and his body is reacting. It's not sitting right with me. If he's still running a fever this morning, then I'm taking him either to the doctor or to the ER.

It's really quite common to run a bit of an elevated temperature following any type of injury, usually we do not become worried unless the temperature is over 102. The most common reason for the temperature is atelectasis which is parts of the lung becoming collapsed because hurt people tend to lie or sit around more then they usually do. Get him up and about as much as possible It is exceedingly rare to have a face or scalp wound (anything on the head and neck) become infected as the area is very very vascular. I staple and sew people up pretty much every day and I've only seen these injuries get infected a handful of times in normal patients without immunosupression (like HIV, cancer, Hep C). Don't keep going to the ED, they are there for emergencies and they tend to make patients in your circumstance wait for a ridiculous amount of time when they triage. I would also recommend going to your PMD or possibly an urgent care if you are worried because they won't make you wait as long and are the more appropriate place to evaluate the elevated temp. But like I said, sounds pretty normal at this point. Hope he heals up soon!

He ended up being fine. Thanks, guys.

It was just a weird fever. He actually went in to his doctor today for a check and the doctor said it healed up so well that he took the staples out.
We cannot get his hair soaking wet until Monday because the doctor wants to make sure the scab has definitely healed up.

OMG... Rebecca.. how did I miss this post?[]
 
I am so sorry that you are going through this.. I am sure that even with the new symptoms he will be fine though and since I work in a hospital I can say that I agree with ottoluv... going to urgent care or the doc is the best. The ER's are crazy, you will wait forever and it takes away from true emergencies such as patients being admited for strokes, heart attacks, etc...  IMO this is not an emergency situation so there are probably some better options for you that will take less time and won't be as stressful on both of you.  
 
keeping fingers crossed for you both...
 
(((hugs)))  

Thanks.

He's fine. He was fine all day yesterday and I made sure the school knew to call me for ANYTHING at all.
I ended up going to the concert last night and it was A BLAST!
I mean, minus the 7 ft. tall guys that just HAD TO BE in the front by the stage keeping the rest of us short people from being able to see anything at all.

To reiterate what everyone else has said: calling 911 was not stupid.  I was in a similar situation quite a few years ago while I was babysitting.  A child in my care fell and cut his forehead, near the hairline; gaping wound and lots of blood.  There were three other children in the home and I couldn't get a hold of mom and dad was downtown and I didn't have a car seat.  I called 911 and then called a neighbor to sit with the other kids while I went to the hospital with him.  It is the only thing you can do and in this case, it is an emergency and that is what 911 is there for. 
 
So happy to hear that he is doing well, so soon after his accident! 
 
Sue

Oh gracious!  Sorry I missed this.
 
My youngest son was a walking, talking accident waiting to happen.  That boy even had stitches in his TONGUE!  I got to where I could tell at a glance how many stitches a wound would need.  Blood, no problem, but when he broke his arm and the wrist looked for all the world like a bent elbow, THAT freaked me out.
 
The only time HE got freaked was when he cut an artery in his hand.  We went to Urgent Care, they sutured and sent us on our way.  We got out to the van and I looked over, he's holding his hand up as told and he had blood dripping off his elbow.  We go back in and they put a bigger bandaid on it and sent us on our way again.  I have to point out that when I TOLD the doc that it was too much blood for a normal cut he patted me on the knee and actually had the nerve to say "there there, it ALWAYS looks like too much blood to a mother".....this was probably the 30th or so visit for sutures so I wasn't a novice......
 
After we'd gotten home the two boys were sitting at the picnic table playing a board game.  I had a latex glove on DS injured hand to keep it clean...this boy attracted dirt like no tomorrow.....I walked into the kitchen for more drinks for us and while I was in there my oldest son started calling for me that his brother was bleeding again.  I went out immediately and saw my youngest standing with his hand over the trash can...the glove was so filled with blood that it had pulled right off.  I could not stop the bleeding (not knowing at the time it was an artery) so I took my belt off for a tourniquet and wrote the time on his forehead in magic marker and had my oldest son...all of 10... call 911 for me....didn't have a cordless phone in those days.....to get him to the ER I had to go over a drawbridge and I was afraid to DRIVE him and be stuck on that bridge should the bleeding get worse.  I figured that at least in an ambulance I had paramedics who could HELP in that event.  When they tried to take a BP on him they couldn't get a reading and the poor little guy looked at the man and said "that's cuz I lost all my blood in the trash"!
 
In that case I followed the "rules" of not using the ER for a non life threatening emergency and because of the complacency and incompetence of that Urgent Care doc it became a very life threatening situation.  I should have sued and put that place out of business.  My son could have bled to death.....and even the paramedics were glad that I'd put that tournaquet on,(usually a no-no)  had him laying down and was holding his arm up over his heart.
 
Aside from the broken bone, I'm typically calm during the emergency and freak AFTER it's all over.  But, we all react differently, and you did the RIGHT thing for your situation.