It’s An Emergency! A Few First-Timer Tips on How to be Prepared

April was a great month. I felt like I had it all together: the garden was weeded, the new-to-us swing set was power washed and stained, and all of our clean clothes magically found their way out of the laundry basket, into their respective drawers and closets – a Sisyphean task I assure you, and therefore rarely completed. May started out just the same, happy to ride in on April’s jaunty coattails.

May is my birthday month, and I was so excited to receive a long-sought-after gift: counter top stools for the kitchen. My little guys love to play sous chef, and now they had a special spot at the kitchen island to help me prepare meals and ‘mix-a, mix-a’, as they call it, our beloved chocolate chip banana bread. We were all so excited! And then, disaster struck: my three year old fell off his stool, the stool fell onto the tip of his finger, and his finger – in the words of the orthopedic surgeon that we saw six hours later – ‘squashed open like a grape’.

There are moments in life when time seems to move in slow motion. The stool incident was definitely one of those moments for me. I saw it happening; I was literally sitting right next to my son, chatting with him about building train tracks in one breath, and watching him fall to the ground with the next. Once his piercing scream reached my ears, however, my adrenaline kicked into full-gear. I went into ‘Mommy Mode’, as my best friend Alison so cleverly terms it: two kids were expeditiously loaded into the car, a diaper bag was packed, and pressure was applied to his injury, while I simultaneously attempted to get someone – anyone! – on the phone to help us.

After a trip to the urgent care – where they promptly administered a nerve block – we were swiftly directed to the hospital emergency room. My son ended up having  an open fracture, meaning that his little bone had penetrated the skin of his finger. At one point, there was even talk of amputation. Thankfully, after a successful surgery and two follow up appointments with a specialist, his finger is recovering and my very active little guy has been cleared to resume his busy, preschooler life. Things are definitely looking up for the month of June, just in time for summer!

While I’m not sure if you can ever truly be prepared if and when an emergency situation like ours presents itself with your little one, I would like to share what I learned after going through our experience. *Please note that I am not attempting to address or presuming to address life-threatening emergencies with this post. This is simply my take on a first-time emergency experience with my child*

Have at Least Two Emergency Contacts on Speed Dial

Think of the top person on your emergency contact list. Add someone else. Then add one more person. My husband is often inaccessible during his work day. Given the nature of his job, he is not regularly at his desk, and cell phones are not always permitted. I can page him if necessary, which I attempted to do…..while my forty-pound son was clinging to my body like a lifeline, screaming and crying in pain. I can only imagine what the company operator thought of me! He kept saying: “Who? Who are you trying to reach? I can’t hear you. Yes, ma’am, I gather that it’s an emergency”. It’s actually slightly humorous thinking about it now; it was anything but at the time! Thankfully, my mom came to the rescue. She met us at the urgent care and took my infant daughter home with her. A quick text to my best friend, and she offered to switch her afternoon around in order to pick up my five-year-old from school.

 Know Where Your Local, Trusted Urgent Care is Located

Take the time to note where the closest urgent care to your home is located. We have two such facilities in our area; one is fantastic, the other is not. Even though our urgent care couldn’t treat my son’s injury, they administered some much needed pain medication. Moreover, a call was placed to the emergency room on our behalf, alerting the staff that we were en route. Interestingly enough, the hospital affiliation of our urgent care is different than the hospital that we were directed to. Nonetheless, the urgent care doctor took the time to personally place a call to the hospital ER. He even called me the following day to check and see how my son was doing. Ensure that your urgent care is a trusted facility such as this!

Know Where Your Pediatrician Directs Emergencies

I am extremely fortunate to have my father in law as our pediatrician. My husband placed a quick call to his Dad, and within minutes, I knew exactly where we needed to take our son. We don’t live very close to the hospital, a fact that made me very nervous as I approached the end of each of my pregnancies! The hospital where I did deliver my children is slightly closer than the rest, and would have been my automatic, Mommy Mode choice for our son. My father in law directed us elsewhere, ensuring that we received the best possible care for our son’s particular injury.

Be Organized

Have a new insurance card? Make certain that it is in your wallet or easily accessible. Do you know your child’s social security number? I certainly did not, and it was asked for on a number of medical forms. While I consider myself to be a rather organized person, I am constantly misplacing my wallet and keys. With three kids and all of their accoutrements being loaded in and out of the car multiple times a day, I tend to lose track of my own things! On any given day, these items might be in my purse, or maybe in the diaper bag. Often times, I unintentionally leave them on the front seat of my car. On the date in question, I spent a good five minutes attempting to locate my wallet and keys, two very necessary items. My husband always jokes that we need to put a tracking device on my things; I now might seriously look into it!

If Help is Offered, Take It!

 Many of us as moms feel like we can or should be able to do it all. Consequently, we don’t ask for help when we need it, or feel guilty accepting assistance when it is offered. When my girlfriend graciously offered to pick up my older son from school, I literally felt a huge weight being lifted off of my shoulders. Even still, I felt guilty accepting her offer; she had to rearrange her entire afternoon, and we live over a half-hour away from one another. Thankfully, she wouldn’t hear otherwise, and was more than happy to help. Likewise, when my Mom swiftly met us at the urgent care and took charge of my daughter, I was so relieved. Their collective aid allowed me to focus all of my attention and love on my injured child.  As the saying goes, it takes a village! I have certainly now learned the true meaning of that phrase.

Every seasoned parent undoubtedly has their own version of this story. I accidentally pushed my arm through a glass-paneled storm door as a five-year-old; my husband was inadvertently struck in the forehead by a golf club at age four while playing with his babysitter. Thirty-some years later, both sets of our parents vividly recall our respective trips to the emergency room. Our son’s fall was my first brush with such disaster, and it was truly traumatic. Thanks to the help and aid of our friends, family and a fantastic medical team, I am so relieved to say that his little finger is on the mend!

While I certainly do not wish an urgent care or emergency trip visit upon anyone, sometimes kids just get hurt. Have you gone through a similar experience with your child? What tips and words of advice would you offer other parents?