Sendusout

Who would have thought that Elanor would be the first of our three children to go to the ER to get stitches? Well today she showed her brothers up in terms of hard knocks. Here is the story.

As I was fixing lunch for the boys today, Elanor came toddling from the nearby laundry area crying as in pain. But as I did a quick survey, I didn’t see anything of concern so I picked her up and tried to comfort her. As I held her, large red drops began to spatter her dress and my shirt and I realized she had cut her forehead. I ran to find something to soak up the blood and after a few seconds I checked to see the damage. There was a small gash about a half inch long and it looked pretty deep, but the bleeding slowed down fairly quickly. I called Daniel and we decided I should bring her up to a missionary at the seminary that has a nursing background. My heart raced as I herded the boys into the car, cold left over pizza in hand, and rushed the 10 minutes to campus, yelling at every pedestrian, trike, jeepney and bus that got in my way.

As our friend walked out, she took one look at Elanor and said we should take her to the ER if we didn’t want a large scar on her forehead. Well the hospital nearby is not the most reputable, so with some recommendations we decided to drive the distance to Medical City. At this point we decided it would be better to send Daniel to the ER with Ela, while I went back home with our boys.

Luckily the traffic just after noon is at its lowest so it only took Daniel 30 minutes to drive downtown to Medical City. After wandering around in confusion looking for the ER, after parking in the parking garage, Daniel found where he needed to be. The check-in only took a few moments and he found himself in the privacy of a triage room waiting for the medical staff. Elanor had fallen asleep on the drive over so she was still pretty groggy, but perked up when she saw a new place to explore. She just laid on the patient bed with Daniel beside her playing with her hospital wrist band while they waited.

After about 20 minutes a doctor came in, checked the cut, and agreed it needed a few stitches to prevent scaring. While Daniel and an attendant held Ela still the doctor quickly cleaned the cut and put in 3 tidy little stitches. She fussed the most during the cleaning and she did not like being covered up and held still but by the time the stitches were going in she was just blubbering, “ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba,” while shaking her little hand using the sign language we have taught her for, “all done.” She was a brave little patient and won the staff’s hearts over.

Discharge took another hour and cost us only P2,400 ($49). All-in-all we are very thankful she did not get hurt any worse than she did and thankful for the quick and professional attention she received. During the whole ordeal I was just thinking what it would be like if we were on a small Philippines island with no medical services. God is good and Ela is initiated as the tough Pape kid and the first in the family to get stitches.