25 months 7 days

Day 769. Last night I headed to bed at midnight. As always Tammy and Emmy joined us in bed at some point. While they were up early, it was 7:40, when I got up to make their breakfast.

After breakfast I dressed them and took them downstairs, where I turned worship music on and got new Bible booklets out. We sat down and looked at a few together. When Randy came with his breakfast, I went upstairs to clean up and work.

And that's how far it was a day like any other. I was making great progress working, when I heard a crying Emmy approaching my room. At first I thought he had escaped downstairs because he wanted his Mommy, but then Randy came in with him in his arms, and his left eye was all blody. We have a barrier at the side of the couch in the living room to keep them from getting to the blinds, and Emmy had climbed on top of it to look at a dog outside, while Randy was giving them snacks and was busy with the other two. Before he knew it, he had fallen off the barrier behind it, hitting the blinds and then the toys on the ground. I removed some of the blood, and the cuts below and  above his eye looked rather deep. He was still crying, and I tried to calm him down. I decided it was best to take him to the hospital for the wound to be looked at and for them decide if he needed stitches. And so we got dressed, and by 10:45 I left the apartment with Emmy. I had him in my arm and only had a few cards with me, nothing else. I expected to come right back home after the doctor had seen him.

The hospital is only 2 subway stops from our house, which is practical, but I had never been inside before. People were looking at Emmy's bloody face. He was excited to go on the escalator after we got off the subway, and then we walked across the street to the hospital and then inside. At least for emergencies you don't have to have a negative Corona test. Mine was still valid for about another hour. The guy at the door told me where to go. It was pretty empty in the hallways, and even the sections we walked through were all not in used. Then we got to the kids' emergency room where a few parents were waiting. I registered Emmy, and we sat down to wait our turn. It didn't take long until we were called inside.

The lady asked us a few questions about what had happened and cleaned the wound a little, which Emmy did not like. Then she sent us back outside to wait to be called to another room. While we were in the waiting room, Emmy was his normal self again and climbing all over the chairs. He was also interested in the coffee machine, checking it all out. Then we were called again. A doctor asked questions about what happened again and looked at the wound, which Emmy didn't like. He had me put him on his back on a bed, which he did not like at all. He decided the cuts were so close to Emmy's eye that he should be looked at by the eye department. So he wrote us a paper and told us to go there. I asked him for directions, and he sent me back to the entrance to ask for directions there.

And so we walked there. I've carried Emmy around so much today, that both my arms are hurting bad. And I was annoyed when I found out that the eye department were just down the corridor from where we were and that he had sent us the opposite direction, and so we had to go all the way back to the emergency room and then continued on from there. When we got there, they already knew who we were. We went into a room, where Emmy sat on my lap to be looked at. The doctor had a light, making him follow the light, while she was checking out his eye. She said that his eye was fine and had not been effected by the fall. As for the wound, she said that it needed to be sewn, but because of his age and its location, he'd have to be sedated for it, and that he'd have to be admitted. And because he had eaten at 10 am, he'd have to wait until at least 4 pm before they could do it.  I was surprised to hear all that as I had not expected it. Then they did a Corona test, the first ever that Emmy has done, and told me I'd have to do one downstairs in the kids' department. At that point my valid test was 5 minutes from expiring. She also wrote me a paper and sent me to the kids' department, where Emmy would be given a room. I again asked for directions, and she told me how to get there.

And so Emmy and I were walking down the hall again, and I called Randy to keep him up to date. I had tried to reach Sonja and my Mom, hoping one of them could come watch Tammy and Sammy, while Randy brought us some essentials, but could not reach either one of them. And while I followed the lady's direction, I could not find where we needed to go. I asked some people and finally found it.

Again we were expected, when we walked in. The nurses there were really nice. They gave Emmy a name tag that they put on his wrist (he did not like that) and measured his temperature and his blood pressure. Then they took us to an empty room where we were told to wait until Emmy's Corona test results came back. Emmy was in good spirits and started exploring the room. So much fun stuff! We also sat down on the bed. I tried to encourage him to take a nap, but he did not watnt to. Instead he watched a few minutes of "Barbapapa" (kids' cartoon). We had been there for quite a while already, when I decided to go check with them what the status was. When we got to the nurses' station, they said that the results had just come in. They actually never tested me, somehow forgetting to do so. They had already put a cream on the backs of Emmy's hands and inside the ellbow and put tape over it. It was numbing cream so they could put an IV in, and the tape was supposed to keep him from pulling it off. We went back to where a bed was, put him down, and they held him down, looking at his arms and deciding where to put the IV, which was his left arm, inside the ellbow. I held his hand, trying to comfort him, as he was pretty upset about it all. After they had put it in, they wrapped it up well, so he could not mess with it or pull it out. I was able to pick him up again, and we returned to the room, where they then picked us up to take us to our room to stay in.

It was a room with two beds, and another 2-year-old boy was in the other bed. That boy had a bunch of toys, which interested Emmy, and they allowed Emmy to play with them as well. Emmy was pretty happy, though the other boy was not happy all the time about it. We had doctors and nurses come in at different times and were told that Emmy could not be sedated before 4 pm, as he had eaten at 10 am. We were also given different information, one saying we'd have to stay over night, while another said we'd be able to go home tonight. So it was a waiting game at that point. Emmy started asking for food, and I had to tell him he could not have any. As for drink, that's why he had the IV, as he was getting his liquids that way. He played with the toys in the room, and left the room to walk around the corridors. There were lots of drawings of Disney and Pixar figures on the wall, and we looked at them all. The challenge for me was to keep up with his IV stand on wheels. At times he was still faster, but they had taped it on well. He was also climbing over chairs at one point, and the hose would go around his waist or legs, and I constantly had to untangle it. At least he had stopped playing with or trying to take it or the name tag out after a while. Time was passing slowly.

I had finally reached Sonja who immediately left to come to our house and stay with Tammy and Sammy so Randy could bring me some stuff, in case we had to spend the night. When he got to the entrance, they would not let him in as he didn't have a valid Corona test. He had to hand over the bag to the personnel who said they'd deliver it to me. It took about 90 minutes before I got it.

I had not eaten all day and was hungry as well, but didn't have anything. I couldn't leave Emmy to go buy anything and didn't really want to eat in front of him if he couldn't. At 4 pm they brought dinner, which was even more torture for Emmy, to have the food right in front of his noise and not be allowed to eat it. He tried to hit and scratch me in protest. I took him out of the room and away from the food. Later I did eat the bread with cheese they had brought me, and the sandwich that Randy had made for me.

Emmy had still not slept, as he just wouldn't lie down, but he was getting really tired. By 5:30 he finally fell asleep. It was already 90 minutes since they could have done the procedure. 5 minutes after he had fallen asleep they came in to take him to the operating room. First I had to undress him and put a hospital gown on him, and he was so tired he continued sleeping. I picked him up, put him on the crib on wheels, and off we went to the elevators. Seconds later he was awake, and I picked him up and carried him in my eyes. We went up the elevators and then down a long corredor before we got to the operating room. We then had to wait in the entry there for the operating team to arrive. They came and put something to put him to sleep straight into IV. Within seconds his head fell back and I put him on the bed. He rose up one more time before he was asleep for good, and they rolled him away to the operating room. I was told to return to our room and that they would call me once he was in recovery.

And so I headed back to the room. The other kid's Dad was actually a crisis foster parent, and he liked talking, and so that's what we did. After just under half an hour they already called me to go up to the recovery room. I had to put a gown and cap on and sat down by his bed. He was all stitched up and had an oxygen pipe go all the way to his mouth, and something to measure the blood's oxygen levels on his finger. And then it was a waiting game again. After about 40 minutes he woke up, at 7:20. He raised up his head, all groggy, and put it back down. A little later he rose his head up again, and the third time he even sat up. Now that he had woken up he could return to his room, but we still had to wait over an hour before someone was available to wheel him down. And when they came, Emmy did not want to lie down but wanted me to carry him, and so I did. We returned to the room, where I put Emmy in his bed. He wanted water, and was allowed to drink a little. Then he fell asleep. The personnel said they would call the doctors to find out whether we could go home or not. It was already 8:30 pm. Then they informed me that we could but that it would take an hour to write up the release papers. I was getting pretty tired myself, but once again started talking with the other parent. He had a lot of interesting things to say. Again I was waiting, which is what I had done all day. At 9:30 she finally came with the release papers. I had to dress a sleeping Emmy, but first the nurse needed to take the IV valve out and that was unpleasant enough for Emmy to wake up. When she said that she was gonna put a bandaid on it, Emmy freaked out. For some reason our kids are scared of bandaids. I guess they represent pain. And so she just put pressure on the spot where the IV entry had been and did not put a bandaid on. I dressed Emmy, got our stuff together, said goodbye and off we went.

Once again I was carrying Emmy, who weighed 10.4 kilos yesterday. And now I also had the bag to carry that Randy had brought, and it did not have a shoulder strap. I was having a really hard time with my arms hurting so bad. A few times I did put him on the ground and let him walk a little. The hospital was pretty deserted, as were the streets. I finally put Emmy on my shoulders, where it was only hurting my burns from two days ago, when Emmy had made my boiling hot tea cup fall and splash all over my back and neck, but it wasn't too bad. We did not have to wait long for the subway and rode the two stops home, then I carried him on my shoulders again, while we were walking to our building. At 10 pm we walked through our apartment door, where Daddy could pick up Emmy and hold him. We undressed him, put his pj's on and put him to bed. And he still wanted me to stay by his bed until he fell asleep. Thankfully that didn't take long.

As for the home front while we were away, Tammy did not fall asleep until really late and then slept only for a short time, as she was woken up. After Sonja had arrived, Randy left to bring me the bag, and Tammy in her tiredness threw a fit, being completely hysterical, and that lasted until Randy returned. Randy sat down with her and she fell asleep on him, and slept from about 4 to 6:30 pm on her Daddy, who was also asleep, while Sonja was downstairs with Sammy. After they had woken up, Randy sent Sonja at home, and then he fed them dinner after 7 pm, which is when they usually go to bed. Today it was somewhere around 8 pm, and it was 9 pm before Tammy fell asleep.

I got myself something to eat, but had not followed my diet today because of the situation, and then started working on the pictures. I did the dishes and then sat down to write my report. At some point I got too tired to go on and turned the computer off. It was 1:35, when I fell into bed. And of course Emmy needed me just at that time.