A visit to the emergency room

Nick was supposed to go to a birthday party today. Remember this little cutie from the fire station? Her birthday party was today. I asked Nick to lay down and rest for just a little bit after lunch before we headed out for the celebration. He went to his room to read some books and play with his MobiGo. About 20 minutes later he came out asking for eye drops because his eye was bothering him. I didn't think anything of it and put the drops in. The next time I checked on him he was asleep.

I went in to wake him up for the party and found him looking like this ...


... only worse. The under side of his eye was swollen and his eye was bloodshot. I knew right away this was not allergies and those drops I gave him earlier did nothing to help. I took him in the bathroom for a closer look and the found the white part of his eyeball was swollen, too. FREAKED. ME. OUT. I made Mike come in and take a look and we agreed the party was not going to happen and Nick needed to see the doctor ASAP. On the way there I learned that it (obviously) wasn't allergies that caused the problem. Nick said his MobiGo slipped and popped him in the eye while he was playing. Ouch.

So, I loaded him in the car and headed for the weekend clinic. There I asked the receptionist if a doctor could just look at him quick to see if it was even worth sticking around or if I should take him to the emergency room. She took one look at Nick (calm but that eye was obviously in trouble) and me (crying and distraught imagining the possibilities) and called the doctor out. That was an effort in futility. She basically said she couldn't say anything. So I said screw this and went to the ER. Through it all Nick remained perfectly calm. I, on the other hand, was a basket case. Nick had to ask me why I was crying which made me feel even worse. I'm the mom, I'm supposed to be strong for my babies. Oops.

After checking in in the ER Nick passed the time on the iPad and was giggling when the helicopter paramedic called his name. I explained to Nick why the man was wearing a jumpsuit and not the usual scrubs and Nick thought that was pretty cool. They did a quick vision check (seemed normal) and then we were put in a room with a bunch of traditional eye exam equipment to wait. The wonderful doctor came in and did a series of tests which Nick rocked. He followed all her directions and acted like such a little grown-up. The end diagnosis --- his eye was swollen but not scratched or otherwise injured. There were no broken bones, but the swelling underneath his eye might turn into a black eye. We needed to keep the eye clean and maybe put a little ice on it but nothing else. Thank God.

Unfortunately the trip took exactly as long as Nick's birthday party would have so he missed it completely but he was surprisingly accepting of it. I told him we could drop the present off another day and that seemed to satisfy him. And by the end of the night the swelling was almost gone and his eye looked fairly normal. I'm just glad it wasn't anything more.