A St. Patrick's Day We'll Never Forget!!

St. Patrick's Day started out pretty normal at our house. The kids woke up to find that the Leprechauns had come during the night and had overturned all of the furniture, leaving gold coins scattered across the floors as recompense. That evening we had our annual "green" dinner, and the Leprechauns were so kind as to dye our rice green for us before they went back to Ireland. After dinner, Addie wanted to play for awhile so I could get ready our evening St. Paddy's Day activities. Not 3 seconds after she went outside, I heard a blood-curdling scream. It was Addie, and she entered the house with blood coursing all the way down her face and everywhere else it seemed. I could see that Addie had really done it this time; she had fallen off our rock wall onto a jagged rock and she had a gaping hole in her temple along with tons of rock embedded down into her cheek. This was not going to be any ordinary suture job; I knew I had to get her to the hospital...and fast! I literally grabbed some gauze and threw Addie into the family vehicle, with her older sister at her side to aid her in managing the never-ending, overly saturated pieces of gauze. By the time we got to the ED, the bleeding had slowed down. We got there around 7:45 pm, and didn't leave until 6:00 am the NEXT day!!
Addie is all smiles in the trauma bay until she realizes how extensive the irrigation and suture job are going to be.
Addie is trying to get some sleep until the doctor can get in there to begin the irrigation process. In the next trauma bay, there is a crazy woman screaming, laughing, and just going nuts. I stuck my head around the curtain and told her to can it! I got a very unfavorable response, but who cares?
Here is Addie s/p sutures. They ended up having to sedate her with versed and ketamine IV; they gave her too much; the same dose they would give to a grown adult. They said she would wake up in 15 minutes, but she didn't wake up for 4 hours. That's why we had to stay so long.
Here are Addie's sutures the next day. She got multiple internal as well as external stitches. She will have a permanent scar that will have to be reduced by plastic surgery when she gets older. Until then, she has a permanent reminder to never play on the rock wall again.