A Trip to the ER (Warning: Graphic)

Sorry, it's a mite wordy, but for the record ...We were in Oak City for General Conference weekend like usual.  It was a lovely, warm day, so after the first session of conference, my dad decided to take Emersen on a four-wheeler ride to see some neighbor's horses and cows.  They have done this often because Emersen absolutely loves animals, especially horses, and always asks to see them.  My dad found this hat for her to wear and they took off.  She was excited.

I don't know how long they had been gone, but I was sitting at the dining room table, facing the front door, chatting with my mom, and Daniel was downstairs.  My dad walked in the door carrying Emersen.  It's funny how fast different thoughts travel through your mind.  I first thought that she had fallen asleep because she was quiet and laying against him.  Then I saw his face.  He was very serious.  He said, "We had an accident."  I then thought she had fallen off the four-wheeler because I saw her pants covered in grass and hay.  Then he was right in front of me.  He said with a shaky voice, "A horse bit her ear."  I then saw her right ear, bloody and torn.  That's when I got shaky.  I put my hand to her ear.  I said, "We need to go to the hospital," and called for Daniel.  I think I was pretty calm, until I realized that part of her ear was missing, and then thought, I should be freaking out.  So I did for a minute.  Inside.

Daniel said that when we called him upstairs and said that Emersen had been bit by a horse, he expected much worse than he saw.  He calmly took her from my dad.  He was calm the whole time.  I don't remember that she was ever crying this whole time.  Maybe she was in shock or just numb to it all by now.

*My dad said that she had been walking along the horses' trough, shaking hay into it.  She wasn't inside the corral or feeding the horses from her hand or anything.  One horse just reached his head through to get some food and then just quickly nipped at Emersen.  It knocked her over.  My dad picked her up.  She was crying and had her hand to her ear.  He didn't realize what had happened until he was examining her.  He said that when he saw her ear, he thought, Scarred for life, this perfect little girl.  He was probably the most traumatized by the whole event (and he probably wouldn't appreciate me writing that) since he was the one with her.  I'm extremely glad that I wasn't there to relive that scene and wonder over and over how things could have been different.  But no one could have known something that bizarre would happen. And no thoughts of blame have ever crossed any of our minds.  All I have been able to think about, honestly, is that it could have been worse.  Nothing vital was injured; her life wasn't threatened; and she seems unaffected. I do wonder if the hat she was wearing protected the rest of her ear.*

So I grabbed my diaper bag, which thankfully hadn't really been unpacked since our late arrival the night before, and a change of clothes and blanket for Emersen.  My dad seemed really shaken up and upset, so we asked him to stay with Bentley, and my mom drove us to the hospital in Delta.  I felt bad leaving my dad behind because I knew how worried he would be and how responsible he felt.  I couldn't stop thinking about him the whole time.  Emersen just sat with Daniel and didn't fuss at all.  On the drive, we discussed how she would always wear her hair to hide her ear and wouldn't even be able to wear earrings because she didn't have an earlobe.  This was all said in jest, although I thought it was true.  When I first saw it, I thought her entire ear lobe was gone.

We arrived at the ER and didn't see anyone around.  Then we saw the button to "push for assistance" (quite different from a Salt Lake emergency room).  A nurse came out and Daniel took Emersen into the emergency room while my mom and I checked in at the admissions desk.  I guess we weren't really an emergency because we waited a long time before the doctor came to look at her.  I say "the" doctor because there was only one.  But that was okay; we knew she was fine to wait.  I think there were a couple motorcycle accident patients who were in more serious conditions.  While waiting, Emersen laid on the bed and watched princess movies on Daniel's iPhone.  She didn't seem to be in any pain or distress.

The nurses asked questions, and then eventually the doctor came to examine her.  Daniel held Emersen on his lap with her head against his shoulder for the best access to her ear.  She was really great to let the doctor look at and touch her ear.  I don't remember exactly what he said about it then.  He took a picture of her ear to send to his partner in Cedar City for a second opinion on what he should do.  He also called an ENT (Ear, Nose Throat Doctor) on staff at the hospital near our house in Salt Lake.  He said there would likely be some reconstructive surgery in the future, depending on how it healed, but he wanted to make sure he stitched it up the way an ENT would so as not to cause further problems.  He was in and out a bit after that, between patients, I assume.

He came back to anesthetize her ear, which was the worst part.  I can only imagine being poked over and over with a needle in the very spot that hurts the most.  She cried really hard and told us that it hurt.  It was so sad to watch her face.  Daniel held her the whole time while I talked to her trying to distract her and holding her hand.  I gave her some marshmallow bunnies to squeeze when she was hurting, and she smashed them between her hands.

Once her ear was numb, the doctor came back in to stitch it up.  He decided to just stitch up the side piece that had torn away.  Nothing could be done about the bottom chunk that was missing.  The good news was that none of the cartilage was damaged, and the torn side piece wasn't actually torn all the way through, so he only had to stitch up the front of the ear.  It took five stitches.  I thought the doctor was great.  Emersen was pretty tough throughout the process.  A couple pokes still hurt and made her cry.  To keep her distracted, I talked to her about getting ice cream when we were finished.  And then she wanted me to sing "E-I-O Farm." When the stitches were finished, the nurse dressed the wound and gave Emersen a sticker.  Emersen seemed just fine after that.  Once her ear was stitched, it didn't look as bad as I originally thought.  We noticed that she also had a little bruise on her cheekbone and another scratch on her neck.  While waiting to sign discharge papers, my mom came back in and gave Emersen a big hug.  We sang more Old MacDonald, and E even sang along and picked the animals.

We had to fill a prescription for antibiotics and get gauze pads and large bandaids before going back to Oak City.  While the prescription was being filled, we drove to McDonald's to get ice cream cones.  Emersen had just fallen asleep on Grandma's lap when we got to the pickup window, but we woke her up and gave her ice cream anyway.  She deserved it.  That ruined her nap for the rest of the day.  We picked up the medicine and then drove home. She ran inside the house and gave Grandpa a great big hug.  I'm sure he had been waiting for that those three hours we were gone.  We had missed most of the second session of General Conference, so we just ate a late lunch right then.

We were instructed to keep ointment on her ear and to not get it wet for at least 24 hours.  She slept fine that night and acted just fine.  The incident didn't slow her down at all; she was still running around and playing.  I was glad about that.  I hate to see my children suffer, but she didn't seem to be suffering at all. Changing the dressing, on the other hand, was a different story.  We didn't do it until the next morning, but she hated every minute of it.  We had to restrain her in order to change the band-aid and gauze.  My dad helped me re-dress it, and when he saw her ear for the first time since the initial accident, he breathed a sigh of relief.  He said that when I told him the previous night that her ear wasn't as bad as it originally looked, he thought I was just being nice to him.  But after seeing it, he agreed with me.  I think that made him feel a tad better.

The next Wednesday, we took her to see an ear specialist.  He told us that we didn't need to keep it bandaged anymore.  That sure was nice to hear so that we don't have to struggle with her anymore.  The specialist had nothing but good news for us.  He said it looked relatively minor, that he thought it would heal really well, and that there was a less than 50% chance that we would need to do anything surgically in the future.  He said it would take 6-8 weeks to heal completely.  He said the part that was missing would probably just fill in with skin/fatty tissue.  He re-emphasized how fast and well kids heal compared to adults.  He said that we would need to keep ointment on it until it was completely healed and then sunscreen every day for at least a year or else the skin and scar would tattoo. He said that a wound like hers was one of the easiest things to repair, even easier than a torn earlobe from an earring.  It all depended on if the tissue fills in evenly and smoothly or if the ridges remain.  So I guess we'll see what it looks like in 6 weeks.

Emersen hasn't really acted at all like her ear ever hurts.  The first day without a bandage on it, she would point to her ear and say, "It hurts," but I think it was probably just the feeling of having air on it or something.  She is, however, very guarded about her ear.  She doesn't want anyone to touch it or look at it.  She doesn't bother it either.  The other night we were watching "Tangled" and the horse was eating an apple.  Emersen said to me, "Horse eating.  Horse eating ear," and pointed to her ear.  I was surprised!  "What did you say?" I asked her.  She repeated the same thing.  Another time when we were reading a Rapunzel book, she told me again, "Hurt horse eating ear."  I always thought she probably didn't realize what exactly had happened, but maybe she really does.  Or maybe she's heard us tell so many people what happened.  Not that we ever said the horse "ate" her ear.

Last Sunday, one week after the accident, we had my brother-in-law who is a PA take her stitches out.  We thought it was going to be a mess having to restrain her and keep her from moving at all.  But her Grandma Lyman talked to her about it and then held her while Brian removed the stitches.  I wasn't in the room, but I didn't hear a thing from without.  She was apparently really good about it and didn't put up a fight at all.  I was so glad.  She's such a sweetheart.

Her ear looks better and better all the time.  We're just so grateful it wasn't worse.  I've been debating about posting pictures of her ear, so I apologize if it's too much.  I think my mom was appalled that we were taking pictures.  Maybe she's justified...