ER Visit

Well, last night was supposed to be a quiet evening of practicing soccer at the park, but turned into a traumatic ordeal.  Right after we finished dinner,  Elias, Bella, and Josh were playing in the living room.  All of a sudden I heard Bella screaming and crying.  I heard Josh pick her up and her say, "Daddy, am I bleeding?" and Josh telling her yes.  Josh was holding her ear when I walked into the living room.  When we looked at it, we discovered that the cartilage was broken clear through and there was a laceration through both sides of her ear.  It was definitely the worst injury either of our kids have had.
We dropped Elias off to our friend, Susan, who was at the East/West Stadium watching a soccer game.  Josh and I were both a little out of it and I almost forgot which direction to go to get to the hospital.  When we got to the hospital, everyone was sick in the ER and they were handing out masks for people who were experiencing flu-like symptoms.  It made me feel like I was in some sort of germ experiment or something!  Isabella had to pee and when I went into the bathroom, there were throw up splatters around the toilet.  It was so gross.
But they took her back fairly quickly (for the ER anyway) and started cleaning her ear.  Josh and I were trying to help hold her down, but Josh began feeling faint and I began to cry and kept looking away so Bella wouldn't see my tears, so the nurse thought I was getting sick too.  They decided it needed stitches, so they gave her some medicine to calm her down and then, after waiting a while for it to take effect, they wrapped her like a burrito in a sheet and began the stitches.  Josh had to sit down while they were stitching, but he sat right in front of Bella, so she could see him the whole time.  I watched them stitch her and was completely amazed by the process and the technology of the string with the little "hook" that is at the end of it.  Once they had given her the numbing needle once, she didn't feel the remaining needles going into her ear.  Overall, she did very well.  And, surprisingly, she slept pretty well last night.  She slept in our bed, in case she woke up in pain, but she ended up sleeping as good as she normally does.  And today she has not acted like she is in pain - though she hates wearing the bandages because they are itchy.  She has to wear a pressure bandage wrapped around her head to prevent blood from gathering around it and causing "cauliflower ear".  We see an ENT at 1 p.m. to find out if anything more needs to be done and for them to rewrap it.
I kept Elias home from school because he had a cough anyway and he didn't get to bed until about 10:30 last night.  Now I am trying to figure out what to do with him while I take Isabella to the doctor.  I am wondering if keeping him home was the best choice!  He has been pretty fussy and he and Bella have been arguing all morning.
When I think about our visit to the ER, I am reminded of people who have kids with serious sicknesses or injuries, who have to sit by and watch their children be poked, proded, and hurt (for their own good) on a regular basis.  I am SO incredibly thankful for such healthy children and for their protection through the first years of their life.  My heart and prayers go out to all the parents who even now are sitting in a hospital room while their child lies in a hospital bed.