Door - 1, Charlie - 0

Today, Jena and I joined an exclusive fraternity, Ro Sham Sew (better known as "Parents Who Had To Rush Their Kid To The Hospital With His Head Busted Open.")

It happened like all accidents I suppose, suddenly and without warning. This morning I had come home from a job interview, and Jena was about to leave for work. She was sitting at our desk and I was standing next to her, looking into the kitchen. Suddenly, Charlie ran around the kitchen corner. He tripped over a small pile of laundry and landed on his belly. We have a closet in the kitchen with two bi-fold doors, and the doors were open at the time. When Charlie tripped, he landed flat on his face, and his head *just* made contact with the edge (or possibly the hinge) of the open bi-fold door.

Somehow, Jena got to Charlie first. He was crying and had his hand to his temple. That's when we saw a rush of crimson running between his fingers, down his face and onto his pajamas.

Emergency mode kicked in. We all scrambled out to the Jeep and were down the road in minutes. Charlie was surprisingly calm, and held a wet paper towel to his head. We debated where to go with him: the hospital or the pediatrician's office? We eventually settled on going to the latter, about 15 minutes away. Jena tried calling the office several times and, for some god-forsaken reason, no one was answering. "Why aren't they answering?!" But there was no answer. And when we got there, we found out that we should have gone to the hospital; they don't do sutures at the office any more (but reportedly used to do them).

The maddening thing about this whole incident is that it didn't seem like anyone at the pediatrician's office was in a big rush to help us. The triage nurses looked at Charlie and said he was "happy." Uh, NO he's not. And when I asked where the closest hospital was, there were a few suggestions, but no one knew exactly how to get to any of them. It's a good thing we live near a hospital, otherwise we would have been in a serious fix.

We left the pediatrician's office and drove about another 15 minutes to the hospital (5 minutes from our apartment!). We went to the emergency room and a nurse put a bandage around Charlie's head. We were later admitted to the "fast track" section of the hospital. When it was time to sew up his cut, the nurses put Charlie in a "papoose," which was basically a small body-sized board with huge velcro straps. When Charlie was completely wrapped up, he looked like he was in a straightjacket.

Then came the worst part: closing up the cut.

I had never seen stitches being administered before, so I helped comfort Charlie and hold him down. The doctor injected a painkiller about four times into various open spots of the wound, and it started to bleed again. At that point, Charlie started screaming at the top of his lungs, and did so for the rest of the procedure. A large swabbing of iodine came next, and then finally it was time to sew up the cut. The doctor used a small fishhook-like needle to thread the wound. The first stitch was at the center, the second above it and the third below. I actually thought that maybe he needed a couple more stitches, but it looks like three were all that were needed.

Charlie was let out of the papoose and he settled down right away. The nurses gave him stickers, cookies, and a coloring book, and he got even more goodies from Mom and Dad. All things considered, he was actually very good through the entire ordeal.

Now ... does anyone know where I can get a papoose?