Of car trips, field trips, and emergency rooms

We have traveled out of Texas, through New Mexico, and are now in Arizona.

Originally my post tonight was going to be about a wonderful museum we found in Deming, New Mexico.  You were going to be enthralled by my master story-telling as you laughed and cried at my kids hilarious hijinks.

You were going to laugh at the funny signs I saw………..

Instead, we spent the late afternoon/early evening

at the ER.  Princess splashed herself in the face with gas, through a rather unfortunate set of circumstances.  We hurried 20 miles from the middle of nowhere, to a nice small town hospital that cleaned her eyes out more.

So instead, I present you with my TIPS for surviving the ER with young kids.

1. First off and MOST IMPORTANT: Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm.  If you are calm, then your kid will be calmer.  They may even calm down enough to stop crying.  As you can see from the picture above, Princess isn’t freaking out, because I wasn’t.

2.  Take an extra minute and grab something for your kid to do at the ER.  If you are at home, take ONE MINUTE and grab a toy, a book, and their favorite stuffed animal.  They will want something to cuddle, and it will help make the wait better if you have something to distract them.

3.  Call for back up.  Call your spouse to let them know what’s going on.  Let  a friend know or someone who can take any brothers or sisters.  Tell them to meet you at the hospital.  It’s much easier to concentrate on your sick or injured child if you aren’t trying to entertain your other kids.

4.  Be able to explain what happened as calmly as you can.  As you are driving there ask your kid for more information.  What were they doing when they got hurt, how did it happen?  If you are going because they are feeling sick and it’s not an injury start asking for more detailed answers.  Superman had a hernia at 3 years old, we went to the ER with him 4 times before we got a diagnosis.  Each time we were able to narrow down the problem a little more, but if I had known to work with him to tell exactly where it hurt we could have gotten him to a specialist sooner, and prevented further ER trips.

5.  If you have a smart phone use it.  Youtube videos of Looney tunes got us through a rather unfortunate bout of indigestion (it was mimicking the same symptoms Superman had for his hernia, and I was a little paranoid).

6.  Finally, STAY CALM and love on your hurting kiddo.  I said it before, but this is really and truly the most important thing.  They will need reassurance, tell them honestly as much as you know and are able to explain.  If you don’t know tell them that, and tell them you’ll ask the doctor so you can find out.

To finish the story, Princess got a lovely teddy bear, and 2 popsicles.  Her clothes are drying in the bathroom after we washed them, and her eyes are a little red but fine.

Stay tuned, and hopefully tomorrow I can tell you all about the cool museum, and the fun old men who ran it.