a lovely afternoon in the ER

So today, about 15 minutes before Ella had to go to school, she gets a famous bloody nose. The second of the day. She is prone to them and used to have them all the time, however, is now down to a seasonal thing since we put vaseline in her nose EVERY night before bed. This one lasted 25 minutes, GUSHING. I was doing everything Steve had taught me to do to get it to stop (since she inherited this from him). Ice on the back of the neck, pinching her nose in just the right spot and keeping her still. After 25 minutes, the toilet was covered with blood, she was covered, I was covered, Claire used to be covered but I set her up at the sink and destroyed that area by dumping out hair clips, and emptying the medicine cabinet. (one eye on claire and one eye on Ella the whole time, make sure Claire didn't injest anything)

So I called my pediatrician and spoke to a nurse who insisted I got straight to the ER because her bloody nose lasted longer than 10 minutes and it was the second one today...(apparenlty the protocal is if you can't stop it in ten min, head to the ER or if you have had three in 24 hours, head to the ER). I kept asking her what they were going to do for us there, knowing it was probably NOTHING. But she insisted that we go. Of course, trying to be a good mom, I listened to the nurse. We went. Spent over an hour there only for them to tell us that she probably fine, and that we should just take her to an ENT (ear nose throat) doc to follow up just to make sure she doesn't have any pollups in her nose that are causing the problem.

I was HOPING my peditrician office would have just told me that in the first place but they instead, instilled fear in me that what Ella was having was totally not normal and that I should take her to the ER. I hate that all these doctors are terrified of being sued. I really just wanted to get a name for an ENT in the freakin first place!

So here are the pictures I took of our ordeal...of the time that should have been spent as Ella in school, and Claire and I napping. The bathroom was destroyed. I tried not to zoom in on the bloody toilet, but there was blood on the walls and on the floor as well. And the sink area was destroyed thanks to Claire...then the ER picts of first happy kids, then Claire playing gymnasitics with her shoes off because she flat our REFUSED to wear them in the hospital. And screaming in the hospital was not something I was prepared to deal with. Luckily Steve came and helped and was able to take a picture of the girls tormenting me and my personal "face" space.