Daughter gashed her knee open. Family record! (mildly graphic)

[AJ Dual]

My daughter, oldest by an hour, of our two sets of twin girls took a nose-dive off her Razor scooter in the park.

Completely blows her sister's record for slicing off a chunk of toe when they were two and playing hide and seek in the cabinets.





Not bad for a seven year old. Full thickness, down to the tendons/bone. Nothing torn/broken thankfully. Two sets of stitches, subcutaneous and, surface.

ER doc was asking Mrs. Dual, "Was she wearing a helmet?"    If he couldn't tell her knee from her head, I'd think I'd want another doctor.

[Jamisjockey]

Depending on where you live, helmets are required for children riding anything with wheels and I wouldn't put it past an ER bureaucrat to call CPS.

[AJ Dual]

Depending on where you live, helmets are required for children riding anything with wheels and I wouldn't put it past an ER bureaucrat to call CPS.

No, we're fine. Mishmash of local city ordinances that are a civil forfeiture for bicycles only. Having a top-tier Children's hospital that also gets over-used/abused for every inner city kid w/o a primary care phys. and a sniffle, or the 9 y.o. who's pregnant with an STD kind of thing... this doesn't even rate.

They do wear their helmets for their bikes always, but this is just one of those Razor scooters, where unless you're doing stunts at a skate park, you can't go faster than you can run. Ain't making the kids wear helmets (or pads) to run.

[zxcvbob]

Whenever I've taken my wife or daughter to the ER (migraine and thumb-smashed-in-car-door, respectively) the insurance desk woman and the nurses glared at me the whole time we were there, and they took Wife aside and asked her leading questions about if she felt "safe".  Obviously any man who cares about his wimmen enough to take them to the ER when they are hurt is a wife-beating child molester.

Did you experience that too, or was it OK because Mrs Dual was there?

[AJ Dual]

Whenever I've taken my wife or daughter to the ER (migraine and thumb-smashed-in-car-door, respectively) the insurance desk woman and the nurses glared at me the whole time we were there, and they took Wife aside and asked her leading questions about if she felt "safe".  Obviously any man who cares about his wimmen enough to take them to the ER when they are hurt is a wife-beating child molester.

Did you experience that too, or was it OK because Mrs Dual was there?

Nah. It's fine. Because of what MCW deals with on a daily basis, there's a subtle hint of "Oh thank God, a suburban family with REAL/NON-SELF-INFLICTED/NON-CRIMINAL problems." when we come in. The closest I'd come to that was during the never-ending OBGYN visits we had 7 and 8 years ago respectively, was the usual run down of family history questions. "Mrs. Dual? Are you in a SAFE place? Are you okay at home?" etc.

She just responded to that doc by grinning, slugging me in the shoulder, and putting me in a headlock.

Hadn't been to MCW for a while since the younger twins were having a bunch of febrile seizures when sick, and another got e.Coli at a kids play-place with water tables.  But in those cases it was obviously just a "sick kid" and nobody had any questions for us.

When I was about three though, I got a bug-bite near my eye, and the whole thing swelled shut. My dad took me to the ER to be sure it was okay, and he loves the story about how everyone gave him dirty looks... 

[230RN]

What, no questions about GUH-UHNs in the house?

[AmbulanceDriver]

The last time I was in the ER was for a kidney stone.   SWMBO took me in, after they got the happy drugs that make the pain go away meds on board they were doing the usual "do you feel safe" type of questions.

I'm lying there in the bed, and I'm not exactly a small guy.  6'4", around 330lbs at the time...  SWMBO is 5'4" tall, and weighed around half what I did....   The nurse stood there at the door, and asked if I felt safe at home...  Mind you, I was loopy on *lots* of pain meds at the moment...  Morphine *and* dilaudid....  (you med types now know how much pain I had been in, and just how loopy I had to be at the time).   So I look at the Mrs., look back at the nurse, and very sarcastically say, "No...."  At which point SWMBO slugs me in the shoulder...

5 minutes later we had security and a social worker in the room.  Security asked my wife to step outside the room while the social worker "interviewed" me.  For all of about 10 seconds.  When I explained that I had sarcastically (and while on heavy meds) answered "no" to the "do you feel safe" question, she shook her head, told security that it was a misunderstanding, and then proceeded to very loudly and very pointedly chew out the nurse who didn't understand what "sarcasm" was.  It was beautiful.  I had a different nurse for the rest of the time I was there...


P.S. AJ, that's a pretty nice avulsion there.   Reminds me of what I did to my knee one time when I was a kid.  Fell off the bike, punched two holes in my knee about the size of a quarter each.   *through* my jeans (which were not torn... go figure)

[AJ Dual]

What, no questions about GUH-UHNs in the house?

Nope. Didn't come up.

I don't hear a lot of complaints about that in WI, honestly. Maybe it's the wrong medical chain. If so, it's very routine, and they don't even do anything different. Or maybe encourage folks to keep them locked up, not a full blown "gunns r bad, dont has thems!".

[gunsmith]

Mind you, I was loopy on *lots* of pain meds at the moment...  Morphine *and* dilaudid....  (you med types now know how much pain I had been in, and just how loopy I had to be at the time).

Right after ACL replacement surgery I woke up to some official looking doc or nurse holding something attached to the drip thing that was intravened into me ... somewhere...it kind of fuzzy.

"are you in pain?" they ask

( I road a bicycle for years ad years as a messenger in both NYC and SF, multiple crashes,hit by cars, on top of that numerous mc drunk driving crashes-I will be in pain as long as I live)

"Yes" I answered quite honestly.
"this is a morphine drip" they pressed it and said "still"?
I said "yea"
"now?"
"yup"
"OK, We'll give you more, I'm surprised usually we don' use this much"
"how about now"
"yup, still in pain"
"Oh c'mon really?" they said, a little suspicious...."well, I can still feel my legs" I even giggled a little.
When I got home like twenty minutes later I called all my relatives to tell them how much I love them, That morphine is a powerful drug!

[gunsmith]

AJ

I've had a few knee injuries like that, she should be fine but baby that knee for awhile to be sure.
She's a brave little lady.

[AJ Dual]

AJ

I've had a few knee injuries like that, she should be fine but baby that knee for awhile to be sure.
She's a brave little lady.

Yeah, it really is more of an injury you'd expect from a tumble at "bicycle speeds", not foot speeds kicking along on a two wheeled scooter. She must have hit just right for it to happen.

[Scout26]

Since I spend quite a bit of time with medical types I frequently get the "Do you feel safe at home" question.  I usually  had some smartass answer when it was just me living alone, like "The dog has been looking at me like I owe him something."  or "There's a stray cat hanging around that I think is out to get me."  tey always got a  from the nurses that asked.

Now when they ask, my reply is something like "Ever have an 11 year old boy sleep in your bed after watching a scary movie?"


Surprisingly, when I brought him in for chest pains after getting hit by a baseball, they didn't ask him that question (I was with him the whole time.)  I guess him him being in a dirty, dusty baseball uniform (complete with sweat encrusted infield dirt on his face) and a baseball shaped bruise on his chest (you could see the stitch markings), was kind of a dead giveaway they he really did get hurt playing ball.

[Sergeant Bob]

That's a righteous gash there AJ.

[BlueStarLizzard]

You know, I don't think i've ever heard that question in an ER or doctor visit. I usually end up dragging dad to the ER every couple years and wait with him, but nothing.
I guess they would have asked when he had to get stitches, but he was so obviously upset about "Nobody is going to put down my dog, are they?!? Because it was my fault he bit me..."

Now, both of us have gotten "do you feel like hurting yourself or others?" a bunch of times. 

Word to the wise, DO NOT GET SMART ASSED OR MOUTHY ON THAT ONE.  Dad was doing one of his marathon getting everything scanned days, and was getting pissy towards the end. I ended up getting a call from a doctor asking me to make sure Dad didn't have axsess to his guns for a few days. 

[230RN]

Well, actually, that could make sense, like "don't operate machinery."  I had hand surgery a decade ago and though they didn't mention guns, I got a similar warning, so on my own motion I stayed away from my guns for a day, too.

[Strings]

>Ain't making the kids wear helmets (or pads) to run<

Maybe you should?

We've never gotten that question. I KNOW I won't be able to restrain myself...

[French G.]

It's just pseudo-police state BS. Even my dad last time consented to signing the release forms to leave the hospital, mainly so insurance wouldn't drop off. His usual method is to walk past the person telling him he can't do that. I'm sneakier, last time I got them to let me go by myself without a pick-up, I allowed them to believe I was just going across town to barracks. Hell no, 5 hour drive at night, floor dimmer switch, broke up, cut up left leg, and no percocet. Gawd I hate hospitals. I went for chest pains, some numbers on my liver were whack, they ask me 6 times if I drink, ask the wife too.

For fun, physically block nurse from access to her patient and then tell her how dumb she and her entire organization are. Thought that was going to be handcuffs, but I won. Really, if someone has been awake for 36 hours and in pain, do all your damn checks at once, stop coming in every 20 minutes, I'm guessing I'll be a little more protective of both the tired one and the newborn, believe me, I'll come get you quick.