Joanna's Salt Lake City Adventure

We traveled to a family wedding near Denver this weekend (I'll post about that next). On our way there we had a layover in Salt Lake City. This was the first time we've had a layover with more than one child, but we were game - we've got this traveling thing down. Or so we thought.

As we prepared to exit the first plane I set Joanna in the aisle - basically to keep her away from Naomi while I gathered up our detrius and stuffed it back into our carry on bag. Ed was doing the same thing across the aisle. We were at the very back of the plane so we weren't blocking anyone from exiting by setting Joanna in the aisle.

Eve was in the aisle with JJ, Ed & I were busily packing and grabbing jackets when we heard a thunk and we both popped our heads up. Joanna was on the floor and the flight attendant, panicky, said "She hit her face!" Ed scooped her up and I spotted blood immediately and fished out a pair of peed baby pants - naturally. When Ed spotted the blood a second or two later I had the pants ready to apply pressure. Joanna stopped screaming pretty fast and the flight attendant was asking if we wanted paramedics - she had already called in that a baby was hurt to somebody. We took the cloth away and could see that she had a pretty good gash and said that yeah, we should probably get it looked at. I was feeling pretty calm about it all.

Then security of some sort rushed onto the plane and grabbed one of our backpacks to help us off the plane. Ed carried Jo off with the girls trailing him. I gathered the rest of our stuff and followed a minute later. Praise God that the flight from Seattle was full and there wasn't room for our carry-on bags. They were gate checked to Denver and we didn't have to haul them all over Salt Lake City.

As I came into the terminal there were several airline and airport representatives on hand and the police department showed up. I could see the paramedics coming with sirens& lights across the tarmac. I felt like we had to explain "what happened" about five times to various people, but we didn't even see it so it was a lot of guesswork. The flight attendant told us that Joanna had hit her face on the metal frame under the airline seat. It was only about two inches off the floor, and basically a long metal bar. She gashed her forehead, but also got her cheek pretty good. One of my worst moments was when people kept prodding her cheek to see if anything was broken under the bruise. It just seemed to hurt Joanna unnecessarily.

I asked the paramedics what our options were. They recommended we take her to the ER in Salt Lake City to get it checked out. One of them said it looked deep. Another option would be to catch our connection to Denver and get it looked at in Denver. We decided to get it looked at right away, just in case stitches were needed. The sooner the better with stitches as we learned in Hawaii last month with Eve's forehead gash.

Our flight to Denver was the last of the evening so one of the Delta representatives said she would get us a hotel and on a morning flight. She had a printout of our flight options and we picked the earliest one at 6:45 AM so we could make the 11AM wedding rehearsal. I went off with the paramedics on one of those airport carts with Joanna in my arms and Ed planned to feed the big girls dinner and take the shuttle to whatever hotel the airline arranged. Thank goodness for cell phones!

Joanna and I traveled by ambulance to Primary Children's Medical Center ER. There was a carseat that strapped right onto the gurney so Joanna was comfortable. She didn't seem like the head bump bothered her at all and was flirting with the paramedic. I didn't bring any toys for her having left the backpack with Ed, but I did at least have a diaper in my purse and a sippy cup in my coat pocket. I found a bottle of pills in my purse that Joanna amused herself with in the ambulance.

When we got the hospital the paramedics said I couldn't carry her in, but Joanna needed to go in on the gurney. It seemed like overkill since she was totally happy, but procedure is procedure so whatever.

We were seen immediately - I guess the ambulance ride helped us avoid the waiting room. We literally were visited/greeted/examined by a dozen people during our stay. I felt like I told the story of "what happened" another five times and felt like a terrible mom since I didn't even see "what happened." Everyone seemed interested that we were only in Salt Lake City for a layover though.

Joanna's gash got looked at, her cheek prodded, and some antiseptic and a bandage applied pretty quickly. Joanna was a champ through it all and had a sunny attitude for the first hour or so. Then she was grumpy for the next 3 hours. Here's a picture of the bandage and the grump.


Eventually we saw the attending doctor & she recommended a plan of action that included sedating Joanna with a "happy" drug that would basically make her feel intoxicated. She might just be very calm, she might also be giggly or in rare cases, they'd seen kids get angry. The drug was also an amnesiac so she wouldn't remember the stitching process. The doctor said they would make one "deep tissue" stitch and close up the top layer of skin with three more stitches. I OK'd all of this, then we waited about an hour for the drugs. It was a busy night in the ER & I saw lots of kids coming & going.

The drug was administered and Joanna got all relaxed and couldn't sit up on the bed. The nurses opted to bind her arms since she's so wiggly as a rule and then they basically swaddled her. The deep tissue stitch and the first surface stitch went well with Joanna just watching us calmly, but then she realized she was strapped down and couldn't move. She started straining and hollering and got red and sweaty. One RN was holding Joanna's head still while another pinned her body. I was trying to calm her down, but was largely ineffective. The resident kept up her stitching though it seemed to me to take a long time! As soon as she finished I was able to scoop Joanna up and calm her. Phew! Poor sweaty girl!



Then we waited for about an hour again for the attending doctor to come see the resident's work. I reminded the doctor that Joanna was on medication for an ear infection & the medication was in our bags on the way to Denver so she ordered up a dose from the pharmacy. Why didn't they ask for this sooner since I'd mentioned it five times? I'm not sure, but we waited another hour for the pharmacy to deliver the goods. Finally we were discharged and a nurse kindly found a number for a taxi service. We arrived at the hotel (which was very nice) around 1:15AM. Ed called down for a crib to be delivered and we were all back in bed by 1:30 but Joanna took awhile to settle down. Our shuttle was arriving at 5:00AM to take us back to the airport, and I was so sad I'd only get to sleep for 3 hours - but hey some sleep is better than none and it was nice while it lasted!

Praise the Lord, the airline had also given Ed some "overnight kits" that included toiletries and an oversized t-shirt so our clothes got a little break at least. We also had the girls' pjs in the baby backpack so they had at least a little bit of their normal routine. Additionally the airline provided food vouchers so Ed & the big girls had a real dinner at the airport instead of the cheese, crackers, & fruit I had brought along to eat on the plane. In the morning we also got the treat of airport breakfast at Burger King, Cinnabon, and a Starbucks latte. We even had enough voucher to buy 4 starbucks muffins for a later in the day snack. Yahoo!

We made it to Denver, got the rental car, and headed to Evergreen - about an hour's drive away. Then we found out the rehearsal had been moved to 4:00PM! We totally could've slept and taken a later flight out! Oh well. Instead we headed to the house a family friend was generously opening to us while they were out of town and had a very relaxing afternoon with long naps for little girls and shorter naps for mom & dad.
Joanna's head seems fine, though she was definitely preferring Daddy for a few days. I think the doctor was wrong when she said the drug was an amnesiac. Joanna is totally associating me with the whole hospital experience. Also her cheek bruise is getting better, but now the black eye is turning up. She is also getting two new teeth (#13 & #14) on top of her ear infection so it's been a rough few days. Hopefully being home will help her feel better faster.

Katie