Tuesday, September 30, 2008

When the Dog Bites...

Well, it didn't exactly go as planned. This past weekend, all 5 of us plus Momma were to head down to Ft. Bragg, about 5.5 hours away, and visit April for the weekend. We decided we would leave Saturday morning vs. Friday night, and get up at 5 AM to be there by lunch. Do you believe in bad omens?

Wake up at 6:18. Already running late! Spoke to Momma, her Vertigo was giving her trouble, so she decided not to go with us, as that would be quite a miserable trip. At 8 AM I FINALLY get Mr. Pokey (aka "hubby") in the truck and we leave. After filling the gas tank and a stop for lunch, we finally arrive in Fayetteville around 1:45, at April's house on base around 2 PM.

So we're chatting, she's showing us the baby's room, and Chandler wants to play on the playground that is in her backyard (it's communal). Take her dogs, Chester (a black lab) and Petey (a great dane mix) out to use the bathroom and run. Chester & Chandler are playing, and as Chandler runs away from him and is about to climb up the slide, Chester nips him on the calf. He's crying, saying "I'm bleeding!!" and we think he's being overly dramatic until we see it. Seems Chester got him pretty good. We're 300 miles from home, on a military base, and have no choice but to take him to the ER.



After waiting 45 minutes for the Triage nurse to assess the damage, and then doing all of the paperwork, it's now 4:30 as we sit down in the waiting area. At 7:15, we're finally taken back to an exam room. 7:30 Doctor arrives and cleans wound, says he's not going to stitch it in case it gets infected, and he'll be right back. 8:45, I go stand in the hall and give evil looks at everyone, a nurse finally arrives and bandages his leg, sends us off with meds at approximately 9 PM. If this is what socialized health care will be like, I want absolutely no part of it!!




We finally got dinner around 10 PM. April was very upset that Chandler was hurt, and worried about Chester because a report had to be filed, but she called last night to tell me that Chester is on Quarantine (house arrest) for 10 days, nothing more to worry about there. I can say I definitely know how to find the hospital when she goes into labor and I go down there.

Chandler is healing. He was a bit nervous around Chester when we first got back to April's, but got over it very quickly as Chester & Petey licked him half to death. I am trying to get him to take it somewhat easy on the leg while it heals, but how do you convince an 8-year-old that he should not play football during recess?


3 comments:

Katie said...

Oh gosh, that poor guy! Hey tell Chandler he has one of the coolest names of all time! I hope it's all healed up quickly!

SmilingSally said...

I'm sorry, but I think that doctor is nuts. That should've been closed up. Keep it clean and dry and watch it carefully.

Beverly said...

Just popped in to say that we miss you on Pink Saturdays. I hope everything is well with you and your family.