Ike will be the death of me..

And if not- I will blame him for gray hair when I'm old!

Remember just 3 weeks ago he had to go to the ER for busting a hole in his lip with his tooth??

Every Friday after Sam is at school, Ike, Joe and myself pick up Pete from work and go eat lunch. Last Friday we got done, I dropped hubby back off and had about 1 1/2 hours till Max and Sam got out of school. There is a clothing store near Pete's work that I rarely go to but they always have great deals so I thought I would check it out. We are almost done in the store. I was checking out gloves and that sort of stuff. Joe was behind me playing with something and in his own little world. Ike was in front of me and the cart. He was carrying a little stuffed star. I have no idea what it really is for. Anyway, the aisle we were in had shelves. Ike dropped the thing he was carrying and bent over to pick it up. He stands back up and is screaming. I wasn't looking right at him when he did this but I could see him out of the corner of my eye. I look at him and he has a hanger sticking out of his eye. I rush over to him and think that this hanger really can't be in his eye. The hanger was on the shelve, sticking out before Ike bent over. When he bent over, he caught it-- or it caught him!

So I try to pull the hanger out straight. It would not move. Trust me, about a million thoughts are going through my mind at this point (I know you shouldn't pull a toothbrush out a throat, but what about a hanger in the eye? ;Is it in his eye of just by his eye? ; Will he be able to see? ; I even picture the freak accident pictures- like this one that has a boy with a fork stick in his nose!). Since it wouldn't budge straight out, I needed to pull it up. I was holding the hanger and it turned. It was a plastic hanger with the the metal hook that swivels. The metal hook was what was stuck in his eye. When it turned I could see the hook under his skin, below his eye. It was not sticking out of the skin but the skin was sticking out with it. It was all sorts of gross! I finally got the hanger out by hanking REALLY hard. It was not bleeding and the eye looked OK. I held him and he calmed down some. I tell Joe we needed to go NOW. He ignored me. That's Joe! Ike's eye was starting to swell already. I ask the cashier if they fill out accident reports. She barely spoke or understood English. She told me no and asked what happened. I told her and she just said "Sorry." I didn't have time to mess around asking for a manager. I needed to figure out if Ike needed to go to the doctor or the ER and also needed to get Max and Sam before I did any of this. Ike calmed down pretty fast. So I called the doctors office and got an appointment there. I would much rather pay a $25 co pay than a $200 ER co pay. This happened at 2:45. The kids get out of school at 3:30ish and the appointment was at 4:15. The timing was all good. Ike went right to sleep when we got in the car. He was tired!

I get to the school and debate about pulling Max and Sam out early or just waiting. I decided to wait. It was only about 10 minutes early and by the time I unload Joe and Ike (along with waking him up), drag them in the school, tell the office to get Max and Sam, etc... It would be no earlier than the normal time they get out. So we waited. After they get loaded up we head to the pediatricians office.

The doctor seemed somewhat concerned that I had to hank pretty hard on it. She talks with a pediatric ophthalmologist from Children's Mercy Hospital (CMH). Our doctor takes Ike (and me) into a dark room to look into his eye with her light so she can see the back of his eye. She says it looks OK but she will ask the ophthalmologist 'what next.' A few minutes later she comes back and this time puts numbing drops in his eye, waits then rubs a strip of dye on his eye. She takes a black light and looks all over his eye. That procedure was pretty weird! His eye was florescent green. Again, she see nothing. She gets back with the other doctor. Everything seems fine, she says come back Monday morning and writes a script for antibiotics.

As we were checking out, CMH ophthalmologist calls back. They talk with the doctor again and decides that yeah, maybe they should see him as well. But this can't be the closer CMH to us. The one with the ophthalmologist is at CMH downtown Kansas City. Fun! We go home (after a melt down from Joe b/c the office didn't have the right sticker), I grab some food for the kids, change Ike. He was dirty from lunch and had a nice diaper for me! I left the other kiddos with Pete while Ike and I drove to downtown KC to go wait hours in the ER room. I was not too excited. We got there about 6:30. They check him out, call in the pediatric ophthalmologist, we wait, and wait some more. That doc did the same stuff but also dilated his eyes. He also poked around with a cotton swab. We wait some more. Finally at 10 pm we are free to go! His eye looks fine. YAY! He prescribed antibiotic ointment for the eye and told us to follow up in a week with a pediatric ophthalmologist.

The follow up doctor happens to be Max's ophthalmologist. They called this morning to make that appointment (yeah, they called me!). That will be Wednesday as the doc is out on Friday.

Ike's eye was puffy and a little red but really it looked great the day afterwards. Today, however it is getting bruised. He is getting a black eye. He did awesome with all the doctors, nurses, drops, poking and lights - he never cried or even struggled!

I called the store Saturday morning and talked to someone. They DO take accident reports and the store manager only works Monday thru Friday. I spoke to a manger later that day and she took the report. I should hear from the store manager today. I will also be asking about reimbursement. I ended up paying the $25 co pay, will be billed the $200 ER copay, the meds (they were cheap- but still!), and will be following up with the specialist with a $50 copay.

But the best thing is that Ike is just fine!! He is in the running for beating Sam's ER visits.

Here he is right before he headed to the ER. Not too bad for having a hanger stuck in his eye only a few hours before! Can you see the little dot under/beside his eye? Right by that, there is a bump- that is where the hanger was sticking out at. The other has a scratch under it as well- but I'm not sure what from.