Extreme Bumps And Bruises (Again!)

While we were on vacation, I wrote that Chase had fallen down my mom's deck steps and broken his nose. Today we were back in the emergency room because of another fall.

Today I had plans to take Chase and do some clothes shopping while Jorden was at school. We hit the mall right after it opened and our first stop was Payless for shoes. After that we headed across the way to Children's Place.

Even though the store was empty, Chase took it upon himself to run around like a madman. He wasn't listening and was generally being a poop-head. After he had run off for the umpteenth time, I swatted his butt and told him to stop. Then he proceeded to run away from me and that's when disaster struck.

Chase wasn't watching where he was going and ran full tilt into the hooks that the hats and gloves hang on. Then he ricocheted backwards and smacked the back of his head on the bottom of the metal clothes rack. I scooped him up only to discover that his EYE WAS BLEEDING!!!! I took him over to the counter, told the manager what happened, I moved my hand and there was blood everywhere. She called 911 because we couldn't tell the extent of his injury. Within minutes the EMTs arrived and after we cleaned him up a bit we saw that it wasn't his eye but his eyelid that was cut. Chase was able to answer questions and the bleeding had slowed so I decided to drive him to the emergency room myself.

Jason met us at the hospital where we had to wait 4 hours before we finally saw a doctor. The doctor put some skin glue on his eye because it would be less traumatic then if we used stitches. Chase was so exhausted from not having a nap that he fell asleep while his eye was getting fixed up.

Other than being cranky because he's tired, Chase is fine. I'm very grateful that he didn't hit the hook dead-on, he hit it from the side (because his nose is scratched too). Jason says we should sue but I don't see what for. The only negligence that occurred was me not being able to control Chase although the store should not have those hooks at small child level. When we got home I called Children's Place to let them know he was okay.

I should get used to visiting the emergency room. He's only 2 but I already get the feeling that Chase will have many more visits throughout his childhood.