All's Well That Ends Well

From Tuesday...

Sitting on the couch this evening, cozy with a blanket and my trusty iPhone, I was looking back upon the day and wondering if there was anything new to blog about. 

Oh yes, yes there is. 

That quick trip to the Emergency Room that Brayden and I took this afternoon. 

And before you start imagining the worst, I'll put your mind at ease. 

Our sweet middle child got a rock stuck in his ear.

The adventure began around 2 pm when another teacher came over to my desk, laughter on her face, and said I needed to go down to the office because Brayden had put a rock in his ear. 

I hurried down the hallway and found him sitting in Mrs. Chris' lap. And the tears were flowing. 

I sank to my knees beside him and asked, "What happened?"

Between sniffles, he managed to tell me that during nap time he put a rock in his ear and it wouldn't come out. 

I examined inside his ear. The rock was in just enough that you couldn't see it just by looking, but with a flashlight it was clearly there. 

I was advised to take him to the doctor...but at first I resisted. Surely I could pull a little rock out of his ear--how hard could it be?

30 minutes later, after attempting to pull and maneuver the rock with tweezers and a paper clip, I made the decision that he needed to go to the doctor. I'm really, really good at taking advice and not thinking I know better.

Another 30 minutes later, after speaking with his pediatrician and an urgent care nurse and another urgent care nurse, I decided he needed to go to the ER. Everyone had an opinion about who would be the best person to remove the rock and it seemed there was a high probability that I would end up at the ER, so after calling Justin and filling him in on the options, I dropped off Cooper and Lucas with my parents and headed to Austin. 

As far as ER visits go, this one was top-notch. It's a children's hospital, so the decor was kid-friendly and everyone was fabulous with Brayden. We were in-and-out in 35 minutes and the whole process was very smooth. 

It took just a few minutes for the nurse to flush the rock out of his ear with a warm saline solution. 

Brayden had explained the whole story to me on the way to the hospital. "I was trying to go to sleep at nap time and it was loud. So...I put the rock in my ear...and then it wouldn't come out."

Hopefully that's the last time my children tell a story that ends with that line.

All's well that ends well.