Plastic Surgery For Joshua

This past Friday started of like another Friday. Joshua and I get up at 6:30 and get ready for school. We turn on the TV to see what's going on in the news, and we find out An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan early Friday, triggering tsunamis that sent a wave filled with boats and houses toward land. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. So then we find out that California has potential danger of a tsunami there. Which I have a friend who lives there by the coast. I started chatting with her online to see how she was doing. Next thing I know we are late and need to go. I got Joshua to school just in time 7:20.

I hurried back home to see how my friend is doing. She was all packed up and taking her boys to a safe place. While I was on my computer I was checking my emails and writing back and watching the news. My phone rings at 8:19am, it's the Jr. High. The woman on the line tells me that my son was hurt at school and would more then likely need to be seen at the ER. So I rush out the door and fly to the school with my heart pounding. I run inside to the office now out of breath. There are 3 women sitting at their, and not one of them look up. So I speak up really load and say " I'm here to get my son Josh. He was hurt!!" One of the woman asks his name and seems to be taking her time getting on the phone to find out what I'm to do. Mean while another lady is already on the phone and yells out just go to the nurses office.....poof I was gone before she could finish saying "do you know where the nurses office is?"

As I'm running to the nurses office I see two women step out and just the look on their faces told me this is not going to be good. She grabs my arm and tells me Joshua has cut the top of his ear. I walk into the room and there are four people and a janitor. One of the four people was the school principal who pulls me aside to tell me what happened. Mean while I can hear my son crying in pain and I just want to get to him. I'm telling you this guy was on slow speed. I almost more then once wanted to say "can you talk any slower!!!! I want to see my son!!!" I know he is just doing his job. Then you have the janitor mopping the floor around us. I was thinking why the hell does he have to be here right now. Clean the floor when no one is in here.....then it dawns on my that the it's my son's blood he is cleaning up!!! The principal is still talk.....finely he stops and i go into the room where Joshua is and the faces of the 3 women in there made my stomach drop. Josh has a wrap of white gauze around his head. So I don't even get to see how bad it is. I see all the blood on his shirt and his face......I wanted to cry and drop to the floor. My son was in so much pain and there was nothing I could do about it. The women asked if I wanted one of them to go over to the ER with us and said no. Joshua said no he just wanted to get out of the school.

So Joshua and I headed over to the hospital and that when he tells me the story of what happened. He was shooting basketballs and another kids called Joshua a fag and through the basketball right at him, so Joshua being Joshua through the ball he had at the kid and the boy started to chase him. The teacher saw what happened and had Joshua sit on the stairs. (yep I got a picture of the stairs when we went back to the school to get Joshua's stuff)

As the teacher walked the other kid to the office they had to walk past Joshua. So Joshua being Joshua looked at the boy and called him a fag. That's when the boy ran over to Joshua and smash his head into the stairs he was sitting on. The teacher felt so bad because she saw the whole thing, but it happened to fast for her to stop it. When Joshua's head hit the edge of the step which has a metal rail, his ear was cut at the top.


So now we get to the ER 8:20am. Joshua is so upset because he knows he is going to have to have stitches. I kept telling him he doesn't know what the doctor is going to do. I said "you don't even know how bad it is." Joshua told me after it happened he could feel the blood and put his hand on it and it felt like it was hanging. I kept telling him it seems worse then it is. Remember, I still haven't seen it yet. We get into one of the rooms and the nurse who was so sweet took off the wrap. The next pictures you may not want to see. They are gross but Joshua wants me to show people what happened.

















Where you see the blood is where the cut it. The metal on the stairs did this. If it was just a pinch more it would have taken it right off. So Josh was right about having to have stitches. This is now when I just want to break down and cry like no tomorrow!! I couldn't because I needed to be strong for Joshua.

By now 8:35, I have called John (step dad), Joshua's father, and Joshua's step mom. While waiting for the doctor to see Joshua, a cop has come in to see what happened and to get the story and pictures!! Finely the doctor comes in to see his ear, then takes me out of the room. He tells me that it is so bad that he is going to have to have plastic surgery to fix it. My heart drops a little more. So this means Josh is going to get all upset to know he is going to have to be put under and have surgery. I went back in told Joshua and he did just that. Got all worked up but we talked about it and how it's for the best and he wouldn't feel a thing or remember much about it.

So now they rewrapped his head and it's off to another hospital 30 minutes away. 11:15am

Now we are at the other hospital and Joshua wanted me to take a picture of his IV that he got all worked up about having put in.

When we got to the 2nd hospital they told us to go to the ER room and they will be waiting for us. We get there and have to sign in and wait for over an hour. Come to find out they did want us in ER they wanted us to Day Surgery. So we now have to walk I have no idea where to the Day Surgery. This hospital was so big I felt like a mouse in a maze. We get up there and have to wait for a while then he is set up in a room. We are then told that he can't go into surgery until 3:30pm because he ate at 7:00am. So we sit around waiting....Joshua getting more worked up. Then it was time 3:10pm yet them came early and Joshua wasn't ready but it didn't matter. Joshua didn't want to be put under. We talked the doctors into letting me go into the OR until he was asleep. They said they don't allow people to do this with a kid his age. They were nice enought to let me good I was so releaved they let me go. Joshua kept telling me to promise his I would be there when he woke up!! I knew they wouldn't let me be there that soon, but as a mom I just said I would be. Killed me knowing I was lying to him. So out his went, and they walked me back to the waitingroom where only John was with other familys waiting. I looked at John and lost it a little. I just needed to let a little out.

After 30 or 40 minutes the doctor came to let us know everything went fine. They would let us know as soon as his is awake. About 15 minutes later a woman came in the waitingroom and pointed right at me and said he wants you!! That was the best feeling in the world. I felt bad for John, Charley and Angie but I was so happy I got to see Joshua. It took a little while for him to really wake up, but by 6:15pm I think. We were home by 7:00. John got movies and icecream and that was the end of that.

So now Sunday we could take the wrap of Joshua's head and this is what it looks like now!! So much better. We have to go back to the hospital to have them look at it.

Looks soooooooo much better right!!??