A $45 Band-Aid®

Last week while home by myself with the girls while Drew was out of  I was busy getting ready to go out of town the next day.  I had both girls upstairs playing what I thought was safely in Natalie's room.  The gate to the downstairs was shut so Elin couldn't topple down the steps.  I thought I had a good five minutes to go my thing.

About three minutes into me hustling around downstairs I hear a thud.  Being no stranger to thuds, I thought nothing of it, until I didn't.  I heard nothing.  Nothing and then a big something.  The something being a scream.  I flew up the steps to find Elin's mouth wide open, silent screams coming out, along with a lot of blood.  I grab her and try to calm her down, all while trying not to freak out myself.  Her two top teeth are just becoming full size, so I'm fearful that she's already knocked those out and will be toothless until the age of 8.  I manage to calm her down and grab a wet washcloth for her to suck on.  As the blood clears, I see a gash under her lip and it's so deep i figured she must have bit all the way through it.  I cannot see the inside of her lip due to her being so fussy and the blood still slightly pooling.  I asked Natalie what happened.  Apparently Elin was trying to climb into the baby doll cradle and fell
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I call my mom in a panic asking her to come over because I may have to bring Elin into Urgent Care for a stitch.  She comes and agrees the cut does look pretty deep.  By this time we've both realized that thankfully she didn't bite all the way through her lip. 

I drive to Urgent Care with a half hour to spare before it closes.  After a mere 5 minutes of waiting, the nurse calls "Ellen" to come back.  I almost didn't respond because I wasn't sure she was talking to us, as my daughter's name is Elin, not Ellen.  I correct her and all is well.

We head back and she has to stop and get a height and a weight before we get to the room.  Why babies (or anyone) needs a height and a weight for a cut lip is beyond me.  What if this was a REAL emergency?  If her lip was dangling by a thread would they still insist on a weight??
After asking the series of allergy and travel questions, it's now time to get her blood pressure, heart rate AND oxygen levels.  This is getting ridiculous.  The toe thing they put on babies to read O2 levels isn't working and Elin is fighting to yank it off.  I swear this ordeal continues for five minutes.  All while I'm sweating, trying to contain my 14 month old who is still bleeding a bit and getting more blood on her arms, hands and me.

The results of the important tests are in and finally it's time for the nurse to exit and the doctor to enter.  But of course not until we are waiting in the room for 10 minutes while Elin is squirming and the power goes out.  Twice.  I'm not sure what happened, but I've never had the power go out in a doctor's office before.

The young doctor finally makes his entrance to the room and takes a look at the cut with his scope and flashlight.  "Well, it's not that deep" he says and I am left looking like the typical over-reactive parent.  I say a few things on how it looked deep and he neither agrees nor disagrees.  I keep talking nervously because there's nothing else to be said and he's not rushing to get out of there (surely trying to earn his money) so he finally mumbles something about a band-aid and excuses himself again.  He comes back with a band-aid for a cut double the size and attempts to put the medication-covered bandage on Elin's chin.  Shockingly enough, she hates it.  I'm about to tell him to forget it, but I don't have the energy.  I'm sure he just wants to make me feel less dumb about making this trip for nothing.  Instead he wants to make me feel better by leaving with a band-aid that will cost $45 in a co-pay and the insurance company $200.

We got to the car where Elin was still sobbing about the band-aid.  I ripped it off and she was fine the rest of the night.