Panicky Parenting

My son cut his eyelid open last night.  I'm actually pretty proud of myself because I didn't get all freaked out and talk too fast and start breathing hard and almost faint when I saw the blood pouring out of his eye.  I remained relatively calm.

We took him to Care Now (which is an after hours clinic for anyone who does not know), but they took one look at him and told me to take him to Children's because they were fairly certain he would need sedation and stitches....and that's when I began to panic.  Perhaps your child has been sedated before and/or had stitches, but mine has not, and the very thought of it made me bawl like a baby.

So, we took him to Children's where everyone who saw him agreed that, yes, he would indeed need stitches, but we must first wait 4-6 hours so that his last meal did not mix with the anesthesia and cause him to get very ill.  So, we waited endlessly with our restless, bloody toddler (who thought running a muck in a waiting room was great fun) and many, many other miserable-looking children and exhausted parents (there were so many teeny, tiny infants in there just coughing and coughing...those parents and nurses were all so amazing).

After what felt like half the night, we got placed in a room, and Silas ran a muck some more while we waited for another forty-five minutes until a very nice doctor materialized and announced, "he does not need stitches."  Five minutes later, the paperwork guru (I'm not sure of her actual title) returned with my debit card (my bank account $100 lighter) and five minutes after that, we were told to try to keep the eye from getting infected and released to leave.

On the way to the car, I asked Michael if we were panicky parents, and he informed me that I am a panicky parent and he is just along for the ride.  That is probably true, but each time I go over it in my head, I still feel like I had no choice but to take Silas to have him looked at by someone who could tell me if his eye was cut or if he needed stitches.

What would you do?