Emergency Room Trauma

As you may have guessed by now, I watch a lot of TV. A lot. The following story was brought to mind by an episode of the Big Bang theory.

My oldest son, I will call him B, will turn thirty-three later this year. His younger brother, J, is twenty-nine. When B was about five years old he gave me and his father quite a scare.

We had been shopping for a birthday present for a girl in B's class. You could consider her his little girlfriend. He was sweet on her. We had picked up the present and were driving to the other side of the mall to go to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream as a treat.

Well, B suddenly started crying. He was grasping his belly and screaming that it hurt. We quickly determined that the situation was serious. Instead of getting ice cream we got on the interstate to speed to Children's Hospital. I was desperate. B was inconsolable. The only thing I could think of was that his appendix had surely burst and my baby could die.

At the hospital we were taken back almost immediately. A nurse gave B some children's Tylenol to drink through his tears. We laid him down on the examination table. I was about to lose it and start crying myself. Their dad was keeping J occupied.

The doctor came in. He started feeling B's abdomen. He was pressing on B's right side when there was a loud noise. I saw the pain immediately leave my baby's face and he broke out in a big grin. And that will forever be known as the time we paid 75.00 for B to fart in the emergency room.

Ah, but it doesn't end there. It is a good thing that there is doctor-patient confidentiality. You see, the doctor, he was the father of B's little girlfriend. He was nice enough not to bring the incident up at the birthday party a few days later.