wouldn't be the first time...

This entry is only to reply to a comment on my last entry...here is the comment:

"Be careful because now a days the hospital will call CPS child protective service over animal bites and scratches.  Sit Bum down and explain this to her some how because I know you are a super mom and I would hate for you to have to deal with that.  Hope her face is okay."

Okay...a couple of things about this, just to inform.  I'm not writing this to be mean or anything, it's just to clarify.  First, as far as Children and Youth Services (or CYS, as it's called in PA) getting involved, if they were going to make a case out of it, they would have been asking questions at the hospital.  They didn't get involved when this happened back in August, and that incident was much worse.

Second, if by chance they did get involved, it wouldn't be the first time we had a run-in with CYS.  I never told this story here, only because I didn't have a journal (or a computer for that matter) at the time.  But I'm telling it now.  This is going to be long.  So get comfy.

One morning in 2002, Joey's mom was giving Home Fry a bath, and she found a squishy lump on his head.  She called me, and I went over to see what she was talking about (she lived across the street, so I didn't have to go far).  I felt it, and I knew it wasn't right.  I immediately called Joey at work, then went to pick him up (his employer didn't like that--they tried to fire him for it).  We took him to the hospital, and they examined him--CT scan and all.  Mind you, while doing this, Home Fry was acting like nothing was wrong--no complaining, etc.  What they found was not good--a skull fracture with internal hemorrhaging.    We had no idea how it happened (we still to this day don't have a clue), and because of this, and because it was so severe, CYS and the police started asking questions.  What they said next almost floored me.  Since they had no pediatric neurosurgeon here, they would have to Life Flight him to Geisinger in Danville.  And since there was no room in the helicopter, we would have to drive down (1 1/2 hours) and meet him there.  So we did. 

At Geisinger, they did some more tests, among them, a full body x-ray to see if there were other signs of abuse or something.  Of course, there wasn't.  They had him on all kinds of monitors through the night to make sure he didn't seizure or anything...he didn't.  The pediatric neurosurgeon saw him the next day, and said that there was no real damage done, and the swelling would go down in about a week, leaving him with a small dent in his head.  That's it.  Two round trips to Danville (I locked the keys in the trunk of my car, had to take brother-in-law's car, had to take said car back, then make the trip again in our car, once the keys were retrieved) in less than 24 hours.  Wow.

The next day, a caseworker from CYS shows up at our door, and tells us that Home Fry can't be left alone with Joey or Grandma, since they were the ones who had him during the time it could have happened.  I was cleared only because I was working at the time.

Long story short, everyone was cleared, CYS came to no conclusion, and I almost lost my job in the process.  But that's another story...one with a happy ending...lol.  Maybe another time.

til next time...=)