had my first visit to the e.r. with one of the foster sons yesterday....lol...the 2 boys were playing in the backyard at "grandma and grandpa's" house while "mom", "grandma", and i were on the back deck talking...they decided it would be cool to lift up the 10" x 10" x 1" patio blocks of the walkway next to the deck to look for bugs....i told them it wasn't such a good idea and to put them back...now mind you, they were wearing flip flops....next thing i know, i'm hearing screams of bloody murder as the 5 yr. old comes running over and jumps on my gf's lap, crying his eyes out, screaming....i look down at his foot and see blood dripping from his big toe....as i look closer, i see his complete toenail it just hanging there....as i tell "mom", she goes into complete mom freak out mode....now mind you, she's a nurse, but when you're a mom, that kicks in first...she's holding him, both of them freaking out as grandma starts asking what we need....i pipe up and tell her a wet towel as mom isn't answering because she's so panicked....my mom comes back out with the towel and tells my gf to pull it together..."you're a nurse", she finally says and my gf comes back to her senses with nurse mode....i scoop him into my arms and carry him to the car while she climbs in the back seat with him to comfort him and hold the towel around his foot....finally he calms down and stops screaming on the way to the hospital, which luckily for us isn't too far away...but it wasn't necessarily because he calm so much as actually going into shock i think....i carry him into the hospital and take him to the recption desk and sit him down in the chair so the attendant can take his vitals and check him in...he's asked if he wants a wheelchair or for daddy to carry him...with a reluctant shake and nod of his head, he opts to have me carry him as we are escorted to a crowded hallway to wait for an open room....i'm sitting there, with him laying across my lap, keeping his leg elevated so blood doesn't rush to his foot, as gurneys, wheelchairs and various machines are pushed back and forth in front of us....after about an hour or so we are taken to xray...all this time he's laying/sitting there across my lap, not saying anything, not crying, and not responding really to anything i say to him, at times even falling asleep on my lap...now whenever the boys get a "boo boo", i jokingly tell them i can go to the kitchen and get my butcher knife and i can take care of it for them...normally that gets them to laugh, they realize their "ouchie" isn't so bad, and they stop crying,,,,this didn't even work....finally while waiting for xray i can tell he snaps out of it as he begins to ask questions about things going on around us at the hospital...we get the xrays taken, he's given a sticker by the tech, and we are finally escorted to an available treatment room, all the while i'm carrying him around, swinging him from side to side to protect his foot making sure it doesn't get bumped into...a podiatrist comes in to treat him, and he handles it pretty well with only minimal screaming and crying...luckily xrays showed no broken bones and no lacerations on the nail bed...finally we go back to "grandma's" as she and "grandpa" were watching his brother while we were at the hospital...they had made us all some dinner so we didn't have to cook after being at the hospital for a few hours...then to walgreen's to get his scripts and bandaging materials as bandaids just weren't staying on, once again all the while, i'm carrying him around....lol...(and the ex told me i had no parenting skills...lol)...oh well, he's ok....boys will be boys...afterwards i asked him and his brother if they learned their lesson about playing with the blocks to which i got an anxious "yes"....lol...