Who Woulda Thought

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting here at my desk, finishing up something and getting ready to head to my buddy Molly's house for a little GA when a large scream rang up through our basement stairs.

Now you may think me a terrible mother to not immediately jump to my feet to see what the matter was, BUT, I'm like Pavlov's dog and all too often it's a scream of frustration, or a large over reaction via the lungs of my 8 year old daughter.  She often feels so put out by her little brothers, and they really do occasionally destroy something she has worked so hard on.  She has been quick to flip her 'frustrated' switch, we are working on that... I seem to have gotten off the subject!

Large scream, I don't come right away, then more screaming, now I can hear the difference in the panic of her cry.  Mom, mom... OK now I will come!

My little gal is just sobbing, still somewhat hysterical.  She is holding her forehead.  I slipped, she says.  We sit in the front room with the light on and she pulls her hand away and when I saw what was under there, I had her put her bloody little palm right back where it was!

I ran and grabbed paper towels to help stop her bleeding.  Her dad helped calm her down.  He's good at that, and I really was quite calm.  We held her and put pressure on her forehead to try to stop the bleeding.  She told us what happened between breaths. 

She was running to the staircase to go up the stairs, to get there she had to 'bounce' over the little exercise trampoline that was just before the staircase.  Of course she was wearing socks and of course she just slipped right on that tramp and bam, slammed her head on the beam of the staircase.  Slit her forehead pretty good!

Once I mentioned getting stitches she flipped out a little!  She said 'I would rather have a big scar!'  She really didn't want stitches.  The cut was deep enough, and still bleeding so good that I took her into the new pediatric urgent care facility.  It's brand new... I've been meaning to check it out!  Here we go!

She had calmed down a bit.  We got in there and there were only a couple of people.  Nice!  She sat down and calmed down a bit.  I got us all checked in and sat with my girl, loved my girl.  We waited, got checked in again then waited in our room.  For how few people were in there, they did take a long time.

They checked her over, yes to stitches, got all the stuff ready.  While we were waiting Q and I made up stories, so she'd have something to tell her friends Monday morning (this happened on a Saturday).

Things like a bear clawed her head (her favorite), she is now a pirate and got in a nasty sword fight, can't remember the others.  It was good to see her smile!

We had gotten the bleeding to stop a bit while she was sitting.  Once she started moving again the blood returned.  Not a big deal.  First they cleaned her up, that totally reopened the wound and the bleeding started again!  Poor Q about got a big eye full of blood as it started dripping down her forehead, I assisted a bit there... they started poking her with a needle to numb her.  She didn't like that but she did so good!  She started getting anxious and whimpered just a little. 

Now I don't feel like I get grossed out too easily, blood doesn't bother me.  As I sat there though I totally started feeling sick and light headed!  The blood kept coming, she kept poking, Q kept whimpering and I think I stopped breathing!  The lady said 'mom how are you doing'?  I honestly wasn't sure!  I felt faint!  I took off my jacket and put my head down for a minute while I held Q's hand!  What a wimp!  I have only fainted one other time in my life, this felt different, I was really queasy!

Anyway, Q was finally numb and could be stitched up!  She got 5!  I teased her that we should keep them in until Halloween and she could be Frankenstein's wife.  She didn't like that one!

It was late when we got out of there, but we went and got ice cream anyway.  I was so proud of my girl.  She was very brave.  She was pretty proud of her cut and enjoyed showing the kids at school.

I'm quite shocked that this is our first experience with stitches, and I'm quite shocked that my girl was the first to get them.  I thought for sure O or E would have been in there by now!