Accidents happen

Shortly after Dinoguy was born, I remember clearly having the thought that now I couldn't protect him from getting hurt, now that he was no longer connected to me and safe inside me. It was a terrifying thought, as I am some what of a klutz; realizing that I am not strong enough to protect my son from all physical pain.

The past month of May brought a pretty bad fall, when walking the dog with Fixitman. Dinoguy tripped and started to fall, Sarge kept going, (at a pretty fast speed, they usually run together) and Dinoguy hit the ground pretty hard. Fixitman called me on the cell phone and told me to come get them right away with ice, as Dinoguy was growing a pretty good sized egg on his head. I must have checked him for concussion signs every 20 minutes for a few hours.

Of course, he has had other bumps, bruises, falls, infections, illnesses and more. Every time he bumps his head hard, or gets a cut, all sorts of awful stories go thru my mind, thanks to Reader's Digest, the newspaper, magazines, the internet, etc. So I check him over carefully, and care for the injury as best I can, praying that I don't miss any signs of more serious injury.

We have had our first bike fall about a week ago - that one was scary to me, but the neighbors came out and brought ice and popcicles and the popcicles seemed to be the therapy that worked best. Thank goodness.

This past weekend brought one of my personal nightmares to life. An injury that requires a hospital visit; it's that bad. It happened to my younger son - Trainboy. It involved Trainboy's hand and was a hatchet wound that had me hysterically calling people asking where the nearest hospital was and trying to comfort the scared brother at the same time while Fixitman attended to the blood. (I do not handle blood well. If there is only a little, I can suck it up, but large amounts of blood cause me to get rather sick.)

Thankfully the wound did not cut any arteries, bones, ligaments or tendons. He was still able to move all his fingers and the x-ray came back clean. The doctor used 8 stitches to close it up - something I was not able to watch him do as it involved them wrapping him up, a large man leaning on him to prevent him from moving and several nurses assisting in keeping him still. Fixitman stayed near his head and tried to provide the physical comfort that he needed and the mental distraction that helped somewhat. Both a nurse and Fixitman advised me not to be nearby, and my weak stomach for blood agreed, so I stood a bit off and listened to my baby cry and cried along with him.

The photo of the stitches was taken 24 hours after they were done, you can see it started healing up quickly, he is doing great. Fixitman carefully cleans the wound and changes the bandage twice a day while Dinoguy & I distract him from looking at it. As long as he can't see the stitches, Trainboy seems to be alright with his bandaged hand. But the first cleansing of the wound was hard, as he remembered getting the stitches.

Tonight Dinoguy fell off his scooter and got some scrapes. We are feeling very human and vulnerable around here. I am feeling very blessed that things were not worse with Trainboys' hand. It has taken me 3 days to be able to write about it, it isn't easy to remember and share our experiences with pain.