Do anyone else’s children get hurt as much as mine do? I realize that my children are ages 4, 6 and 8 and that they’re very active, but seriously though. They get hurt on such a regular basis that we don’t even get excited unless the bleeding doesn’t stop. And that came about for purely financial reasons. Please allow me to explain…
A few years ago, Bit was riding a little tricycle in our living room. Our living room is rather large and we have a fireplace in which the brick hearth runs the entire length of one wall. The brick is raised up about a foot and a half and the edges are exposed. We’ve tried to cover the edges with that soft padding material that’s specifically designed for these situations, but it either a) never stays on by itself or b) our children rip it off to play with.
As Nicholas was riding his toy, he got close to the brick. The moment I told him to be careful, he leaned back and the tricycle shot out from under him. He fell backwards and his head hit the very hard corner of the brick hearth. I rushed to him only to see exactly what I dreaded seeing: his bleach blonde hair was becoming soaked with blood. I frantically investigated the wound which was a gigantic gash. I grabbed a towel and picked up the screaming boy and called his mother. She was at a hair appointment with our only vehicle. I made her come home immediately because I was absolutely certain that Bit was going to need stitches. She rushed home and we put him in his car seat, laying a towel behind his head to keep blood from getting everywhere. By the time Shonda arrived at the ER, the towel was soaked through. She hurried through the doors with our screaming and crying little boy. People took one look at the child and the blood soaked towel and immediately gave her the right of way. A short while later, the doctor said it wasn’t that big of a cut and all they could do was clean it out. He didn’t even get one stitch! I realize that it’s better to be safe than sorry, but that trip cost us a $100 co-pay. So now, with the bumps and bruises and cuts and gashes, we are a little bit more patient before we make any trips anywhere.
And it’s not just Nicholas. When Savannah was four, she was walking up the stairs with a towel wrapped around her after a bath. She stepped on the towel and it caused her to fall face first into one of the steps. This broke her two front teeth and we had to make an emergency trip to the dentist the next day. Also, you’ve seen what happens to Noah from an earlier post. I know my boys are rough with each other and luckily, Noah hasn’t had to make any trips to the ER. Oh wait…yes he has.
When Noah was born, he had a small cyst on his Johnson. He was also in need of a chordee repair. What this meant was that he could not get a circumcision while he was still in the hospital after being born. We actually had to wait for quite a while (about 18 months) before we could have this done. When the time came, he had his procedure and everything went just fine. The only evidence was a single stitch and some gauze wrapped around his “peanut”. A few days later, he and Savannah were playing and she accidentally fell right on top of him. He began to cry and scream uncontrollably, so we immediately knew that he was really hurt. I asked him what happened as I frantically examined him. I could find no injury at all until it dawned on me to look in his shorts. I held my breath as I took a peak and found that the worst had happened. His Johnson was covered in blood and the sight of it almost made me pass out. I could have sworn he popped his stitch out and was going to have to have an emergency procedure to correct it. About six hours later his mother returned from the ER only to tell me that they just cleaned it up and put a band aid on it. Again, that cost us another $100 ER co-pay.
Which brings me to our latest fiasco. I was sitting in our living room the other day and I heard a crash come from the bathroom. We hear crashes all the time so I was waiting for delayed crying or screaming to see if anyone was hurt. Unfortunately, Bit came running out of the bathroom screaming, “I fell off the toilet….I fell off the toilet!”
I took me a moment, but I noticed that his upper lip was bleeding and was starting to puff up quite rapidly. I picked him up and sat him on the counter to investigate. By now, I’ve learned to not freak out when something like this happens, so upon further examination I realized that while it was quite the ordeal for Nicholas to be going through, it was just a minor bloody lip and the bleeding stopped almost immediately.
I then went into the bathroom to find out what had happened. For some reason, both of my boys sit on the toilet seat when going to the bathroom (something that I know (hope) they’ll grow out of when they get older). But they don’t sit normally. They squat over the bowl with both feet on the seat. Using my superior CSI skills, I determined what happened to Nicholas. As he was squatting, one of the hinges on the seat broke. And as he shift his weight the entire seat slid off and he busted his mouth right on the floor. If you think about this visual imagine I’m sure that at some point you’ll see the humor in it.
Luckily, I didn’t need to take him to the emergency room. I’ll be using what I would have spent on a co-pay to go by a new toilet seat instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment