We arrived safe and well at Grandma’s house mid-afternoon yesterday. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Grandma cooked steak and lobster tails. Mmmmmmm. Combined with a couple of good beers (we’re taking a short sabbatical from The Diet) and we were in heaven.
The kids ran off to play while the grown-ups chatted and cleared the table. Soon, though, it was time for dessert. And if you know Grandma, you know it’s gonna be good.
We hollered for the children and they came running. A little too fast, unfortunately. In her race for the cheesecake, Maria tripped and fell. Hitting her forehead smack against the corner of the wall.
Dan was at the table. I was in a back room. But when I heard her wails, I knew it was serious. I came running to find blood EVERYWHERE and Maria wailing with a wet washcloth on her forehead. I was afraid to look. Grandma (a retired nurse) said she was going to need stitches. Without looking, I believed her and we prepared for a fast trip to the ER.
Dan called his brother, Dr. Mike, who advised us on which ER was the best place to take her and we were off. It seemed to take FOREVER, but finally, we arrived. Thankfully the ER was not crowded. There were only a couple of people waiting.
But, it turns out, a bunch of ambulances had recently come in (which take priority) and we were in for a wait. People came and went. A lot of people decided they weren’t hard up enough to wait. Some people left for another ER, hoping for a shorter wait.
Finally, we were called. The doctor lifted the bloody rag and revealed the damage.
The cut was ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE SKULL. Ewwwwwwwwww! I had to look away so Maria wouldn’t look at my face and be scared. She was a champ.
After a lot more waiting, the doctor, who was WONDERFUL (and hot, according to Dan, but whatever) cleaned her up. The worst part was the numbing injections, but Maria was very, very brave. She didn’t even cry! The doctor ended up putting a stitch in the deepest part of the wound and gluing the rest. Thankfully, she said, it was a nice clean cut and straight up and down, which should make for minimal scarring.
So, Maria has broken our streak. Almost 7 years and no trips to the ER with a child. I guess it had to happen sometime.
I’m just thankful this all happened AFTER my steak and lobster dinner.
Oh, and the cheesecake was damn good. Almost worth a trip to the ER.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Greg // Feb 15, 2009 at 2:34 pm
That’s going to leave a mark…….I wonder which child will try to top that one
2 Maddog // Feb 15, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I’m glad that Maria’s OK! What a champ! I’ve always been amazed at how fast kids heal. I’ll bet it’ll be almost unnoticeable in no time and in a few months she won’t even have a souvenir of her collision. Give her a kiss for me.
3 morethananelectrician // Feb 15, 2009 at 7:42 pm
OMG! That is worse than anything that I had ever done to myself. There had to be so much blood…those wounds bleed a lot.
I hope she is going to be alright.
4 Gwen // Feb 15, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Maria may prove to be tougher than the boys.
5 Alexandra // Feb 15, 2009 at 8:20 pm
That made my stomach turn in knots.
6 Liz // Feb 15, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Oh! Poor Maria! I showed Paul and he said…”it is just a scrap..look again!”…but I couldn’t look back!
And at first I was wondering why Dan was commenting about how hot the doctor was and then I realized the doctor was female!
HA
Give Maria lots of love and anything she wants…I hope she got a big piece of that cheesecake!!!
7 From Trauma to Drama // Feb 16, 2009 at 9:45 pm
[...] ← Cheesecake [...]
8 Kristina // Feb 17, 2009 at 7:54 am
Oh, poor Maria!!! No wonder you let her get her ears pierced… After that, I would have given her ANYthing! Sadly, I know from personal experience that Maria is a great healer. I’m grateful you didn’t cross-reference this entry with the great Easter disaster of 2007 (?) Your life sure is interesting, Susan. If you didn’t have this blog, I don’t know what you’d do with all this material =) Someone give my friend a book deal, already!!!
9 Susan // Feb 17, 2009 at 10:48 am
Just in case anyone’s wondering, here’s the post that Kristina is referencing
10 Kristina // Feb 17, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Ack! You’ve just assured that my nightmares will continue for several more years. It actually makes me sick to see those pictures of poor Maria! They’re even worse than the Cheesecake ones. And if there’s anyone out there who doesn’t believe me, then they must not have seen the Easter disaster photos!
11 Liz // Feb 19, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Now I know what you are tlaking about! Maria is going to have some great stories to tell her husband when she gets older! When I scroll down to read the cmments again I have to close my eyes to get to the bottom of the page! I cringe thinking about it! Maria definitly deserves the flowers, ear piercing and all of the new Fancy Nancy Books coming out!
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