Owies

On Monday, Zoe was playing outside in the yard and fell down. Nothing unusual, right? The kid is going to be 2 at the end of the month, her balance is not perfect yet. She's pretty used to falling, and really doesn't complain about it much unless she's tired or really hurt, so when I heard her scream, I knew something was wrong. My mom and I both dropped what we were doing and ran to her. My mom got to her first, but I saw the blood. She fell on a ceramic salt shaker that Becca was apparently playing with (yes, my kids have toys, I don't understand the appeal, either). I would have punished Becca, but she felt so bad, I don't think any punishment was necessary.

Zoe's hand took forever to stop bleeding. When I got a good look at the cut, I realized that it was gaping open. It was on the palm of her hand, though. I don't like the idea of taking my kids to the doctor for something that they can't do anything about, so I make good use of the nurse line, and the nurse on the phone tells me that if the wound is gaping, I need to take her in. It's on the palm of an almost-two-year-old's hand! What are they going to be able to do that she won't just immediately rip off? This was what my mom was saying to me, and I was really going back and forth about it for a while, but I ended up taking her to the doctor. One $15 co-pay later, we are sitting in a waiting room.

While we are there, I saw one of the ladies from my church there in the waiting room. She fell walking out of her house, and it looked like she broke her elbow. It was swollen and gross. She was pretty upset, so I stopped to pray with her. Zoe at this point was dancing around and happy (and no longer bleeding). She entertained everyone in the waiting room. She was having fun with her captive audience. If she was reminded of her hand, she would get a little upset, but otherwise she was just having fun.

We got in to see the doctor, and she took one look at it and said that she would like to try gluing it back together first, and that would sting. Zoe bounces back pretty fast, so the sting didn't bother me, but holding her still was going to be difficult. The doctor tried and tried, but she just couldn't glue it. So then she tried stitching it. I have been through stitches with Ali, and that was hard enough, but it was pretty late at night (or early in the morning) when Ali was seen, and so she was easy to put to sleep first. Even though it was past bedtime, Zoe wouldn't be able to be put to sleep. Plus, Ali's stitches were on her head, that's a whole lot easier to keep still than the hand (less moving parts). The doctor numbed her up, but Zoe wasn't having it. It was horrible. The doctor actually got the needle in, but the gap was just too wide to work with on the palm of her hand. The next option was to just use steri-strips and wrap it. At least that one we could actually do. The doctor said that they needed to stay on for at least 48 hours. They stayed on for 8. She took them off in the morning. I wasn't going to go back to the doctor again (not for $15 tape), and I knew she wasn't going to keep anything on it, so we washed her hands almost constantly yesterday. This morning it looks gross still, and she is likely to have a scar, but I don't think that it will get infected. It sealed up pretty well. She wouldn't be my kid without a few scars any way.

I haven't been feeling good myself this week. I have had a pain in my side that I can't identify. It's pretty bad, but I don't want to go to the doctor. On top of every other reason, I just don't want to go and pay fifteen dollars for them to tell me to drink more water or something. I just don't have the money for that. It's on my left side, so it isn't the appendix or anything. I'll go in if the pain lasts more than a week or so. Maybe after payday.

Well, that's all the owies for now. Hopefully there won't be anymore for a while.

Here's something to look forward to:
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4