It's only a flesh wound

We had a bit of excitement around here yesterday. It began with a crazy-long drive to a very northwestern suburb to get the kids' routine physicals done at a different clinic because ours is suffering water damage. While in the exam room, Sophie tripped and fell into the step at the base of the exam table and got cut between her two eyebrows. I knew immediately that a bandaid would not do the trick. I said a bad word (knee-jerk reaction to trauma, unfortunately), and Owen flipped out (not because of the bad word--Sophie's tears/crying upset him). Our doctor and nurse were instantly flurrying around taking care of us, but due to the location and depth of the cut, it was determined we should get it fixed at the children's hospital downtown.

Meanwhile, Sophie's draped across my lap doing the shuddering, post-sobbing breathing while Owen's wailing at my knees, naked, except for his diaper because we were in the middle of his exam. He got out of his shots, for now. Lucky him! Sophie was very brave and calmed down quickly and even happily ate a snack in the car on the crazy-long drive back to our house.

We stopped home to grab some supplies for Owen to be dropped off at Laura's house and for Sophie and I to be away from home for who knows how long. She only requested her blanket. While rushing about, I asked Sophie if we could take a picture to show Daddy what had happened. She said yes, and even posed, smiling. Go figure!

We dropped Owen off and headed downtown to the hospital, while I prayed the whole way...for various reasons. I hate to drive and especially park downtown, and I hadn't ever been to this hospital before. Plus, I knew that the worst was likely yet to come...

We got to the hospital/parking without incident and were able to walk right in and register. No waiting! Within moments, we were whisked away into an exam room with a lovely nurse/PA/Doctor (I don't even know what she was!) who explained everything to Sophie, relating it all to princess stuff. She was going to get some goo put on her face to make her owie go to sleep...she may even hear snoring...the woman was amazing! And Sophie was totally into it. We had to wait for the goo to numb her cut, so we had lunch while we waited.

After returning from lunch, we were onto phase 2 of the explanations...still related to princesses...but this time including "washing" and "blue Cinderella string to fix your owie." This is where the "worst was yet to come" happened.

When the time came to put Sophie on the table, she turned into a possessed version of herself and completely lost it. That finally did it for me too--I'd done so well until that point. They ended up having to strap her down, which was horrible to experience. She fought and cried/screamed so hard that she made herself sick and even burst little blood vessels in her upper-cheeks and eyelids. They look like tiny red freckles. That pretty much unhinged me. I tried to sing "Jesus Loves Me" with the help of the dear little student nurse who was also crying, as far as I could tell. I hope it wasn't her first day. Anyway, it was a pretty rough 10 minutes or so, though Sophie at least quieted down a bit after things got started.

As soon as the stitching was done, we unstrapped Sophie and she was instantly her quiet, sweet little self, though a bit strung out. She sat on my lap, watching her "Sleeping Beauty" DVD we'd brought along while she ate a popsicle the nurse gave her. And I bawled all through the "exit instructions." The paperwork lady looked at me kindly and said parents often take it worse than the kids. She had obviously been nowhere near our room about 5 minutes before that.

Though the actual 10 minutes of cleaning/stitching were horrific, the rest of the experience went so much better than it could have, and I am thanking the Lord for that. We were in a clinic full of medical people when the actual accident happened. We could not have gotten better or more immediate care than that. My friend Laura was home and able to take Owen for the afternoon--she lives 1 mile from my house. I don't know what I would have done without her! The children's hospital we went to is in our health insurance network--Greg checked while I was driving. The driving/parking was a piece of cake. We were seen immediately--no waiting! And even the registration lady was wonderful. (I heart Children's Hospital) No shots to numb the area (one of my dreads as we approached)--the magic goo was indeed magical. While we had to wait for the goo to work, we were able to get some lunch, a scheduling thing I'd had no idea would work out. The medical person who did the stitches was trained by a plastic surgeon (she told me). And until Sophie completely flipped out, she had been very brave and calm and uncomplaining. And I really have to say that I don't believe any of that "stuff" was an accident. The Lord was going ahead of our needs and preparing everything for us.

Here is the "after" picture that I took this morning.

I haven't really noticed any bruising or swelling. Just 6 little blue stitches.

And Sophie has carried on with her life as though yesterday never occurred. Another thing to thank the Lord for.