Scary moments

I know that as a parent you are supposed to understand that your kids are going to fall and get cuts and "owies" but it is one of the scariest moments when you get a call from your wife saying that she is on her way to the doctor because your daughter split her head open. I have fallen plenty of times and have numerous battle scars to show it, but it is so much different when it is your baby. I am a pretty strong person, but when it comes to my kids anything will send me into hysterics.

My wife called me at work yesterday wanting to know what she should do because Lil' Red fell at the daycare and cut her head open. My initial response was to call an ambulance. Obviously a huge overreaction on my part, but not knowing the extent of the injury I was freaking out. I told her to go to the ER because if it were serious I would rather have the ER docs take a look instead of having her sitting in an urgent care waiting room for an hour when she is bleeding profusely. All Mrs. Messenjah kept telling me was "You should have seen all of the blood. It was everywhere." This really didn't help, but I had to stay calm. Since I don't drive to work, I ride a van pool, I had to find someone to take me to the hospital in the midst of a panic attack.

When I got to the hospital, I found her hooked up to a crazy amount of wires watching Dora. The ER doc suggested that we get a plastic surgeon in to sew up the wound due to the size and complexity of it. It literally looked like she had fallen headfirst into a rock, but there wasn't anything in the wound, or sticking out, luckily. The doctor explained the situation and what was going to be done and gave us the option of leaving since it can get a little messy. We both decided to stay in there so that she wouldn't get scared. They then gave her medicine to put her out, which was more freaky than the wound itself. I can handle blood and guts, but to watch her eyes about made me cry. The were shifting back and forth, which the doctor assured us was normal. She looked like a little zombie. About halfway through they did have to give her another doze of the "sleepytime medicine" because she was starting to come out of it. When they finally finished all she kept saying was "I'm moving" "Momma" and laughing hysterically. I was kind of glad to see her react like this because I have seen some pretty nasty reactions to anesthetic.

After she was all finished, we had to hang out for a little while to make sure that she didn't have any negative reactions to the medicine. When we left we had to go get a prescription filled and said that she could pick out some soup because she couldn't eat any real food. She of course went right for the Dora Chicken & Shapes. When we went to pick up "Mini Me" all Lil Red wanted to do was play. She was back to acting like a normal kid. Phew!!! What a relief.

As minor as something like this is, it makes you realize how important your kids are to you and that you need to take advantage of every second that you can with them. Make them annoyed by the amount of hugs that you give them everyday and kiss them whenever you can. You never know when that call may come in that is about something different.

Here is what she looked like post-stitches (by the way she got 6)