Well tonight marked a first for our family. The first trip to the ER for someone swallowing something. I think that's a miracle for 5 kids, right? We have had to see an ENT to dig a bandage from the nose of one of them, but that's a whole different thing. This was a thumb tack, swallowed by the 16 year old. Yes, you read that right. 16. Years. Old. For reals. It was the 2nd trip to the ER for said child. The first was when he was 4.
It was 3 days after his baby sister was born and the day I had to watch an ophthalmologist pry her great big blue eyes open to examine them, so not a stellar day for me, emotionally. We were home & decompressing when he mysteriously falls off the top bunk, hitting the bottom bunk's edge on the way down with his head. Daddy is just getting home from work so I'm rushing the boy out to the ER & leaving him to deal with a newborn, who hasn't nursed for a couple of hours, and and 8 year old, who probably just pushed his brother off the bed. The boy ended up getting the gash glued back together & still has a scar. The baby girl didn't even wake up until we got home!
Tonight, this same boy, the one who'd also gotten stitches at 18 months after falling into his dresser from who knows where, the one who regularly falls for no apparent reason, the one who seems to be slightly accident prone, this man-child, swallowed a tack at church. As most stories go involving this child, this one will live in infamy at youth group. The good news: the tack is no longer in his system. The bad news: he now has burst blood vessels in both eyes, from the strain of expelling aforementioned tack. And they aren't just tiny. Pretty much the entire whites of his eyes are red. Just in time for Halloween! Yay?
Our previous trip to the ER involved the next to youngest one. It was more traumatic, for all of us. The baby told me he was hurt, & I knew right away it wasn't just a scrape. He fell 8 feet from a tree, exactly one day after the previous tree picture was taken (hello irony, my old friend), and landed on a stump or branch. His rib cage probably saved him from internal bleeding, but we, meaning I & the ER nurses & doctors, thought he'd broken a rib & maybe punctured a lung. Yes, it was that bad. He probably should have, but I think he has super hero bones, or something. Don't tell the police, but I drove him to the hospital at 70 mph through town for that particular injury. Shaking the entire way & both of us were in shock by the time we got there. It helped that it was a Sunday & nobody was on the road, but I'd have done it if it was 3pm on a school day. After 2 rounds of antibiotics, 4 hours in the ER, and 10 stitches on the outside, as well as 10 to repair the muscle underneath, he's on the mend. He's still not climbing any trees, tho.
The baby hasn't made any trips to the ER, but he did fall at church Sunday & got a goose egg on his forehead the size of, well, a goose egg! And it's not the first one, not even the first one he got at church. He used to pass out when that happened. Thank goodness he's past that stage! I think everyone at church is grateful, too.
I share our stories of injury, accidents, and the like not so you'll feel sorry for my kids that their mother doesn't keep a better eye on them, or for me that I have daredevil children, but to encourage somebody else that thinks they have to be the only one that doesn't have it all together. People, I have nothing together. Really. I love my family & try to be there for whatever they need. That's all I can do for today. Love them & be there for them. And try to show Christ to all I come in contact with, just like everyone did for us, by calling & texting to see if the kids were ok.
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