Well this is what we were in the throws of last Wednesday morning, with a two hour pit stop at the pool planned, of course (if you know about the summer and the girls and I it equals pool time each day). It was a pleasant morning. Mia woke up happy and Macie decided to sleep until 8:30 a.m. At about 8:15 Mia and I began gathering materials to wrap her friend Johnny's birthday gift. We had just begun measuring out the wrapping paper length when we heard Little Sis sending us her "wake up call". The two of us headed upstairs to sing good morning to our little girlie, to then head back downstairs to feed Macie breakfast and Mia to finish her gift wrapping project. Little did I know what would transpire in the moments that followed this simple, everyday plan....
Macie's all set up in her chair, an assortment of fruit and toast cut up small enough for a 6 month old to eat (I am self-admittedly overly protective of my children's ingestion of whole foods; it's a little OCD, but rather safe than sorry right? :) ) and Mia and I are back at the table wrapping away. The phone rings so I answer it- it's a friend who I have been anxious to hear from. All in one room, the three of us continue on with our activities. Mia, as any egocentric 3 year would do, persistently begged to continue with the gift wrapping, as I attempted to hear what very important information my friend was sharing with me. I made the decision to hold up the "one-second finger" and turn my back to my two children so I could concentrate on hearing my friend more clearly. Big mistake, big, BIG mistake. Within a minute and a half of this critical shift in my focus, I hear a scream coming from Macie. Now mind you, I am in sight of the kids, not more than twenty feet from them, so all I have to do is turn around to see what's wrong. Macie D has been known to throw a tantrum or two :), so the shriek of her voice is common around here, but this scream was not of typical decibal level, it far exceeded it. I did a quick once-over of the top half of her, coming up with no physical evidence of pain. It was when I looked below the tray of her high chair that the shriek became immediately clear. I will spare you the gorry details, but envision something that resembles a scene from ER; it was not pretty.
I grabbed Macie out of her chair as quickly as humanly possible and brought her over to the sink. My mind racing a mile a minute- "What happened? Why is she bleeding so much? Where is the blood coming from? Why is Mia crouching in the corner near the trash can holding her head in her hands?" I glance around the scene and notice Mia's kid scissors (the scissors I bought her a year and a half ago that we have had trouble cutting paper, project after project over the past 18 months) lying on the girls' table in the kitchen. I quickly deduce that Mia has CUT her sister with the scissors! "Are you kidding me?!" is the first thing that went through my mind, followed by, "Where did she cut her?". After about, what seemed like an eternity, but was probably 5 minutes, I found the cut on the bottom of Macie's left, big toe. I braved up the nerve to investigate it as my 16 month old screamed in pain. I see that these seemingly "safe" scissors have done significant damage.
What to do now..."Does it need stitches? How am I going to get to the hospital with her foot bleeding like this? Mia is still in her PJs and I am in my bathing suit (remember, we were going to the pool, I don't wear it for fun). Where should I take her? Should I call the pediatrician before going to the ER? WHY did Mia do this?" While letting these thoughts invade my mind, I continue my attempt at stopping the blood flow. Eventually, it slows down and then comes to a stop (if no pressure is applied to the incision). I direct Mia to get me my phone so I can call the pediatrician- I have made the decision that I do not want to drive all the way to Children's Hospital and sit in the ER if stitches are not mandatory- even though I know they are. Doc says to bring her in. I wrap Macie's wounded foot in a roll of paper towel and tape it up with the tape from our wrapping activity, race upstairs to get clothes for Mia and Macie's Monks (a crucial necessity for what will soon take place), get back to the kitchen, grab juice boxes and fruit bars from the fridge, stuff them in my bag, and exit to the garage. I have 10 minutes to get the kids into their seats, drive to the MD, park, and get up to the 5th floor...I will for sure be late, I assure myself.
Once we were in the pediatrician's office, they take one look at it and say, "Oh yeah, this needs stitches (insert sad puppy dog eyes from the MD- really I don't need your sympathy, just a plan to get us down GA-400 without Macie pulling at her heavily banaged foot).
Elapse time...we're in a room at Children's Scotish Rite. Four hours pass and we are STILL sitting there. Finally, after a very patient mother determines her little patient needs more attention, calls the nurse to plead my case. It worked- we get a nurse and doctor into our room to perform the "deed". After four and a half hours in the lime green and royal blue room (that we are all too familiar with, seeing as though this was our third time in the past 4 months we've spent hours sitting in these rooms), I signed the papers and we were discharged.
Macie, after 12 hours of not wanting to stand on her little foot, is running around like she doesn't have a bandaged foot. Big sister, well she went through her own trauma. She feels so sorry for what she did to her baby sister. A week later, she still gets up everyday telling us how sorry she is for cutting Macie's toe. She did not, by any stretch of the imagination mean to hurt her sister- 3 year old curiosity got the best of her. Lesson learned from this mom- NEVER turn your back on your kids, even for a SECOND!
Macie Davis, a couple days later donning her "sock", as Mia calls it:
Wow - does she look like Bill in this picture!
ReplyDeleteWhat a little trooper - and what a nice welcome to being a stay at home mommy :)