Today my second baby was standing on a platform at a playground with a warm, inspiring, February sunshine on his back. Filled with light and hope he took a flying leap for the third monkey bar....
and landed nose-first on the hard-packed, icy snow.
The scream that rose from him was animal-like, something I have never heard before, and as I lifted his limp body from the snow blood was pumping out of his nose at an alarming rate. His screams were frantic and hurt me, they conveyed a level of pain that he had never before communicated.
(He is all right.)
After ten minutes with wads and wads of kleenex and half an hour with an ice-filled glove, we took him to the doctor to be sure nothing was broken. While his nose is quite literally swollen to twice its normal size, everything seems to be intact, and he does not appear to have a concussion.
As I was lying with him on the melting, soggy snow, soaked with blood and tears and snot, I was marvelling that this is virtually the first time that he has gotten hurt, really hurt. All of his other injuries haven't even really caused me to feel sorry for him. He has made a big deal of them, but they have been minor, really minor. I would say he has probably only bled 3 times. And, on top of this, Liam has never really been sick. Not EVER. He has thrown up once on two occasions (his version of a stomach virus) and had the croup for one night. He has spiked fevers but never for more than a day or so.
So, all of this is to think and marvel at the good luck which has seemed to follow the bad luck.
5 comments:
Oh, Carol. I know that scream that you're talking about. It makes me feel panic deep in my stomach. But, I can't panic because I have to be the calming one. But, inside, it rattles me. I'm glad Liam is ok. It's so scary when they get hurt, isn't it?
Poor Liam! That must have given you such a fright mama.
That is so awful, I'm glad he's ok, but wow. My heart really goes out to him. I know as a child I let out screams like that. He'll always remember "that time I fell off the monkey bars" but it will mostly be a blur because being an expert as a previously accident prone child, it all happens so fast. Having you there to comfort him is what he'll remember and I know that was what made it all ok for me when I was a kid. Moms are magical that way.
My kids tend to hold their breath, turn blue and then scream.
passed on from me, as I did that as a child.
i'm so sorry for poor liam's little nose. i do hope it feels better.
face "wounds" do bleed a lot don't they?!
I know that sound you write about... Of my three children, my Jonah has belted it out a few times in his 7 years... it's a sound I never want to hear (gut/heart wrenching). The kind of sound that makes everything go in slow motion.
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