The Puddles

That is a quote from the movie Annie and it was very appropriate for  the events of yesterday!

Madie fell at the church pool party and sliced her knee open.  Of course, Chris was in Louisiana (which is typical, our ER visits tend to be when he can’t help).  After first glance, I knew we had to go to the ER.  After first glance, Madie knew she was going to get sick.  She got really nauseated and loopy.  But we laid her on the ground and while the others wrapped her knee, I gathered my wits about me and figured out what to do.  Even though we were in Willis, we drove to the hospital emergency center that I had taken the kids to before in the Woodlands.

Madie did really good.  After the doctor confirmed stitches, she hit the roof.  She begged for an alternative (yeah, right) and she tried to convince us that we just needed to take her home (not gonna happen). I asked the doctor for some medicine to help relax her for the stitches.  I told him that she was not going to calm down for stitches.  She had to have several nurses hold her down for a blood draw.  She throws up when she sees others getting shots. I told him that this was not going to go well.  He said he would send the nurse in to give her a shot of medicine to calm her down.  Again . . . Doctor, she does not react well with shots.  So he offered a pill. Yes, please give her a pill.  About an hour after the pill, Madie was feeling good.  I gave her a piece of gum and she kept trying to eat the wrapper instead!  Poor thing. Friends from church had stopped by to help pass the time at the ER with us and she didn’t stop talking!!  When the doctor finally came in to do the stitches, she was nervous but she did great.  She had me lean over her so she couldn’t see, but there was no screaming and no nurses were needed to hold her down!

The doctor thought she might have broken her knee cap, but after X-rays there was no broken knee, just a badly bruised knee.  Not surprising.  But she can’t really bend her knee for a week because the stitches are right on top of her knee cap. Poor thing.  She was up until 2am this morning in pain.  I am completely exhausted this morning.  At some point last night I was begging her to get some sleep.  Unfortunately, I don’t think we will make it to church this morning.  The youngest two didn’t go to bed until after 10pm. Madie didn’t finally go to sleep until 2am. And I was up early helping get Chris out of the door (I think I ironed his pants with only one eye open!).

After all of this, a big thank you to our church family.  They took care of my other two kids so that I could completely focus on Madie. They wrapped that bloody knee and carried Madie to the car.  They talked to Madie, loved on her, kissed her on the forehead and made her feel completely safe in a scary situation.  And very sweetly, a pair of friends met us at the hospital and stayed with us for almost the entire five hours we were there.  Although I am the person who would normally tell everyone that I didn’t need anyone to be at the hospital with me and could handle everything by myself, I realize that it is ok to let someone in your bubble and walk through that difficult leg of your journey with you.  So thank you to everyone.  A big thank to Aunt Deb, who was getting a moment to herself on Saturday (away from her two beloved children) but met Ben and Ainsley and took them home with her so that they didn’t have to go to the hospital with us.

In the end, all of the kids are still asleep, and since I can’t go back to sleep even after only four hours of sleep, I will try to make something of the morning.  No matter what happened yesterday, tomorrow is still the first day of school!