She's OK

I thought of titling this post "A's first trip to the ER" but thought I might get some panic, so I decided not to do that.

Yesterday we were having a more difficult than usual nap routine, probably due to the busy-ness of our day. We went to the zoo, went to school so I could clean the classroom, came home and ate lunch, went to the bank, and then came home and I tried to lure her in for a nap. She wanted to sleep in the spare bedroom (aka Pop-pop's Room), and I said that would be fine, but she kept procrasinating, and when she stood inside the drapes and refused to lie down for a story, I said fine, no story, its just time for your nap. I got up to leave the room, Arabella tried to lunge out to catch me and make her case for getting a story, and got tangled in the drapes, fell flat on the bed, and smacked her forehead on the corner of the little wooden chest that serves as a nightstand. She cried, I pulled her up, and blood was everywhere, pouring out of what appeared to be a puncture in her forehead, just inside the hairline. I screamed for Michael to bring a towel, while holding my hand over her streaming head. As a head wound, it bled like crazy. Michael brought the first aid kit, and while I cleaned the wound he got the gauze and tape and called the Dr's office. The Dr's office said to keep pressure on it and go to the ER, so we did.

We spent 3 hours in the ER. They now have tv's in the little rooms where you wait for the Dr. We saw Ghostbusters in its entirety, in Spanish. Interesting. A wouldn't let us change the station, so we couldn't look for a program in English until the credits rolled.

And after all that, the nice young Dr. came, cleaned her up a little (I had done most of the cleaning while waiting and watching Ghostbusters), put some ointment and a bandaid on it and said she couldn't put in stitches because there wound wasn't a clean cut, but kind of a mashed in thing, and she couldn't really get a stitch in there. This was after telling repeatedly that, no she did not lose consciousness, no she had not been vomiting or queasy, and what do you mean acting strange, she's always strange, but yes she's been acting normally "for her". The nice Dr. said it may scar, but as it's right in her hairline it probably won't show much. Michael was mad, saying that HE could have put some ointment and a Bandaid on Arabella's head.

On the way out, we saw a person going into the MRI who was covered in Betadine and was quite a mess. We are very lucky.

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Today I went to Orientation for the church I have selected, and Arabella went to the daycare, and Ms. A, who was looking after the kids today, greeted her. Arabella had brought her giraffe toy with her, and introduced Giraffe to Ms. A, who said, "Oh, hello, Mr. Giraffe" According to Ms. A, Arabella gave her an odd look (best described as "who let the crazy lady take care of me?) and said very slowly as if explaining a basic truth: " Giraffe can't Talk." Ms. A told me this while laughing, and said that in 12 years of teaching, that was the first time a child made her feel dumb. That's our girl.