Scars

Sometimes our scars are easy to see and sometimes they are deep inside where only we know about them. For my youngest son, Eddie, the scars are so visible. He is my accident child...I wasn't planning to have another baby when he was conceived and since he was born, he's had more accidents than all of my other kids combined!

He spent a night in the hospital when he was only a week old because the doctor was worried he had RSV.

When he was 2 1/2 he fell while jumping on the couch and had to have his eye glued shut.

Last summer while the boys were playing outside, he did a face-plant into the grass around our pirateship playground (but luckily that injury didn't require hospitalization).

The worst injury yet came late yesterday afternoon. While he was out playing on the same playground, he turned to help his sister up the gangplank and lost his footing. He fell about 6 feet to the ground where he smacked his head on a piece of wood.

I wasn't outside when the injury happened, but when I heard him crying on the front porch, I went runnign to the door. My husband, Mark, just says to me, "Cold water! Cold water!" I didn't really know what he wanted because I didn't see Eddie yet so I just grabbed a cup of cold water and a small bowl, too. When I got outside again, I was immediately in shock! Blood was pouring down his head and he was crying so hard. Mark was trying to clean him up and wanted me to look at the wound itself.

As soon as I saw the cut, I ran in the house to tell my parents we were taking Eddie to the ER for stitches. (When I got home, my mom told me that as I was running to their bedroom to get my dad, she saw my face and said that I was as white as a sheet - no doubt, I am no good with medical stuff and I was pretty freaked out!)

Luckily, even though we live in the country, it's less than 20 minutes to an emergency room and the one we go to to is in a small town so there isn't much of a wait time...of course, with his head injury we probably wouldn't have waited long anywhere!

The nurse who took us back warned us that Eddie would probably need staples and that they would probably deaden the area. I am not sure if Ed heard about the staples or not, but thank goodness my husband was with us because I would have just been freaking out, but he is always able to help the kids relax and have fun even in the worst situations. Before the doctor even came in the room, Eddie was laughing and much more relaxed.

The doctor told us that skull was definitely exposed and Eddie would probably need 6-7 staples. UGH! One of my worst nightmare coming true. Head injuries scare me so much and I just wanted it all to be OK. After the nurse had cleaned the wound are, the doctor gave Ed some Lydocain to deaden the area where they were going to put the staples...Eddie didn't even flinch hardly. He is so much stronger than his momma! Anyway, they put the four staples in and we didn't even hear a peep out of Ed.

By the time we got home again (a little more than an hour after the original injury), Eddie was ready to play on the ship again and was his happy-go-lucky self! I am so amazed at his ablitily to get passed the bad and really look at the world with such a positive spirit. I'm so lucky to call him my son. (Whereas his mommy can hardly go to the backyard and the ship without getting queasy!)

AND I would just like to say that I think scars on the outside are sexy -- at least that's what Carson says!