Stitches

I can't continue posting without going back and catching up on July... 

We'll start with July 1st at about 5:45 in the morning.  Randy and I were awakened to an awful KA-BOOM, and then the sound of crying coming from across the hall.  "Maya fell off of her bunk bed!"  Randy said as I jumped up and ran into her room.  The first thing I thought was that she probably broke something but I quickly saw that she hadn't as she stood by her bed, holding her head with her hands.  I talked to her and started to help her back into the bottom bunk but when she moved her hands, I saw that they were dripping with blood.  I called for Randy.  He came in and I ran to get a cold, wet rag.  Randy helped her out to the couch and laid her down.  We were dabbing at her eye, trying to decide how bad her gash was, and if her eye was okay.  I ran back into her bedroom to take the comforter off her bed, so I could begin soaking it in cold water.  As I headed down the hall with her comforter I nearly passed out, so I dropped the comforter in the hall and hit the floor.  I crawled back out to the couch and laid on the floor to try and get blood back into my head.  Poor Randy looked down an me and headed to the kitchen to get me a glass of cold water.  He set the glass next to me on the floor and returned to Maya's side.  I reached for the cup of water and knocked it over on the carpet, sending Randy back into the bathroom to get a towel to take care of that mess.  I have no idea why I reacted this way.  I have been known to pass out before but never when my kids have been bleeding or wounded.  I've always been able to handle it in the past and I wonder if Randy hadn't have been there is I would have been "with it" better.  Like, I have to take charge here. Anyway, I got myself together and was able to progress to a sitting position while we discussed what we should do. It was clear that she would have to be stitched up at the ER.  Since it was Sunday morning, Randy would have to be home so I was the one that would need to bring her in.  Pretty quickly I was on my feet again, getting dressed and heading out the door to the ER with Maya. 

On my way in to the hospital, I realized that this was the first time that any of my kids have ever had to have stitches.  Them, who's mother has had stitches multiple times in her life?!  I considered myself lucky, that this was our first incident, but ached for my little sweetheart who so innocently fell from her bed in her peaceful, cozy sleep and had to awaken to this!  She hadn't even been doing anything dangerous or daring or clumsy, like her mother. 

At the ER, Maya was very cooperative and calm so we didn't have to put her out.  Thank goodness!  The doctors and nurses were super!  They had to put 7 stitches in the gash between her eyebrow and her eye.  She was brave and stayed still and was rewarded by the nurse telling her stories and a bear to take home with her, who she affectionately named Stitches.

We came home to the rest of the family sitting around the table eating breakfast.  Poor Colter took one look at Maya and couldn't eat any more of his breakfast.  We had to send him to the couch for his turn to lay down and Maya to our bed to lay down.  She rested throughout the morning and by lunchtime she was eating lunch with us.  After lunch, she headed downstairs to play with Colter (he finally got used to her new look).  Then we put Lita down for her nap and Kyla, Randy and I got busy finishing our packing for our trip.  Around 4 o'clock we were driving out of our yard, headed East, for our 4th of July week at Fort Peck with Randy's family.

It was amazing how fast her eye healed.  She wore a hat (doctors orders) and sunglasses (her choice) for much of the first couple days.  On Thursday we got the stitches out in Glasgow and by the following Sunday she only had a slight scar that remained.  Happy cheers for awesome doctors and nurses, ibuprofen, neosporin, and lots of fun cousins!  The hardest part for her the whole week was that she couldn't go swimming and her swollen black eye on all the family pictures.

She took this picture (above) of herself, on our trip when she was playing with my iPad.  I think it is the best one, if you can call it "best".