See it all started with our wonderful family tradition of holiday baking. It is one of my favorite times of the year. We get together with Dad's family and spent an entire day baking goodies and enjoying each others company. With the love of baking I have, it is, in my mind, it almost like spending a full day at the spa.
So this past Saturday, was our baking day. While there are some family members that relish in the act of baking, others prefer to be taste testers and want to stay as far away from any baking duties as possible (ahem Dad). With 8 kids (9 and younger), we usually delegate the dads and Papa to enjoy some good old kid action at the nearby park, at least until the rest of us can make some major headway with the baking.
And that's when it happened. After finally rounding up the herd and getting ready to leave the house, we joked with Jarrett saying, "Now make sure you give us the full 2 hours, and don't start the timer until you actually get to the park." Less than 75 minutes into our no-kid baking time, Nolan's phone rang to share the news they were all returning. Gabriel had fallen at the skate park area and had hit his leg. Uncle Jeremy shared that Gabriel had cut it pretty bad and that we'd probably have to take him to the ER.
As Nolan shared the news, I secretly hoped it was just a bad scrape. Gabriel has gotten some pretty good cuts and scrapes in the past. Between his entire leg getting road rash from a nasty bike fall
I was hoping it looked worse than it really was.
After getting the news I waited outside for Dad and Gabriel to return, like the nurses in one of my old favorite TV shows, " ER" wait outside for the ambulance to come with the injured patient. Finally Dad and crew pulled up and when I first saw Gabriel he was smiling. His cousins and brother riding in the same car had done a great job distracting him.
I carried him into the house and asked him to show me his injury. As he pulled off a tissue he had put on it to stop the bleeding, I looked into his leg which seems to have been ripped in several ways and was a lot deeper gash that I ever expected to see. As Gabriel recounted the story, I started to realize that no band-aid we had was going to do the trick in fixing this ouwie. Gabriel said he had been on his scooter and fell down not hitting his leg on the cement but on the actual scooter. Later Uncle Jeremy looked at the scooter and found a sharp metal piece that had been broken with Gabriel skin chunks clearly attached to the metal.
With a quick survey from the other adults present, the decision was made to take him to urgent care. Dad and Nana went with him, while the rest of us stayed back to keep the baking going. Although I wish I had gone along with him, (I did feel guilty for not being there with him), I knew he was in good hands and that he'd be fine. Dad kept me posted via text how things were going...
Me: How's he doing?
Dad: He's fine, We're just getting seen now.
several minutes later
Me: Now what's going on? What did the doctor say?
Dad: Should we order pizza? (I knew when I got Dad's note, things must be going really well)
Me: Fine. Now, how is he doing?
Dad: They're cleaning it now. He'll need stitches.
Me: Bummer, how many? Is he doing okay?
Dad: 7 stitches. He was freaked out by the numbing shots, but did well for the actual stitches. He's watching football now. They're cleaning it again and then we'll be home.
And soon enough Dad, Nana and Gabriel were back home to re-join in the festivities. While Gabriel seemed very excited to share how brave he was, the truth was we were proud of him for how brave he was. I can honestly say, looking at his leg ripped open, I don't think I could have held my composure as well as he did.
So now we are into day three of Christmas break and I'm doing my best to keep the activity for his leg limited. For a boy who can't get enough running, playing or tossing of a ball, it is brutal to keep him out of playing neighborhood football in the street with the neighborhood kids. While he's promised me a million times he won't fall down or scrape his leg that has the stitches in, I'm not so convinced another accident couldn't happen, so we've been spending a lot of time watching TV and Christmas movies. Personally, I love it.
While I hope the rest of our Christmas break is uneventful, I'm already gearing up for how to bring up the in depth discussion of how those stitches have to be cut out. While it shouldn't hurt, he's VERY protective of his injury and wants no one to come within 6 inches of touching it. I guess I might just save that conversation for when were actually sitting in the doctors office moments before they come in to take them out.
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| Gabriel's stitches. I think the doctor did a pretty good job getting all the pieces that were open in different directions pieced back together. |
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| And here's Gabriel telling me, "Mom, I told you it hurt REALLY bad." |
Until next time,
Angie
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