What an Adventure

So Steve and I have been married 10.5 years. We have had kids for 9.5 of those years and enjoyed most moments from those years. Life really has treated us good. We rarely take our kids to the doctors office. In fact we don't have a doctor! I know some of you may be saying --what! But it's true. I can list on now 3 fingers the number of times I have taken kids to the doctor (I do my immunizations at the health center). The have all been for extremely serious things like Seth not being able to breath (literally gasping for breath-his airway was swollen and was smaller than a coffee straw). Damen's eyes were bright red, we thought it was pink eye and kindergarten started the next day (turns out his eyes were just sunburned from being at the beach for a week). And our most recent visit to the doctor was Friday. All the kids were out playing with the neighbor kids, I was chatting with their mom. It was a beautiful day when all of a sudden all that was ruined when I looked up to see Seth, yes my Seth, driving his bike straight into a parked trailer. He went flying over the handle bars and hit his head on the side railing of the trailer. I took off running even before the extremely loud screaming started. I knew this one was going to have some blood involved. I think the whole neighborhood knew he would need stitches with how loud he was. We took off to the house, praying the whole time that I could find the butterfly bandages that Kenna had spilled all over and I had picked up and thrown somewhere. But deep down I knew with the amount of blood squirting from his chin that it might take more than just butterfly bandages. When I finally got a good look I was certain that it would need a doctors attention. I called Steve and told him to come help and then ran out to the neighbor who had just had her son in to get stitches that morning but ended up having it glued instead. I figured she would know (she's experienced with doctors and stitches--I'm not). She said it was a definite yes. So I called around to a few places and got some prices and then headed off to meet Steve at the doctors. We got right in and they numbed it up with some gel and stitched up with four stitches and in less than an hour from when it happened we were home and $200 poorer. Seth really did well once we got him to stop screaming and was pretty brave while they stitched him up. He was funny though because he wouldn't swallow his spit, so he couldn't talk to the doctor, which made the doctor think he had hurt his throat too. Steve just spoke up and said "It's just that the only experience he has with doctors is the dentist and he told him not to swallow." Well at least we thought that was funny.

The thing is for once Seth was wearing his helmet. He doesn't do it that often. When we got home and were putting things away we noticed that the helmet had been broken and a chunk of the foam was pretty much just hanging there. I know we had to pay for stitches but I think the helmet kept us from having to pay for a whole lot more (like serious head injuries). Thank heavens for the small blessings and for neighbors calmly walk you through the process of what to do and then watch your kids when you don't know what else to do with them.

This is one experience we have now experience and don't care to again. We told the rest of the kids that if they didn't get stitches before they were married we would give them $200 on their wedding day. Lets see if they take us seriously! I'm hoping!