My Broken Head

Our family hosted a yard sale on Saturday. We did well considering the wind and my husband and I considered the many ways we could spend the extra cash. Towards the end of the sale, our four-year-old was jumping on the sofa. I was busy with a last-minute customer and not really paying too much attention. This level of activity is normal for my girl. So is the stunt she pulled when she jumped off the couch and landed head first in the dirt next to the couch. I heard no screams so I continued with the customer. A moment later, the screams came from my older daughter when she saw the blood running down her sisters face. I yelled at my husband and he came to see the problem. He carried our daughter into the kitchen and pulled out the peroxide and cotton balls. Under all of that blood was a fair-sized cut, not too deep, under her bangs. Ironically, she and I decided last week that we would let her bangs grow out. While I looked on and held tightly to my child, my husband cleaned the cut as best as he could. An uncertainty about how clean the cut was and a concern for scarring, we decided a trip to the urgent care clinic was necessary. Upon arrival, my husband was told that because she landed on her head, they would need to go to the emergency room. Fast forward to the two of them sitting on a bed in the E.R. hallway talking to the nurse. The nurse asked my daughter what happened and my daughter replied, " I broke my head." Later my daughter asked her daddy if there were pieces of her head laying all over the place.

Thankfully, she got through her ordeal (third hospital visit for a head injury for the record) and is healing happily. She got ice cream on the way home and shared with the teddy bear the hospital volunteer gave her. She proudly wears her hospital bracelet and is excited about picture day tomorrow with her forehead glued shut and bandage protecting the wound. I, on the other hand, am mourning the fact that I will be sending my "extra money" from the yard sale to pay the hospital.