In February, we were in the emergency room when our daughter and her boyfriend were in a head-on collision. They are both recovering though her boyfriend will need an additional surgery in 1-2 years.

Just 10 days ago, I took Ali’s boyfriend to the emergency room because he had food poisoning. After being very ill for 6 days, he was diagnosed with a severe case of Campylobacter and antibiotics did the trick. He is much better now. After the diagnosis, I told him we’d given the emergency rooms in our area enough business lately and we probably wouldn’t need to return for at least another year or two. I was wrong.

With a boy as adventurous and energetic as Mason, who will be 5 years old this month, it was only a matter of time before his never ending bouncing and running led to a BIG boo boo. He reminds us a lot of Frank. When he gets hurt, he rarely cries and he gets right back up on whatever proverbial horse he fell off of…and goes at it once again.

Last night, he was chasing Max down the stairs (yes, he knows running on the stairs is a no no). Nobody saw what happened (Max was in front of him and had already rounded the bottom of the banister) but we heard a, “Thump-thump. Ouch. Whimper.”

I hollered from upstairs, “What happened?”

Max said, “He’s fine, Mom.”

Mason argued, “No, I’m not!”

I sighed and went to the stairs. Mason was standing at the bottom with Max to his left. When I got down there, I could see what Max could not. Mason had a good sized, clean, straight rip just above his jaw line. Mason didn’t even realize there was blood on his face, on the floor, and on his hand. I calmly called up the stairs, “Richard, we need to run to the E.R. for a couple of stitches.”

I carried Mason to the bathroom, wet a rag, told him to hold it over the wound, and hollered for somebody to get his shoes and socks. Richard came down to hold him while I ran upstairs for my shoes. We were out the door in under five minutes and Mason was just holding his rag and talking non-stop about anything and everything, like he always does. On the way to the truck, he said, “Where are going?”

I said, “To get your boo boo fixed.”

He looked at me like I was the dumbest person on earth and said, “Um, Mom, the doctor is closed.”

We then explained that the hospital is open all day and all night to fix boo boos for children. He said okay and turned to look out the truck window, already bored with the situation. At one point, he said, “This was a really great day…and then it was a really crappy day.”

We decided since he obviously only needed a few stitches to go to the small, private hospital in town. Chances were we wouldn’t have to wait for hours and hours to get seen. We were right. There was nobody in the waiting room. From the time we walked in the door, went through triage, registered, got a room and saw the first doctor, it was only 10 minutes. A record!!! (With four boys and a daring girl, we’ve been through this routine many, many times before.)

Mason was so brave! Through the numbing, the washing (scrubbing actually), the stitches and even a shot, he never cried one tear or even whimpered. The only thing he said when they gave him a shot was, “That stings.” He fell asleep while they were putting in the third and fourth stitches. The doctor told him he’s braver than most adults.

Which leads us to this week’s Masonism:

The E.R. nurses gave Mason a package of bubbles and a stuffed Pelican and he was so happy, he said, “I’m going to hurt my hand on Sunday so I can come back!”

Hugs to all!

Angela

ADVERTISEMENT

HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY! by Angela Hoy
Using Angela’s MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years, and record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook. Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography! **Also works for biographies and memoirs.**