Ukraine Adoption

A trip to the ER

It's very scary when you see your child's pre-school's phone number on the caller ID at work. Oh my gosh, who doesn't think the worst? Sometimes they just call because I forgot to sign a permission form or something. But I still feel the anxiety when I pick up the phone.

Tara's sweet little face was cut by a toy, someone hit her by accident. The teacher wanted me to know right away, since it was near her eye, and suggested I come and see for myself in case I wanted to take her to a doctor. She didn't think it would need stitches, but it was my decision to make, she said. I don't even know how fast I drove the one mile to her school.

I trotted down the long hall to her classroom, and paused to catch my breath. I didn't want to alarm her by bursting in and frantically grabbing her, which is exactly what I wanted to do.

At the small table, the children were eating their afternoon snacks, quietly. Tara looked up at me and I smiled and said Hi sweety, are you ok? It was then that her chin began to quiver. Who doesn't cry when they see their Mom after an injury? But she held it in. "I'm OK, Mommy," she said, trying to comfort me.

I looked closely at the cut just under her left eye, near her cheekbone. It was not large but it was a circle, gaping. Ouch, I'm going to take you to a doctor to make it better, I told her. She didn't like this idea. But we found an urgent care center a few miles away.

I'm not sure why they call health care places "urgent" and "emergency" when the first thing you have to do is sit down and fill out a form. I wanted to shout out: My daughter's face is cut! We can't wait! Alas, I filled out the paperwork and sat back down, defeated.

After 30 minutes, we were called in to an exam room by a pleasant enough nurse. She said Tara probably need stitches. She whispered the word "stitches" though I don't think Tara even knew what they were. Ugh, I said, poor thing. Who wants thread sewn into their face? (I didn't say that last part out loud).

About 25 minutes later, the doctor came in and took a much closer look. "Ah, it's a clean cut, we can seal this with glue." Whew. So the doctor and nurse held Tara onto the bed, a big girl who looks so small, and closed her cut with skin glue. My little girl's face is almost good as new.

This was her first trip to emergency care. She hardly said a word the entire time we were in the exam room, and only whimpered a little when they held her steady for the glue. They probably wondered if she could even talk. They gave her Motrin and stickers and when they were all done, they asked me if she could have a popsicle. Of course, I said. She wouldn't even answer what flavor she wanted, so I said orange.

She took one bite of the popsicle and looked at the doctor, smiled, and blurted: "We have popsicles at home! And we have popsicles at school!"

Posted by Laura at August 3, 2006 02:09 PM
Posted to Tara's Story