Hospital Visits

Last night I had to meet up with Tim who needed to go to the ER. He thought he was going to slide into 3rd base at softball, but instead slid into another player’s cleat and ZOINK! His middle and ring finger on his right hand decided to dislocate into a 70 degree angle. He was playing in Everett and drove 45 minutes back to Issaquah to go to the ER. He says it’s because he didn’t want to end being stuck up north. But I like to think it was because he wanted me there with himJAnyway as the Dr is sticking him with a 2 cm needle three times in his knuckles and then setting them back in place I started thinking about how many times my mom was in the ER/hospital with us.

Me alone, I think I was in the ER/hospital 8-10 times. The first time was when I was 2 and fell off my Grandparents second story deck head first and spent a few days in the hospital. Then when my brother and I tried doing back flips on our futon, and I gave myself a concussion with my knee. Then I had an emergency appendicitis and spent 10 days in the hospital. I punctured my foot with an earring and the ER docs had to open my wound and flush it out. I had surgery on both my feet to have extra bones removed. I broke my elbow racing down the big hill with my cousin, Sean and somehow flipped over the handle bars. A few years later, I broke my wrist in high school because I was mad at Timmy and flung open the gym door too hard. Then I had a benign cist removed from my neck… thankfully after that, things slowed down a bit, but still had three more “surgeries” as an adult.

I can’t imagine a mother having to take her kids to the ER and spending so much time in the hospital. Of course, watching Tim go through his stuff last night wasn’t that big of a deal because he’s a big boy and I’ve seen worse – but I was thinking about my own children. I’d have to hold their hand and console them and knowing there would be nothing I could do to help them myself. I guess it all comes with the territory, but I really hope my kids aren’t as clumsy or accident prone as I was!