A Change of Plans

I should be writing about our long walk to Uncle Micah and Aunt Holly's house, jumping on their trampoline, planting flower seeds in our garden, or filling the kiddie pool with water and running through the sprinkler. But our plans changed in an instant. We didn't get to the sprinkler part of our day.

We did all those fun things Saturday morning and afternoon. It was a beautiful day and the boys and I were going to wear ourselves out playing in the sun and water. Josiah wanted to hook up the sprinkler after filling the kiddie pool with water. Being the helpful boy that he is, he went in search of our sprinkler. The first sprinkle he found didn't work. A part was missing. So he went back into the basement to find a working sprinkler. Instead of emerging triumphant, he came out crying and limping. At first I thought that he may have stubbed his toe. If only he had. Instead he told me he stepped on broken glass.

I looked at his foot which was bleeding quite a bit. Too much for a band-aid fix. I grabbed my sock which was close at hand and pressed it against his foot. I told him that we would have to go to the hospital and probably get a couple of stitches. That was not what he wanted to hear. No. No! I don't want stitches. My heart felt for him. I had to have him hold the sock tightly against his foot while I picked up another crying boy and got John for help. Josiah did great. After John came out, I questioned Josiah more about the glass. I wanted to be sure that there wasn't any glass left in his foot. He said there wasn't and I rinsed his foot with the water hose which was still running and probed around the wound a bit to double check. Then John set about bandaging his foot while I called my mom to see if she could watch Nathan and Noah so that John and I could both take Josiah to the E.R. Grandma arrived in a few minutes and they waved us off as we drove away.

There was a long line in the emergency room but we waited patiently. Josiah was very calm by this time and the pain had all but stopped. When we got into an exam room we talked a lot about the gloves, the tray, the disposals, the sheets, the bed rails, other patients, equipment, etc.

At this point, Josiah said I could take a picture of him. He made a face for me.

Here he is after two different people have looked at his foot, the original triage nurse and the fast track nurse. We were waiting for someone to do the stitches now. He asked me if it would hurt. I told him that they would give him something to numb his foot - that it would be a shot in the cut. He asked me if the shot would hurt and I told him, "Yes, it will. But then it won't hurt when they clean it and put in the stitches." Then he asked, "Can you cry?" I told him, "Yes, you can cry if you want to." He was so brave! His face clouded but he didn't cry. The nurse practitioner and the other nurse were wonderful. As they worked they complimented and encouraged Josiah. He got three stitches.

Then his foot was wrapped up and we went home. It was a four hour ordeal. (When we got home, Nathan ran to greet us and promptly fell down flat in the driveway. My first thought: Please not again! Thankfully, he just scraped his knees which was fixed with cleaning and hugging and holding and, of course, band-aids.)

Josiah has figured out how to get around without walking on his foot. There's a lot of hopping going on around here. At church this morning, the kids were going to have a race but, in honor of Josiah, instead of running they had a hopping race. I assured him that he would be allowed to hop at school this week.

I found the glass that did the deed. The blood on the tip was my clue.

Josiah says he had a fun time at the hospital. We're not going to make a habit of it though.