War Wounds!

My sister summed it up pretty well the other day when I talked with her..."Your family has issues!" That was her comment after I de-briefed her on our two emergency room visits in two days. Analise was the first victim. A nice relaxing day at the pool quickly turned into blood, tears and six stitches. I was so looking forward to a nice relaxing day by the pool catching some rays and trying to tan this white skin. But soon after our arrival, I knew it would be anything relaxing. All the other kids who Analise was going to play with were pro swimmers. Stress and worry immediately set in. Analise, who thinks she is an olympic swimmer, is only a sea turtle in the eyes of Castle Rock Rec Center. Yeah--sea TURTLE! Bless her heart, she has the drive to become a good swimmer, but is still far from it! Anyway, I knew that she might take it to far and go off the deep end--literally! So I knew that I was going to have to watch her like a hawk and keep reminding her about the pool depths. She swam in the indoor pool for about 10 minutes, while the outdoor pool was having adult swim. She looked like she was having fun, but there were a few moments of panic when she was trying to get to the edge of the pool to catch a breath of air. The lifeguards blew the whistle to get back in the outdoor pool, so we made a quick bathroom break accompanied by a quick to-the-point lecture from mom about drowning, breaking her neck and being paralyzed for the rest of her life. Sorry--I'm a freak and I like to just give her the facts bluntly. It works for her. Anyway, she jumped in the pool with her friends, but she missed. For anyone who is wondering...if you want to jump in the pool, two things 1) always jump in with your body facing toward the water and 2) JUMP! don't just take a step into the water. That backwards step in the pool landed her in the emergency room with six gnarly stitches under her chin! I do have something bad to admit though. I feel really guilty, but I need to just get it off my chest. When I lifted her up and saw her chin split open and the blood and all the fat hanging out (sorry, I want you to have the full effect of her gash), my first thought was not "oh my gosh, let's get to an emergency room fast". Sadly, it was " Da**it (excuse my language), I just wanted to lay by the pool today!" I know it is terrible, but the "Oh my gosh..." one was my immediate second thought. I promise! I sat by her beside in the emergency room and held her hand and told her all the people I knew who had stitches and how they were still alive. I tried to make her laugh and think about other things while the numbing medicine took effect. Although she freaked (more than once) when the word "stitches" was used, she did pretty well through the process. Her crowning moment was when she got a gigantic squirt gun (AKA a really big syringe they used to clean out her cut) and two toys from the treasure box. One hour later, she was laughing and splashing around in the bathroom sink with her squirt gun. What a trooper! Mama is proud! Here she one week later--stitches freshly pulled and healing nicely.

I tried to take a picture with my camera phone of her open, gushing cut at the emergency room, ya know to remember it, but she wouldn't allow it. And with everything else that's been going on this week in the Zelem house--a wedding, another emergency room visit, a bachelorette party and babysitting another 6 year old for 3 days--I didn't take any pics of the actual stitches. So that is all I got! We always have our memories, right?

No, that guy is not flipping you off. That is victim #2 showing off his battle scars--on his birdie finger. John, with his infinite wisdom, stuck his hand in a running lawnmower at 11 o'clock at night. Genius! Now you may be thinking that alcohol was part of the equation...well you are right! What else would lead you to your hand being in a lawnmower in the middle of the night! OK--just kidding--it was not that bad. He was drinking a little bit, but he was also tired from a 14 hour day at work and he had been working on our neighbor's mower for the previous 4 hours. He said he just had a "duh" moment and forgot that the safety switch was off or something. So...off we went to another emergency room visit. I swear they have a room waiting for us there in the new wing they built with all the money we've handed over to them in the last year! The nurses and doctors kept asking "Why were you mowing your lawn at 11 o'clock at night?" Ha! It was hilarious! Each new nurse or doctor who came in to do their part to fix up his hand kept asking that question and John kept having to tell the whole story again. He was getting irritated and I kept on laughing. Hey, I care! I do..it was just 2AM and I think I was a little slap-happy. He ended up breaking the bone on the tip of his middle finger, getting three stitches, a tetanus shot and an IV dose of antibiotics. Here is his wound healing nicely as well.

Ewww...it is still kind of gross, but he is finally feeling better and is off the "feel good" meds! There is an upside to our late night emergency room visit, though--we got pulled over by a cop on the way to hospital. Speeding down Wilcox in Castle Rock in the middle of the night always ends up in a siren and a blur of red and blue lights behind you! Anyway, I got out all of my paperwork and hoped that he would be a nice and understanding guy. He asked for my license and such and I quickly handed it over. As I did that, John shot up out of his seat with his blood stained gauze wrapped around his finger and asked "Can we do this at the hospital?" The police officer nearly threw my license back at me and told us to drive safely! OMG--I couldn't believe it! We laughed all the way to the hospital and decided that we are going to leave a bloody piece of gauze in the glove box of all f our vehicles --just in case! Ha!
Whew! I'm tired and I didn't even get hurt. (Knock, knock, knock--that is me knocking on wood.) Hopefully, we are done with hospitals for a while. But it is good to know we have a loving nursing staff and a cozy dimly-lit room waiting for us whenever we need it! Love ya, Skyridge!