Scary Stories

Happy Mother’s Day to one and all. Yeah, I realize I was supposed to have posted on Friday night, and I was really surprised that no one decided to just kick me out of this round of the Story-Go-Round. Anyway, maybe if you hear what happened, you will better understand. I DO have the story half-written, and it will be up tomorrow. That is a promise, and thank you AGAIN for your patience.
Every other Friday morning, I do a few hours of childcare for a Grandparents group that they have up at the school. I bring both Donovan and the baby I care for, and it essentially becomes an extra playgroup, so the kids love it. So we are there this past Friday, and things are great, there is only one child with the grandparents that I need to care for, so with just the three of them it was pretty easy. I had to go change Donovan, so off we went to the bathroom. He is starting to get the hang of washing his hands afterwards every time, so he was up on the stool having a ball with the water. It was time to go, so I helped him dry his hands, then he started to almost leap off of the stool. I grabbed his hand to help him down, but his hand was still wet, and it slipped right out of mine. He went down off of the stool and onto the floor, hitting the side of his head on the tiles with a loud thud. He began crying immediately as I scooped him up, but it was a breathless, strange-sounding cry, and I don’t think I have ever run so fast as I booked it up the stairs to the nurse’s office.
By the time we got there, Donovan had stopped crying, but as the nurse was looking at his head, he wasn’t responding to any of us, just kind of staring off into space. He didn’t have any bleeding, but there was a nice lump right above his left ear. I was freaking out, trying to stay calm, but I have this thing whenever one of my kids is hurt and crying in pain, I cry. It’s like a bizarre trigger response that I have never been able to control. So I am trying to talk to Donovan, get him to say something, anything, smile, cry, just something. And at the same time I am giving the nurse our pediatrician’s number, and tears are streaming down my face. Because I had no way to get to the doctor’s office quickly, being without a car, and because of Donovan’s very dazed state, the doctor decided to have the nurse call an ambulance and have us go to the emergency oom. By this time I think I was bordering on hysterical, but I managed not to lose it completely, other than the steady stream of tears. But let me tell you, I have never been so scared in my life, not even when Gregory passed out at school, because, well, by the time I saw Gregory after that happened he was looking and acting fine. And Donovan wasn’t.
The ambulance and crew arrives, and still Donovan isn’t responding, not even when the woman who runs the playgroups, whom Donovan ADORES, came upstairs to see if everything was alright. I must have looked like some kind of crazed lunatic, clutching my child, face beet red, tears streaming, but at the time I didn’t give a crap. I just wanted them to help my baby. We get in the ambulance, and all the way to the hospital the EMT and I tried to engage Donovan. It finally began working a little, and we even got him to beep my nose, but he was still very lethargic. So we arrive, and we get triaged, and Donovan perks up bit by bit. Then we go out to the waiting room, and Donovan sees the video games they have there. Wouldn’t you know, the little bugger jumps down from my arms and RUNS to the games? And that was that, he was right back to normal, asking for some chips and juice from a little cart outside, charming the resident that came to see him, and smiling up a storm. I felt like the sun had opened up all of its rays upon my face at the same time. He was pronounced fine, no concussion, just understandably dazed, and probably a bit overwhelmed by everyone fawning over him.
The only thing that smudged my happy moment was when I decided to call C to let him know what had happened (someone PLEASE tell me why I bothered, when I knew how it would be?). He seemed all concerned, but he never asked which hospital, he never said he’d be right there. I told him I might have to catch the bus home because I didn’t have enough money on me for a cab, and he just said, “OK, I’ll meet you at home.” W T F? SHOULD I have to beg for a ride from this man? SHOULD I need to ASK him to come pick his only son up from the hospital? I didn’t think so. Anyway, we didn’t freaking need him for anything anyways, we found a ride, and when we got home he was sitting his ass right there on his computer closing up all of his porno windows. “Oh, sorry dear, I didn’t realize you were too busy getting your pathetic rocks off to come pick up your son from the ER and make sure he was OK.” Bleh.
‹/bitter rant›
So, after I came home Friday I was totally wiped and stressed, and I think I am just now recovering from it all. But the main thing is that my baby is OK, and that makes everything OK.