Mallory's boo-boo

Yesterday I got the dreaded call from Cindy saying that Mallory had an accident. At first I thought this meant she wet her pants. Nope... Cindy said she fell off a piece of playground equipment at Mitchell's Bay and had a head wound. She was hustling Mallory into the car to bring her back to town because I needed to get her to the ER. Not the kind of call you want to get!

Mallory was doing OK when I first saw her and I think she was greatly comforted to have me there. It looks like she landed on a piece of metal (part of the equipment) sticking out of the ground - her wound was a star-shaped puncture about as big as a quarter. We went to the hospital and went through triage OK. No sign of concussion. They gave her a topical anaesthetic and I don't think it did a great job of relieving the pain when they started to sew her up, so they stopped and gave her something injectable before putting in the next two stitches. Mallory was beside herself for the first one but somewhat better after that. I thought the bedside manner of the doctor was severely lacking but I'll leave it at that. The nurses were wonderful and did not try to shame me out of being upset for Mallory like the doctor did (because by the time she was screaming through her stitches, I was pretty upset too. I know people go through much worse every day, but that does not make it all that much easier when you are in the moment.)

After the stitches, she was quite upset to learn that I didn't plan to take her straight back out to Mitchell's Bay. Then she fell asleep in the car on the drive home - and slept the rest of the afternoon. After the day's events I think she needed it.

Today she is kind of proud of her stitches. It was Meet the Teacher day at school and Mallory thought she would get some special attention from Mrs. Garrow on account of them. Unfortunately, she did not behave all that well at the meeting. I tried to be patient and cut her some slack because I think she's still feeling a little off. Tonight she started screaming bloody murder again when I even mentioned the idea of sponging off the wound and applying some ointment to it, so I think it's fair to say that she is a little traumatized by the idea of anyone going near her head. Wish me luck with getting the stitches removed, because that is supposed to happen on Sunday and as luck would have it, the same doctor will be working the ER again.