Head Injury Update

Devilboy is doing fine. Apparently he never was in much pain--he was laughing as they put him in the ambulance. He loves to play with trucks, especially ones that make noise so seeing a real fire truck and ambulance up close was a dream come true. I'm sure this has given him ideas--lots of blood = cool flashing lights and big wheels.

He has an amazing threshold for pain. Once he broke the lock on the oven and tried to climb in while it was 425 degrees. If he didn't have my webbed ear, I'd think my wife had an affair with Clark Kent.

The doctor claimed that skin glue caused less scarring than stitches. My wife had it used on her abdomen without much of a mark. Fortunately, it's right on his eyebrow. Once the skin and the hair grow back, even if there is a scar, it should be covered up.

If it seemed like I was calm or knew what I was doing, it's only because I couldn't write down how I felt. While I was driving to the hospital, I half-vomited with it coming up far enough to taste but not far enough to get out. Normally, that's the sort of thing I'd remember but it went right out of my mind.

Covington brought up another emergency room visit when my stepdaughter swung on my mother's countertops (after being told repeatedly not to) and fell on her face, knocking one of her teeth back into her gum. That was three or four years ago and she's almost old enough for the reconstruction to begin (they had to wait until her jaw was more developed). Even though that was more serious, "losing a tooth" just doesn't affect you like the words "head injury."

I can remember when my daughter was only a few weeks old, she scraped her leg against the car door as I was putting her in her car seat. I remember thinking that was the first time she'd ever been cut, the first time she'd ever felt that kind of pain. Sheltering kids too much isn't right but I can understand why so many parents try to.