Stitches

I knew the day would come when we'd have an ordinary / normal trip to the emergency room. I remember with our cancer journey longing to have something normal happen instead of fighting what we were dealing with. Finally, today it arrived - and trust me, I'm not making light of the incident or the result, but I know what's "bad" and this was a welcome treat compared to cancer.


As the end of my final class of the day was nearing, the phone rang. It was the school secretary telling me Shayla was outside at recess and had an accident on the slide. They felt she needed to go to the hospital to get stitches on her chin, but they wanted me to come to the office to see what I thought. Thankfully, my teacher friend across the hall had her planning period and offered to watch my class.

When I got to the office I had to agree that it was bleeding at a pretty good clip and was cut open more than a normal cut so I went back to my room to gather my work for the evening. My seventh graders were so so so sweet when I told them what happened and that I had to leave them with the other teacher for the last 15 minutes and we'd have to finish what we were doing tomorrow. They told me things to tell Shayla of their own experiences, that it wouldn't hurt, that they'd pray for her, etc. It was precious! I love my students!

Sitting with Shayla in the waiting room and again in the treatment room was terribly odd. She's Christi's size now, but yet has this long hair. I cannot even describe how eerie it all was. She, like Christi, was very frightened. She, like Christi, did terrific and after three stitches was all fixed and ready to go home (or actually back to school for musical practice).

Now the entire time I kept thinking, "How did she cut underneath her chin going down the slide." The teacher in me kept thinking, "There has to be more to the story than I'm hearing." Sure enough. I inquired, "Shayla, I'm so confused as to how you cut your chin going down the slide. Would you please reenact for me what exactly happened." She said, "Sure! I was going down the slide on my belly......." Enough said! I'm so grateful to have a normal accident with this precious little girl! I wish we would have been so lucky with the other one! (PIC: Skiing - or crashing - with Daddy at Snow Trails on Sunday afternoon)