Warning: If you have a weak constitution and can’t stand the sight of blood, do not look at the pictures in this post. I don’t think they’re very bad, but I know I’m not everybody and I do want to be sensitive to my dear readers.
I was weeding the strawberries this morning when The Baby Nickel came over to tell me something. I didn’t pay attention at first because, well, because I was weeding and I don’t like to be bothered when I’m bent over double pulling giant nasty weeds out of my garden, but then one of the girls said something about a cut, so I looked up. The Baby Nickel was calmly holding up his arm to show me a nice little gash he had somehow acquired.
I pondered it briefly and then muttered to myself, “I think I better pay attention to this one”, yanked a couple more weeds, put my glove and weeder thingamagiggy back in the tool shed, and then walked back to the house.
(Yes, that is a tag you see on the front of his shirt, which is inside out and backwards. He dressed himself, okay?)
I called Mr. Handsome and he told me where we had some butterfly strips (we have a couple of fancy medical kits that Mr. Handsome’s mother gave to us before we went to Nicaragua ten years ago). Then I called our Nurse Friend Sue (I hope everyone out there has a nurse friend—they are worth their weight in gold) and she told me what to do.
I washed out the wound with soap and water, put a little bit of ointment on it, stuck the strips of tape on it…
…bandaged it up…
…and all was well. The tough little kid didn’t whimper once. I think he was just fascinated by the whole process and rather pleased with himself for getting injured enough for his mama to pay him some attention.
Note: A little later I got a call from our Nurse Friend Ann, who lives several miles down the road from us. I had called her before I call our Nurse Friend Sue, but N.F. Ann wasn’t home. N.F. Ann told me that she had to admit that when an ambulance went by their house at 8:00 this morning, the first thing that flashed through her mind was our family. I assured her we were all in one piece and explained why I had been calling her. Then she invited us over for supper tonight. Isn’t that a nice ending?
Ps. In case you were wondering how he got himself his nice little gash: he was swinging on a rope hanging from the tree that’s by the doghouse and somehow he cut it on the metal roof of the doghouse. And yes, he is up-to-date on his tetanus shot.
