Daddy's little soldier

Much like the first steps and the first cuss word, the first trip to the ER ranks among the milestones of parenting. Fortunately, our trip was relatively quick (in and out in 150 minutes), and we knew that she was OK.

For posterity...we were at a brunch that was hosted by my new boss, Larry. Elaine was playing contentedly with a toy on the floor, seemingly oblivious to all of the people milling about and the food that, quite honestly, was in easy nabbing distance for her little grappling hooks. I was standing nearby with a plate of food, and Jill was on the other side of the room, filling her plate. Abruptly, Elaine stood up and dashed forward, beginning to babble about something. I moved to put my plate down, keeping an eye on which way she went. She didn't get far. I guess she planned on just blowing past a group of three people standing to my right, but she ran into the back of someone's hand. I think that he was swinging it, as if to gesture, as she ran into it. He says that he was holding a plate.

He bent down and took Elaine by the shoulders, and then looked up at me and said, "I wounded her." I made him repeat himself, because I didn't see a plate or anything; I just saw her stop cold. He turned her around and then I saw the blood. She had a vertical gash in the middle of her forehead, about 1.5 cm long. By this time, her internal clock that gauges the appropriate interval between the instance of pain and the explosion of tears had expired, and we all heard her side of the story. By this time, Jill had arrived at the scene. We zipped her off to the bathroom, and Jill cleaned up the wound. Jill said that she saw subcutaneous fat, which meant that Elaine probably needed stitches. I knew that she was going to be fine, but we were worried about scarring.

Checking in


We disappeared pretty quickly for the UW Medical Center. Elaine had long since forgotten about the incident by the time we got registered in the ER waiting room. Once we finally saw a doctor, and confirmed that she did require a couple of stitches, both Jill and I started to get anxious. Suddenly! Two nurses came in and swaddled Elaine, pinning her arms. The doctor applied a topical anesthetic, waited a few minutes, and then injected a local anesthetic. Then he deftly sewed two stitches, applied some antiseptic, and slapped a bandage on. Through all of this, Elaine made a horrible, gutteral crying sound, her eyes bulging and darting between the unfamiliar faces that were hovering overhead. Tears ran out of her eyes, snot came out her nose, and she drooled so much, she was choking. When they finally released her, she practically peeled off of the bed, she was so soaked in sweat. Needless to say, it took a while to calm her down, and she pretty much just passed out for awhile. Jill and I? Yeah, basically traumatized.

When Elaine woke up, she was just fine. We went to Josh and Megan's place, and Elaine played with Madeleine and the other kids that were there. No problems. We changed her bandage this morning, and she just sat there in my lap, totally unconcerned. I wonder what, if anything, she remembers of the incident.