“She fell and hit her head!”
I had been sitting in my room having some well deserved RnR. My nephew and niece are around for the holidays, and from the comfort of my bedroom, I could hear the kids’ loud but seemingly fun games going on. “This is what beautiful childhood memories are made of” I thought to myself with a smile.
All of a sudden, I heard heart-wrenching screams coming from my living room. I jolted down the stairs to find the kids in tears and in a state of panic. “What happened? Who’s hurt?? Where??” I asked. “We were playing and she fell and hit her head!” Tumi said as she pointed at her cousin Kena, whose little face was covered in blood. A quick inspection revealed that my niece had suffered a small but deep cut to her forehead. So deep was this wound that it revealed part of her skull!”
I dashed for my first aid box, only to find that I hadn’t replenished it since the last injury that we’d had! The next best thing was a damp dishcloth with a touch of antiseptic fluid to try manage the bleeding. We definitely had to go to hospital for this one but “conveniently”, my car was in the garage! As I waited for a cab, I knew that this would require some kind of surgery. I knew this because we’d been down this road before just last year when Tumi suffered a similar injury to her chin.
On arrival at the hospital, the attending doctor confirmed my fears. Kena would have to undergo a minor surgery under general anesthesia, and be admitted overnight for observation. As scary as it sounded, there was no alternative at this point, and I was ready to spend the night in hospital with her as her parents were all the way in Arusha.
But here was my dilemma; I had two kids and an 8 month old baby at home, my regular nanny was away on leave, and my hubby is away on tour. What to do!!!
I picked up the phone and called my sister-in-law. “Rosemary, I need your help!” Without a second thought, she offered to come spend the night at my place with her own kids, as she too did not have a nanny. My other sister-in-law Suzie met me at the hospital to help with all the admission procedures. All the while, my worried sister who wished she could be there for her daughter called every five minutes to find out what the progress was – I could only imagine how helpless and nervous she felt at that point, and I did my best to reassure her.
Thankfully, all’s well that ends well. The surgery went well, my baby slept through the night (thankfully!!!) and Kena is making great progress. She calls her injury her war wound 😀
What did I learn from this experience? That my sister’s kids are my kids; that my kids ARE my sister’s kids; enforce a no- running-in-the-house rule, and ALWAYS have a well kitted first aid box!
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