this kind of excitement I can do without...

It was shaping up to be just another Thursday evening last night... dinner was out of the way and I was in the laundry finding today's school uniforms while the bathwater was running. Then Doodlebug came in screaming,telling me he'd accidentally put his fist through a pane of glass in the front door. A split second later I realised that he was spurting blood from his wrist. Thankfully the nurse and first-aider in me was able to take over at that point as the mother was threatening meltdown. Peter was not at home, so I rang our friend Michelle a few houses away. She bundled us all in her car and took us to the hospital (thankfully only blocks away) since I couldn't drive while applying pressure to Doodlebug's wrist. Otherwise Doodlebug might have had an ambulance ride.

I am so proud of how brave all my children were. LP got busy with the first aid box unravelling bandages, and getting me a teatowel for a makeshift pressurepad. Turtle found me the phone and turned the bathwater off. Poor little Doodlebug was petrified - he really thought he was going to die. Hoping that I sounded calmer than I felt, I reassured him that was not the case - not when his mum was there to look after him.

As we left for the hospital I had a brief smiley moment as I realised that I was actually wondering about bringing the camera to hospital..... just like the joke "You know you're addicted to scrapping when....". (Shocking, really.... ) In the end I was too busy practising direct pressure and elevation and carrying Doodlebug, so our visit to Emergency is photographically undocumented.

Our stay in Emergency was a lot less traumatic than it could have been - we went to the hospital I work in, and our Emergency Care nurse was a mum from school - her daughter is in Doodlebug's class. And finally, Michelle's husband Graham is a surgeon and kindly took on Doodlebug. Doodlebug felt completely safe with his buddy's dad. There was a lot of waiting in between examinations, X rays etc, and as the resus bay had no TV (not a huge requirement in there, funnily enough) we had to make our own entertainment. Meet "PsychoChicken"and "NerdChicken"

After a short night's sleep - none for me actually, since I was still full of adrenaline - we went to have Doodlebug patched up. The damage? Damage to one tendon and to the ulnar artery (hence the spectacular "murals" on our walls). But..... he was a very, very lucky boy, because he narrowly missed 2 vital nerves, so we are feeling blessed this evening because things could have been worse.

Before and after theatre shots..

safely back home for another sleep

The offending door - less one pane.... Peter (my hero!) had cleaned up the horror movie interior design and fixed up the door by the time we came home from hospital.