Baby Girl's Accident, OR How to Turn an Injury Into an Advantage

Baby Girl had a little mishap with the closet door.

As in, her brother slammed it on her finger AND SNAPPED THE END OFF IT.

I won’t take you through the bleeding and the screaming, or the ER trip and the seemingly interminable wait to see a doctor.

Long story short: Baby Girl has lost the top of her right ring finger (about half of the top joint) and her whole arm is in a cast.

(Her whole arm is encased so she’s less likely to try to rip the cast off. Yes, it’s like putting a cone on a dog’s head. Come to think of it, treating preschoolers IS kind of like treating dogs, I guess.)

While we were at the hospital a Nice Lady came to see Baby Girl.

They called her a Child Life Consultant, but she appears to be a professional Nice Lady.

She brought in two new toys for Baby Girl to choose from. She said they are donated from the Disney corporation for kids at military hospitals.

I know, right? Kudos to you, Disney! You’re not as soul-less as they say!

So the Nice Lady said Baby Girl could choose Jasmine or Cinderella.

This was a difficult decision.

Finally Baby Girl chose Jasmine and the Nice Lady opened the packaging. This is probably the hardest part of being the Nice Lady, since the factory packages dolls as if they are expecting the toys to have to survive the apocalypse.

After that the Nice Lady asked us about our feelings, and if we needed help, et cetera.

I said we were fine and didn’t need anything right then.

We chatted a few minutes and then the Nice Lady asked Baby Girl if she needed anything else.

Baby Girl looked at her and said, “Yes, I do.”

“Oh!” said the Nice Lady. “What can I get you?”

Baby Girl pointed at the other toy. “Cinderella,” she said.

I laughed. “You asked!” I reminded the Nice Lady.

By the way, she only got to keep Jasmine. It was only one finger, after all.

What happened to my eye?

I had a little accident last night.

I wasn’t doing anything dangerous, I promise! I was playing ring-around-the-rosy with the twins. Can’t get more innocuous than that, can it?

They really love ring-around-the-rosy. They play it with their sisters and other kids in the neighborhood.

It’s cute how excited they are about a game that’s essentially just going around in a circle and then sitting on the floor.

But anyways, I was playing with the twins last night and when we got to the “all fall down” part something happened. I leaned forward too much or something, and cracked my face on the top of Baby Girl’s head.

The good news is, I’m pretty sure her soft spot is all closed up.

The bad news is, my right eye immediately started reddening and swelling up.

Fortunately, my husband is a doctor. I showed him my eye, and he said, “Go put some ice on that. STAT!”

I’m totally serious. He actually said “stat!”

I felt like I was on the set of ER or something.

Fortunately, a trip to the real ER was not required, as the ice and some Motrin worked to control the swelling.

Oh, and some panicked prayers I said when my husband calmly explained that the rapidity of the swelling could indicate that the interior of my eye socket was filling with blood. Ewwww! Sometimes that inside medical knowledge is just TMI!

But thank God my vision is okay, and all I’ve got is a black eye.

Oddly enough, I actually injured this same eye in October five years ago. I sliced my eyelid open on a towel bar in the bathroom.

Here's a picture from Halloween of that year.

All right, I'll admit some make-up enhancements were added. But don't I look scary?

I survived the Attack of the Towel Bar!

I know, I seem to be the queen of ridiculous injuries. It’s embarrassing.

That one required stitches, so this time I’m glad no major medical intervention was required.

Beyond a certain doctor yelling, “STAT!”

Which was certainly fun.