Rondayview

Taylor takes a trip

First down the stairs, and then to the ER . . .

While "walking" down the stairs this afternoon, Taylor took a dive into an end table in the living room; he struck the table's sharp corner on the upper bridge of his nose, right between his eyes in the middle of his face. Neither Ritina nor I saw the event, but Thomas described it for us in graphic detail---ah the benefits of having a ten-year-old with a million dollar vocabulary.

Once we got the bleeding slowed---it never stopped due to the severity of the wound---we found that Taylor had put a rather deep hole in his head, one that would require at least a few stitches. Taylor was quite calm about the whole thing. He did cry for a moment after his fall, but he composed himself within twenty seconds. Amazing. We kept asking him if it hurt because he wasn't acting like it, and we thought maybe he was dazed or had suffered a concussion. Apparently he's just one tough kid! I mean, he's got a hole in head about about 4mm across and 6mm to 7mm deep, bleeding profusely, and on the way out the door to the ER he grabs his Gameboy.

Ritina's the one who took him. She returned in just under two hours with Taylor sporting three stitches and acting like it was all in a day's fun. Thomas emphasized to me several times how brave Taylor was when he was getting shots and stitches; he never even flinched. Doctor's orders are no gym or horseplay for a week, cleaning the site daily, and the stitches come out on Friday.

We are relieved, of course, that the injury was not worse; a centimeter or two in either direction and we might be dealing with a truly serious eye injury here. But, those of you that know Taylor will understand when, after all was said and done and Ritina and I were having a quick private discussion about it, that we both admitted having the same first thought when Ritina headed out the door with Taylor to the ER: "Wow, I can't believe it took eight years for him to end up in the ER to be stitched up." (His daddy had accomplished this by age three.)

As I'm writing this, I hear Ritina upstairs: "Boys, have you already forgotten what the doctor said!? No horseplay!" That's our Taylor!

Posted by Ron Pacheco at November 14, 2004 07:01 PM