About a week and a half ago, my son hit his head. It was a pretty serious knock, but we gave him basic first aid and checked him out and he was fine. Almost a week later, he started to get some odd bruising on the sides of his nose right between his eyes. Which, apparently, can indicate something serious. I called the nurse line that night and they recommended we take him in before the morning.
*sigh*
The ER was Hell that night. One man was (literally) counting the people who went in before him and blocking the doorway so no one else could come and go. The woman next to me kept burping loudly and saying, “Ay dios mio!” We had to suffer through The Bachelor or, on the other side of the room some show about P Diddy on MTV (which… remember when the “M” stood for music? WTF happened to that?). E was up two hours late, finally passed out on me, only to be woken rudely over and over again.
The CT scan* did not go well. He was groggy and absolutely terrified out of his gourd. He was thrusting away, eyes bulging and red from crying. The tech kept his chin pinched so tightly I was afraid of a bruise. Not to mention, how he was chastizing my terrified toddler for trying to move. My son kept calling out a heart-wrenching, “Help, mommy!” and, of course, I had to fight the urge to knock the technicians out of the way and run out of the room screaming.
Five hours later he was declared fine.
But I was not. I was traumatized. It took me days to feel normal again. Why? Why can’t I just bounce right back and be emotionally OK the next day? Why do I have to be crippled for days, trying hard just to keep functioning? I am learning to take it easy on myself – that I heal quicker and better if I just let myself be. But, really. Are you like this? Is this a normal part of my personality, or a deeper “problem” that needs to be solved? What’s within the range of normal here?
For the record, just as we were checking out of the ER at 2:50 in the morning, they were playing Grosse Pointe Blank on TV. Now, why could they not have played that earlier? John Cusack would have likely made the whole thing more bearable.
*Are you counting? That is FOUR places onhis body now which have been radiated. *sigh*