Delete Yesterday

Most days at Possum Valley are pleasant, calm, unstressful and pleasing even when it is raining and I can’t get some things done.  Yesterday was not one of them.  It started well with some sunshine after many days of clouds, and promised to get better as I was babysitting my 22 month old grandson Henry, who is an easy going and mostly finds his own amusements.  My daughter Alice, was going to town for shopping and an ante-natal check-up being within a few months of producing another grandson.  If I chose, I could even get some work done and service the cottages as I reckon that I can organize the cottage about five times faster than he can disorganize it because I work to a purpose and he only does it by accident.  They had only just arrived at Possum Valley and Henry had already lugged his foot-powered trike (no pedals), up the stairs to ride round the house.  He loves that.  He can get up more speed than in the rough outside, and the ridged pattern on the plastic tyres on the wooden floor gives off a most satisfactory Vrruummm, Vrrummm sound.  This is his second trike as he wore the first one out until the axle hubs collapsed and made the body rub on the wheels.

I was in the kitchen, and Alice had gone to the loo, as is the lot of those advancing in pregnancy, and the Vrummm stopped.  Then a short cry.  I strolled onto the veranda, but no sign of Henry.  Another quiet bleat directed me to the edge of the veranda and he had crashed his trike off the edge and down a meter.  He was just getting up as I went down the steps and picked him up and put him over my shoulder. Alice came out and I passed him up the steps to her for comfort.  Only then did I see considerable amounts of blood running down his face.  Alice is a nurse and put on her nurse face.  With Henry in her arms she got a clean washer, moistened it and cleared away some blood.  “Ah, this is going to require some stitches.  Look after Henry a moment while I get things together.”  I got my first look at his cut where the blood flow had mysteriously stopped.  Wow, it was big and deep but had a definite bottom.  It rather slowly dawned on me I was looking at two or three centimeters of my grandson’s skull.  The hole was a centimeter wide.

Alice came back with large plasters and deftly pulled the gash closed while applying the plasters.  She administered some nurofen to the distressed kid, organised baggage, and ushered a rather shaken father into the car.  She phoned ahead to the triage nurse at Atherton hospital, and to her partner to let him know what had happened.  Henry vomited on the way and we stopped to clean and comfort Henry and I got explicit instructions how to drive.  On arriving at hospital we were promptly seen by the triage nurse.  then half an hour of paperwork.  But the first thing they checked was vital signs and possible neurological problems.  Read brain damage.  I’m thinking, but he’s got a hole in his head, but Alice understood that shining a light in his eyes to test for different eye dilation was more important than patching the hole.

Many hours later they got to patching up the hole.  Kids at 22 months don’t like being sown up.  some internal stitches with dissolving thread and a dozen or so external stitches.  Alice was first in the scrum over his body, another has his legs and another clamped his head as the doctor did the needlework.  I was out in the A&E waiting room with 2 rooms and 2 doors in between and heard Henry’s protests, but I doubt anyone in the hospital didn’t hear the screams and spirited fight that Henry put up.  Probably some arriving out-patients decided they weren’t so bad after all and went home.  We were at the hospital for about 7 hours as they wanted to do observations.  Thank you the diligent and friendly staff at Atherton hospital.  Ironically Alice starts her new job in two weeks.  At the A&E department Atherton.

Today I had a phone call from Alice and Henry is fine and back to normal leaping onto his trike at the first opportunity.

Once again I am in awe of how well my daughters can just handle shit.  See a blog about 2 years ago “My Hero” of my other daughter’s trials and tribulations.  Alice had all the emotions any mother would have to see her toddler son badly hurt and his face running with blood, but just took charge of the situation to achieve the best outcomes.  I am so proud to have two strong, resilient and resourceful daughters.