The Joy's of Parenting

Recently our children had the opportunity to attend their first school carnival. They had a great time, and all was well. Right until the end that is. As I was helping with the clean up one of the ladies from the school yelled at me that my three year old daughter, Faith, had hurt herself, and that I was needed right away. As a trained Emergency Medical Technician I was expecting the worst. Fighting my paternal instinic to go right to my daughter I stopped to grab my kit out of my vehicle first. When I arrived in the school cafeteria Faith was with mom, who was holding a piece of gauze over her palm. I noted the drops of blood on Faith's white stockings, as she sat there crying. As I took the gauze away I could see that Faith had a very deep laceration on the palm of her hand.

I asked what had happened and learned that Faith had been running to our vehicle with a glass jar in her hands, and had tripped. The jar, which was filled with rocks, had been a prize from the carnival. As I pondered the wisdom of giving glass jars to three year olds, one thing was certain I had to take Faith to the Emergency Room to have her hand examined. Branson is 50 miles from the nearest hospital, so this was going to be a long night. With the help of the only other EMT in town we bandaged Faith's hand, and headed for the house.

Once we were at home Mom put Faith in her pajamas, as she was rather tired from a full day, and loaded her into the truck. Faith was terrified of the prospect of a visit to the hospital. In her 3 year old mind the doctor was going to have to cut her hand off! Mom finally convinced Faith that she would only have to see a nurse, and not the doctor. On the trip to town I did my best to ally Faith's concerns. However, in her fatigued state she quickly fell asleep.

Once we were at the hospital, and I woke Faith her tension was palpable. I carried her in, got her admitted, and held her hand the whole time. Both the nurse and the doctor were great. Thankfully the hospital is rather small, and we weren't forced to wait. We went straight to X-ray so that the doctor could check for glass that might be stuck in the hand. Once that was done the nurse numbed the would so that it could be irrigated to remove any small fragments of glass that might have been missed by X-ray. That was the most traumatic part for Faith as even with the numbing medication she still experienced quite a bit of pain from the water running through the wound. Once finished with irrigating the wound the nurse came and bandaged Faith's hand and we were done. As I carried Faith out of the hospital you could feel the tension drain away, and see relief set in. After all she still had her hand!

On the way home Faith had to talk to grandma on the phone, and tell her in very excited tones all about the experience. Then Faith chatted with me for most of the trip, sharing the insights that only those who have had a three year old can appriciate. She made me smile, and she was very happy. By the time we got back to Branson Faith was asleep again, and daddy was tired. However, I learned one thing on our trip to the hospital. Sometimes God blesses you with an unexpected opportunity to spend time with your children. I was tired, but there was nowhere else that I would have rather been than by my daughter's side in her time of need.