Playgroup started normal enough. The kids were all running around Chloe’s house, hyped up on sugar, laughing and chasing each other around the house. I went upstairs to check on Hadley to find her playing with her friends, happy to be one of the “big kids.” Then as I turned around to leave the bedroom I saw Ana stumble a little and then walk over to me. She looked like she was about to cry and said she was walking out of the bathroom and hit her head on the banister. I asked her if she wanted to come sit down with me for a bit and she agreed. I should have known something was up when she actual sat, curled up on my lap for several minutes. Finally I asked her if she wanted to go play and she said no, she just wanted to stay with me. A few more minutes passed and as she wiped her face with her hand, I noticed some red streaks on her sleeve. Upon questioning her about it, Ana brushed it off saying she must have gotten marker on her shirt when she was coloring earlier. Since this happens all the time I didn’t think anything of it. A little more time passed and Ana shifted on my lap and it was then that I realized her hair was looking red. Like REALLY red. Not the lovely auburn highlights God gave her, but like blood was drying in streaks in her hair. It was then that I quickly escorted her to the bathroom (and to better light) to examine my oldest daughter’s head wound. I could tell it wasn’t anything too serious, but since I am unfamiliar with head wounds I was not sure how to proceed. The blood was clearly clotting (always a good sign)  and it wasn’t too deep (another plus) but it was rather wide. So I called the closest Urgent Care to see what I needed to do. Once I called the clinic, Ana, who had been relatively calm and under control, pretty much lost it. She didn’t really understand what was happening and just overheard the adults around her mentioning key phrases like “shave her head” and “stitches” and wanted nothing to do with any of it.

It was at this point, that I started to feel a little weird. I hadn’t eaten anything in several hours and was suddenly feeling really light-headed. As I was talking on the phone I started losing my ability to focus my eyes and my vision started to get dark around the edges. Worried I was about to pass out (and thoroughly freak out my already frightened children) I handed off my kiddos. Chloe swooped in and grabbed Hadley, telling me that I looked totally green. As Elle picked up Ana she said my lips were the same color as my purple vest. So I decided to call Simeon and ask him to come over. Now.

Once Simeon (and Brad!) arrived, we got the girls ready to go, I ate a cookie, drank some water, and started to feel like myself again. Then we loaded up and headed to Urgent Care.

This was the first time Ana allowed me to get a picture. This was after we had already cleaned up most of the blood (to find the wound) but you can still see all the blood red “highlights” in her hair.

Luckily the Urgent Care office was empty (despite there being NO PARKING because the Urgent Care shares a parking lot with Cinetopia and it was opening weekend for Breaking Dawn) so we were able to go right back to the room. By this time Ana was herself again and giggling and chatting up a storm with the nurse.

Apparently for these types of wounds, staples are the way to go. No need to shave the hair or even need to use medicine to numb it. Just one quick staple and that was that.

In theory.

But our doctor (nurse? practitioner?) shifted ever so slightly just as she pushed in the staple and instead of pulling the two sides together, missed one side entirely. She then had to remove the staple and put in another one. (I was more than a little miffed about THAT.) But Ana was brave and amazing. She didn’t even cry the entire time we were in the office. She kept cool and they rewarded her with a pen with a flashlight in one end.

Ana is doing well. She has a little headache (understandably so, after the banister AND the staples) so I gave her some children’s Tylenol before bed. Tomorrow we will get to wash the rest of the dried blood out of her hair and in 7-10 days we get to go back in to have the staple removed. Fun times. Not exactly the evening I envisioned, but with kids, you never know what is going to happen next.