Things that go "thunk" in the night

I knew when I heard the "thunk" it couldn't be good. When I turned my head in the direction of the noise in time to see Phillip's head rebounding from the corner of the wall, I figured we would soon be on our way to the Emergency Room.

It had been a nice day. A quiet Saturday spent cleaning, doing laundry, moving furniture, and cooking. No racing around, no places to be, nothing that had to be done. Rob had spent the day at the house of our electrician friend, his first day paying back the labor that our friend so generously donated to help us light up our addition. I missed having him home, we tend to be joined at the hip on the weekends, but I knew it was payback time so I tried not to pout too much as he left that morning. The kids were good and helped me start moving things into Phillip's new bedroom. We had invited my parents over that evening to see the addition now that it was finished and carpeted. They arrived a few minutes before Robbie got home.

We enjoyed showing Mom and Dad the new construction with working lights, ceiling fans, tiled mudroom and bathroom, and pretty carpeting. They ooohed and aaahed at all the right spots, and after the tour we snacked on some goodies that I had made and had a drink. When they were done eating Rob and my Dad headed upstairs to take Phillip's bed apart and move it into his new room. I had already moved his mattress, boxspring, bureau and nightstand, but I ran out of time before I could take the bed apart and move it too.

Once the bed was set up in the new room they called us up to see it. The room looked beautiful, and after we admired it for a few minutes we started out. My Dad and Rob were planning to head out on the deck to have a cigar, and Mom and I were heading for the kitchen to have some brownies. Kylie and Phillip were playing around in the little family room adjacent to Phillip's new bedroom when he lost his balance and fell on his butt. All would have been well if he had stopped there, but apparently the momentum he had when he fell caused him to rock backwards on his bum, smacking his head on the metal-edged corner of the wall behind him. That was the "thunk".

Phillip immediately scrambled to his feet and made a beeline for me. I wrapped my arms around his sobbing little body while searching the back of his head for blood. Just as I began to exhale I saw the faintest line of blood begin to seep from under his blond locks. That little bit quickly became quite a bit as Robbie ran downstairs to get some ice and a washcloth. There was no question we would be headed for the hospital.

Phillip cried for a few minutes then settled down. We explained to him that he needed to go to the hospital so a doctor could look at his head, and that Bet and Poppa would stay home with Kylie and Bella. He talked non-stop all the way to the hospital, wondering aloud at least twenty times if maybe they would have a toy there that he could bring home? His constant chatter was reassuring, he was certainly acting like himself!

The waiting room was surprisingly quiet when we stepped through the doors of the ER. Only two other patients appeared to be waiting, which seemed unusual for a Saturday night. We stopped by to see the Triage Nurse, who surprised us by saying she really didn't think Phillip would need anything to close his wound, then we took our place in the waiting room. Once again Phillip reassured us that he was truly okay by threatening to unleash his wrath upon us if we refused to buy him a soda from the brightly lit machine in the waiting room. We did refuse, but fortunately there was a water cooler nearby so we were able to soothe the savage beast by giving him a cup and letting him dispense his own water.

Soon we were shown into a room and visited by a doctor who spelled out to us that s-t-a-p-l-e-s were the closure of choice in cases like this. He offered to let us hold a numbing agent on Phillip's head, but cautioned that in order to be effective it needed to be held firmly on the wound for twenty minutes, and it would burn. We decided that would most likely make things worse, and opted for him to just do a quick "distraction and bam-bam", as he described it. While he stepped out of the room to gather the necessary items we were visited by a nurse. Phillip showed her a small binder clip he had found on the window sill and asked if he could keep it. She told him he certainly could, and as she left the room remarked "that's not the only office supply you'll be leaving here with tonight!", Rob and I got a chuckle out of that...laughter is good medicine.

Finally the doctor returned and Phillip was placed on Robbie's lap, facing him. He rested his head on his Daddy's shoulder, and with me beside him the doctor quickly placed two staples in his little blond head. He cried briefly and that was it, we were free to go. On the way home we stopped by Wal-Mart to see if we could find a little something for our brave boy. After countless circuits of the toy department riding in the basket of the shopping cart, our little staplehead settled on something and we headed for home. Once there he placed his sweet blond head, complete with two shiny staples, on his pillow and peacefully spent his first night in his new bedroom.