Ian's Boo Boos

The two Thursdays before we left for Arkansas were bad days for Ian.

The first Thursday he almost bit through his tongue. He fell against the train table and hit it on his chin. I was right there and it was a pretty loud hit, then Ian just started bawling. I saw that he was bleeding from his mouth, so I picked him up and put his head against my shoulder facing me and went straight to the bathroom. He kept putting his head on my shoulder and screaming. I couldn't console him - it was one of the worst feelings in the world. Payton was right there, standing at the doorway asking, 'Mommy, why is Ian crying? What's that red stuff?' Of course the 'red stuff' was all down my left arm. I felt as if Ian was just spewing blood from his mouth. I told Payton to get my phone which was on the train table. She did. She didn't get upset. Payton was very calm through the whole thing. I called Daddy. He was on his way home. By the time Daddy got home, Ian was calmer, and he and I were in the bathtub getting cleaned up. Scott looked at his tongue and noticed it was bitten on the bottom and top. The bleeding had stopped so we didn't take him to the Dr. You could see the bite marks for the next 3 days, but he still seemed to eat okay.

The second boo boo for Ian was a bee sting. The Thursday before we left for Arkansas we went to Tanglewood Park which has a zero depth pool. The kids were having a great time. We were eating lunch and Ian got stung. At first I wasn't sure if he had been stung because I couldn't see a stinger, but Ian just started crying for no reason. There were bees flying around a nearby trash can and his middle finger on his left hand started to swell. So I assumed it was a bee sting. I took him to the lifeguards' room to see if they had anything they could put on it. We tried to put ice on it and one of the lifeguards found the stinger and got it out with a credit card. Ian was screaming and turning red by this time. His finger was almost double in size and there was a red streak going up to his elbow. I didn't know if Ian was allergic to bee stings because this was his first one, so one of the lifeguards decided to call 911. Payton was again - very calm - and hung out next to me, not getting in the way. Three Clemmons Firemen and two paramedics with a gurney show up in about 5 minutes. By this time, I had calmed Ian down. He wasn't red anymore, and he had stopped crying. You could see the emergency crew assess the situation when they entered the room and then look crest fallen. All the energy went right out of their sails because they were not worried about him. The first paramedic on the scene half-heartedly asked which hospital I wanted to go to. I told him I would rather not go to a hospital if they thought that Ian would be okay. The second paramedic listened to his breathing - it sounded fine (this was about 20 minutes post-sting). So I declined care, and the emergency crew left. I packed the kids up and headed home. Ian fell asleep on the way.

After both episodes, I was pretty shaken up.