Flashback Friday

Three years ago, I jinxed my middle son. Not intentionally, mind you. I had commented how he was my only child who had never broken a bone or had stitches. That very week, he got both.....

One night, Tyler and Hannah were up late, goofing around. Hannah fell and bumped her eye on the metal laundry sorter. The skin split open and bled. She needed stitches, but of course it was too late to go the InstaCare. I called everyone I knew with a medical background, but with no luck. I really wanted to avoid paying for a visit to the ER. So we grabbed the super glue and fixed her up. Aside from the sting it left, it worked like a charm. She healed nicely and it didn't cost us anything. The next time I was at the store, I noticed they had some OTC skin glue. Perfect! This way it won't sting. So I bought some to have on hand, just in case...

We had a ball pit in our basement. It was just an inflatable swimming pool with a gazillion little squishy plastic balls in it. The pool got a hole in it, and all kinds of treasures were lost in the sea of balls. So, on Valentine's Day, I had emptied it so I could clean and fix it. I patched up the holes in no time and Tyler was helping me toss all the balls back in.

He was so excited to have it back, that he jumped right in. He landed funny on his foot and cried a little. I thought he just twisted it funny, and I took him to kindergarten. When I picked him up later that day, I noticed he was still limping. Great. So I took him to the doctor. Sure enough, his foot was fractured. We waited until the next day to see an orthopedic specialist (I learned the hard way to not trust the InstaCare to cast a broken bone) and get a cast.

Being winter time and it was wet and slushy outside, I carried him to and from the car when we went places. One day, as we got home from school, he was hopping from the car to the house when he tripped. He fell and hit his eye right on the metal threshold. It wasn't a horrible cut, but I knew it required some attention. Having had such great success with the glue on Hannah's cut (in the EXACT same spot) the week prior, I reached for my newly purchased 'skin glue'. I put Tyler on the couch, with his head resting in my lap. I opened the tube, and tipped it upside down. As I did so, the runny contents immediately spilled out of the tube and into his eye. He screamed and clamped his eye shut. I grabbed him and ran into the bathroom to wash it out.

Funny thing about super glue. It's pretty much an instant bond. His eye was stuck shut. I JUST GLUED MY KID"S EYE SHUT! CRAP! Tyler was screaming, I was crying, and my father-in-law, who was visiting, was laughing. Normally I don't panic when my kids get hurt, but I had no idea how this would all pan out. I threw Tyler into the car and sped to the ER praying the whole time that I hadn't just blinded my son.

I parked the car in the first spot I found and ran, with Tyler in arms. I burst through the emergency room doors and demanded that someone help me. When asked how I could be helped, I told them he had DermaBond in his eye. "How did that happen?" they wondered.

"I was trying to save money," I meekly replied.

Here I was, in a panic, and they practically laughed at me. The attending physician himself, assured me he had done it before, too. After 2 hours of applying layer after layer of Vaseline to his eyelid, he was able to open his eye. He was missing a few eyelashes, but fine otherwise. They were able to stitch his cut, and I was able to pay my co-pay.

Lessons learned.