Happy St. Patrick's Day????

Every year I write this, and then I encounter something else....stitches.

Let's revisit last year.

2010-After the St. Patrick's Day parade, Joshua falls in the car and we imediately head to the ER. Joshua endures his first round of stitches.

Fast forward to 2011. The day is already harsh. I start off with a procedure at the doctor's office that leaves me feeling a lot less than capable of proceding with this day. I dig through it and prepare for our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner with friends. The kids finish rest time and head outside. I call Dan home to help as I'm just feeling under the weather and needing some backup. I am less than 5 feet away and I hear the thud. That sound. I look and see Joshua crumpled on the ground grabbing his bleeding face and Thomas above hiim with a horrified face and a golf club in hand. It takes me three micro-seconds to know that we are headed to the ER.  I see our neighbors chatting across the street and immediately call for help. Thank goodness Randy is amazing and he leaps over two fences and holds a towel to Joshua's face while I load the kids in the car. Then I load Joshua.

We speed (at a lazy 20 mph...thank you Spokane drivers) to Deaconess with a call to my brother Adam who works in the ER. Adam is so fantastic. Joshua is clearly traumatized and really upset. Adam took Joshua and talked with him and settled him down while I dealt with the other traumatized and upset children. Luckily, because I had already called Dan home and then redirected him to the hospital, he was right behind me.

Again, luckily, Adam took us right back to a room where a plastic surgeon happened to have an extra 30 minutes that she could do Joshua's stitches. I cannot say enough about Dr. Morimoto. If you are going to have work/stitches/whatever done, go to her, she's amazing! Joshua has 8 stitches, 3 deep ones and 5 above the skin.

Here is Joshua immediately after stitches. And may I say, my boy is amazing. He didn't cry during stitches. He let her know if it hurt and wasn't fond of the numbing, but was a real awesome dude. Ice cream in his future FOR SURE!

After stitches we waited for a bit and saw the doctor to discuss facial xrays and head trauma. Joshua is amazing and it appears he was hit just perfectly (if that's possible) and no presumable damage was done. We'll definitely keep an eye on him but he looks to have escaped with just stitches and a huge face! We were then released to go home.

Here is Joshua a few hours after the incident:

It's going to look really great tomorrow.

After we got home, our friends managed to make it over for our really late dinner. Thank you Worthy Family! We were thankful for the distraction and the ability to talk and focus on friendship instead of the events of the day.

I have to tell you how thankful I am to so many people. Adam really came through as my big brother and it made what could have been a terrible, scary experience for both Joshua and me, into a situation where we knew Josh was well taken care of and comfortable. I am thankful for Randy who jumped two fences and provided Joshua with the initial comfort and calmed him as much as possible while I loaded the car with the other kids. I am thankful for the friends who came over for dinner and gave us some reprieve.

Thank you friends. I can tell you that next St. Patrick's Day the children will be wearing helmets!!!!