A Day No Mother Ever Wants

On May 12, 2011 Ava and I started out our long day of errands by dropping off due books at the RAF Mildenhall library. It was no longer then 30 seconds after entering the door that Ava came running back to me (I was dropping the books into the return box) with a face covered in dark red blood. All I could say was "what happened?" A lady peeked through a row of books and said "she was running toward to kid section when she fell and bumped her head on the door frame." The calmness of this lady signaled to me that she had no idea as to just how hard Ava had hit. I don't think she had even seen any of the now almost pooling blood. I held Ava close looked up at the librarian guy and in my best panicked voice called out "I don't know what to do!"

How many times have I taken First Aid? Lets count, during every summer of swimming lessons, every year at Young Women camp, and multiple times during my short career as a child care worker in Germany. Yet when I need to remember basic things like keep the head elevated, compress the wound, call for help, and stay calm, I drew the most embarrassing blank. My mother skills didn't even kick in, except for the ones that kept me crying! If it wasn't for the amazing men who work at the library things would have been so different. They quickly rushed us back to a washroom, he then took paper towel and held it to Ava's inch and a half open cut. With no visible fear of skin to skin contact with human blood that man held the paper towel over Ava's forehead. He reminded me to stay calm because Ava was reacting to my fears. And he helped me wipe the blood almost dripping in her eye, while another librarian worker called for an ambulance.

Soon there were lots of people around all helping Ava. We rode in the ambulance to the Lakenheath hospital, which was a first time for me and Ava. She was scared stiff and wouldn't put her arms down the entire ride. She wasn't talking very much except to tell me that I had owies all over my hands (the dried blood.) In the emergency the on call doctor was extremely nice and said she had really hit her head but that it would be an easy stitch up since the wound was clean and straight, and almost to the bone. They wanted to put her out but she had eaten a package of Tinker-bell fruit snacks and that was a problem. Now they would have to numb her and they warned me that it would burn and hurt. My job was to hold down Ava's arms while they stabbed her wound 4 times, the most painfully hard thing I've ever done. I cried through the whole experience, while she tried not to move but kept repeating "stop, owie owie, stop!" I was told to sit down as I had turned white with shock as they began to stitch. A nurse kept me talking and calm while I stroked Ava's hand. She had 5 internal stitches and 6 external by the time everything was finished. When they finally let her sit up and had given her a bunch of princess stickers, she started to act normal again. Asking questions about the equipment and repeating all the colours of the blood vial's.

The emergency room had called Dave's squadron and they had contacted Dave in France. I was able to tell him what had happened and how Ava was doing. It's crazy how fast a normal day can turn ugly.

(May 12) After we got home from the hospital

(May 13) The next day, sore and tender

(May 14) obviously feeling a bit better, but she won't look at it in the mirror

(May 16) The night before the stitches came out

(May 17) Major Jardin was so sweet to Ava. Stitches came out easier than I thought

What it looks like today. She will always have some sort of scar but it looks a lot better then I thought, faint and light red.