Adventures in blood and guts

Toward the end of August we went on our ward campout up Provo Canyon.

I had high hopes of sitting in my camp chair by the fire all night and relaxing.

Olivia, however, made other plans for us.

The whole ward had gathered at a rock amphitheater for an evening program.  Olivia was sitting down in front of me.  She was wearing a hoodie and had apparently pulled her arms out of the arm holes and stuffed them down by her side, under the jacket.

Long story short- She jumped up, lost her balance, and without her hands to catch her fall, fell face first onto the edge of a rock step.

{Cue child screaming bloody murder.} 

Did I mention that she did this all while a guy from our ward was standing on stage singing a hymn?  Great timing.  The good news is that we were toward the front and off to the side so most people didn't even notice the screaming 6-year-old with blood streaming down her face.  The fact that it was dark outside also helped camouflage the crisis.

We rushed her away from the amphitheater and to a picnic table to check out the damage.  With flashlights blaring into her eyes, and blood streaming into them, we got a good look at her nose- it was rather apparent that a trip to the Emergency Room was in order.  Our tent was already set up, it was dark and late, so we just left our kids with our friends and took off.

And because I like blood and guts and I figure you should too...

Before we got Olivia to the car she kept telling me, "I don't want to go to the doctor.  I don't want stitches. We can fix it here."  She kept insisting that she was just fine and we could take care of it at camp.  I told her she would thank me later.

Of all my children, Olivia is the only one (surprise, surprise) that has had stitches.  She knew exactly what getting stitches meant and she was NOT looking forward to it.  Bless her heart, this child knows how to find trouble.

Olivia was very brave at the Emergency Room.  She didn't cry once.  She was very nervous of the whole process though.

The nurse who helped her out was an older grandpa-type guy.  He was asking her all the usual questions.  She just stared at him and wouldn't really answer any of his questions until he asked the following question: "Does anyone hurt you at home?"  Suddenly, she was all about answering the question and with a very serious look on her face, started shaking her head up and down adamantly.  So of course me and Dave are like, "WHAT THE HECK?"  I mean really, the possibilities are endless when it comes to what she could answer.  So he proceeds to ask her who hurts her at home.  And her answer, in a very pathetic tone, might I add- "my older brother".  Phew, dodged a bullet there.







































We decided to have her sedated for the stitches.  I figured it would be terrifying for her to have her stitches done right there by her eyes and be wide awake.  The drug of choice to knock her out was Ketamine.  They warned us that this drug can cause hallucinations, etc.  Needless to say,  it provided us with ample entertainment once she was coming out of it.  Her head was flopping all over the place.  The first thing she said to me while waking up was "You have four eyes."  She was seeing pink fire dragons and labeling all the parts of her face.  Brilliant statements such as, "I came from daddy's tummy" were coming out of her mouth.  While buckling her into her booster she was still asking things like "Why are there two of you?"  It was funny.

This is how things looked right after her stitches:

And this, my friends, was the next morning.  It actually looked worse as time progressed because all that red and bruised area turned into a big scab.  Yuck.


























Once again Olivia is keepin' it real for the Jacksons.