Tuesday evening the lawn mower kept sputtering and quitting on me. I know nothing about lawn mowers at all! It had gas. So I checked the oil. The oil was really low! Last night I put oil in it. I thought it must have been really low because it took the whole quart.
I pulled the cord and the mower started...then white smoke started billowing out of it and oil was leaking from something on the side...I know nothing about mowers, but that didn't seem healthy for a mower to be doing, in my opinion! So I shut it off.
It seems that lawn mowers don't take a whole quart of oil! I found that out after I called my brother-in-law, well I guess he won't be my brother-in-law any more. But any way I called Daniel and told him what I did and what happened. He said he would come look at it. There was no fill line or instructions on the mower! How was I supposed to know?
It didn't seem wrong, I mean a car takes way more. So in size comparison between a car and a mower, one quart seems ok. And it never over flowed! I poured it down the tube and it never even filled up into the tube, it just all disappeared into the mower! So I didn't think anything was wrong, it didn't seem to be too much!
So more tears of frustration! I suppose you live and learn! Lesson learned! But there should really be a manual of some kind for women who aren't familiar with mechanical things such as a lawn mower! Just a basic how not to screw things up guide...like don't put a whole quart of oil in a mower!
Since I couldn't mow, I decided to start clipping down some of the vines and trees and such that had over grown along the fence.
I have narrowed vines into three categories! Forget the whole binomial system of classification! I have my own!
1. Good Vines - good vines are any vine that will not hurt me! These do not have thorns of any size or kind. So I can safely grab them and not yank my hand back in pain!
2. Bad Vines - bad vines are any vine that will hurt me! These have thorns on them.. If I grab them, I will yank my hand back in pain! And sometimes the thorns remain stuck in my hand and I have to pull them out! The vines are bad all around because the tiny thorns are everywhere and you can not safely grab them to pull them away without wearing gloves! You can pull it from the ground if you grab it at it's base.
3. Evil Vines - evil vines are the thick green vines that grow straight up and have huge thorns. These vines have the potential to cause serious injury! If I grab one, I will yank back a bloody mess! There is a pro to this vine. The thorns are spaced far enough apart that I can safely grab said vine and remove it without injury!
It was hard to decide between the bad and the evil vines because of the size and spacing of the thorns. The evil vines don't seem as bad because their thorns are spaced so far apart when compared to the bad vines. The bad vines have tiny thorns EVERYWHERE! The spacing is practically non-existent, it is not possible for a human to place their fingers between two thorns for removal! What ultimately made the decision for me is that the bad vines will not cause you to bleed to death if they poke you! The evil vines will!
While clipping at the vines that were everywhere, they were falling to the ground. I was wearing short shorts and flip flops. I somehow managed to get tangled in an evil vine. I stepped away from the area I was clipping to grab the rake so that I could rake away the fallen debris. The evil vine caught me and I tripped trying to get free. By the time I got away I had a sliced and bloody toe and a puncture wound in my calf that was bleeding as well! I now see why people wear pants and boots while doing yard work! That will be another lesson I will not learn because it is just too hot for pants and boots! Plus I need to be getting my tan on!
Cade was his usual Louis and Clark expeditionary self! He likes to explore and refuses to stay and play around me! So every two minutes I was dropping my tools to bring him back! It was tons of fun!
Oh and lets not forget the mosquitoes! They are one of the best things about living in the south! Mosquitoes bite you and leave behind red bumps that then itch! So we humans use bug spray! My OFF, didn't keep them off of me! I'm not sure why! I sprayed Cade down with it and they stayed off of him. Except I didn't put any on his face! I misted it over the top of his head, but normally I spray some into my hands and spread it over his face. I didn't think to do that this time. So of course the mosquitoes got him around his forehead and temples! But no where else!
Science and PE all rolled into one on yet another adventure in Jumanji land! Thank God the mosquitoes aren't big enough to kill us, because they were in Jumanji!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Lessons Learned in the Land of Jumanji
Yard work has been a real challenge for me! Don't get me wrong, I have done yard work. But the amount and type of work that I now have to do is insane. Maybe not really insane, it was let go for a couple of summers, so now I am having to deal with the clean up process.
First let me explain about where I live. I live on the back end of six acres of land. My ex's grandmother bought this land a long time ago, over 20 years ago. The main house was built in 1903 and there was another house that the hired help lived in that was built around that time as well. The property used to include a lot more land because it used to be a peanut plantation, but pieces were split and sold at some point. With exception of the front of the property, the land is surrounded by trees from one side all the way around to the other. Behind my house there is a pond and the tree line is behind that. All I'm trying to say is, I don't live in some neighborhood where over grown means the yard has weeds in it and that's as bad as it gets. All together there are five homes on the property. With exception of the rental, the other three homes are occupied by my ex in-laws! LOL! I get along with all of them! Plus the house is in my name!
During my marriage I mowed the lawn, with a riding lawn mower. I don't exactly have a small yard, my yard is apart of the six acres. And it would take a riding lawn mower to keep six acres mowed! But it wasn't like I was a lazy ass on a riding lawn mower mowing down a 6x6 area of land! I even pulled some weeds. But for the most part, my ex took care of the yard work.
There is a piece of land that my ex's grandmother had fenced off for the animals she had. She had goats and geese. And of course the pond is included in that fenced in area. That fence runs behind my house and then to the right all the way to the property line. I am so bad judging distance, I'd say there is 18 feet, probably a little more than that, between the back of my house and the fence. It's a pretty good size area!
Last summer the yard behind my house was let go! I couldn't do it because I had a baby. Cade was under a year old and it just wasn't possible to get it done with him. I want to say it was even over grown from the summer before, mainly because my ex had a bunch of stuff going on and didn't keep up with it. I was pregnant and taking it easy. I had a difficult pregnancy, swelling really bad, so I had no business out there! As it was the baby was born at 33 weeks. So the prior two summers I was just unable to do anything with the back yard.
So lets fast forward two years, back to today! Looking at the yard was just overwhelming! It made me think of that book, Where the Wild Things Are! When we first moved into the house we planted a weeping willow tree. It seemed to struggle and struggle and I didn't think it was going to make it! Well after two years of no yard work, that tree flourished and finally grew! There were trees planted along the fence line that were just out of control. Weeds were every where! I am talking tall weeds! Honey suckle grew out of control every where, as did raspberry vines. I even noticed that the entire yard was covered in vines. They crisscrossed the yard in every which direction! The flower bed that my mom and sister helped me plant was a bed of weeds! It even had oak trees growing in it! It was just insane, an insane mess! And for someone used to managing an already kept yard, it was definitely a task!
I am by no means a diva! I can hang outside and get dirty! I love to fish and camp and just be outside. But at the same time I am a girl, I like to be pretty and keep my nails filed and pretty. I am by no means a Paris Hilton, but imagine for a moment throwing Paris Hilton out in a wild jungle and her having to clean it up! Well really she probably wouldn't do it, she'd just give up the first second she was pricked by one of those damn thorny vines! But here I was outside attempting to clean up the mess, acting like I was some pro landscaper!
The first thing I learned...ok maybe I didn't learn...was that you get blisters from using yard tools for a long time! And blisters hurt! And they really hurt when you take a shower! I want to say I have never in my life had a blister on my hands. But the first day in the yard, I walked away with a couple on both of my hands! I realized, oh yeah, that's why people wear gloves! But I still haven't learned my lesson because I have a brand new pair of gloves and I still haven't worn them! And I got another blister last night! But this one was no where near as bad and really didn't bother me!
I of course started with mowing the yard. I was hoping the mower would maybe chop up the vines that ran across yard. No such luck! And really the mowing I was doing was just to mow down the weeds and what grass there was. It used to be lush and green. But I soon realized that the grass was brown and had died because of all the vines! It looked like someone played a game of Jumanji and wild vines came out and attacked!
So I had mowed the yard and cleaned out the flower beds over the last couple of weeks, it's been a process! I have a 19 month old remember! LOL! Sunday evening and last evening I mowed the yard, cause you keep having to do it! LOL! I then started the task of trying to rake up the vines that were every where! Talk about back breaking work! Some of them came up easy but some of them didn't! There were vines growing up the fence and even some that had grown up into the weeping willow tree. These vines had actually pulled the branches to the ground, so that vines grew over top the limbs, trapping them between the ground and the vines! I had to go in and clip the vines out of the tree! In doing that I saw species of insects that I have never seen before! So it was like PE and Science all rolled into one! I worked for a few hours raking and pulling at the vines. I raked up lots of dead brown grass as well! I would say that I have about 3/4ths of the yard raked up.
By the time I stopped I was so black from dirt! I am going to say I have probably never been that dirty. Maybe at some point as a child, but never as an adult!
So let me tell you about the fun parts. Trying to keep Cade with me so that I could not only watch him but accomplish my task was nearly impossible. He kept following our puppy Brownie into the woods, when I say "our", she belongs to everyone who lives there! That's a whole other story! Cade was tromping around in the woods like Survivor Man! How he wasn't covered in ticks is beyond me! Every five minutes I was having to drop what I was doing to chase him down! At one point Brownie and Duke, my sister-in-law's dog were chasing each other. They chased each other around this huge magnolia tree and finally went under it to play. They were making tons of noise as they ran through all the crisp dried leaves that had fallen from the tree. Well a noise like that is too irresistible for any child! He was all up under the tree with the dogs, trying to climb like Tarzan! This tree covers a large area and has branches all the way to the ground. So keeping him out was nearly impossible! At one point I was yelling for Cade to come back to me when I realized that my nephew Patric was home. He came outside and I looked at him, I said "Patric, come play with him so I can do some of this yard work!" He could tell I was frustrated! I usually ask, I never just tell him to do it. So Patric played with Cade while I tried to accomplish something! I kept a check on them! I didn't want a repeat of the coffee cup massacre! But Patric is really good with Cade, very responsible for his age!
But through all of the work, the yard has actually taught me some things about myself. First, yard work is relaxing, who would have thought! It allows you to think. It doesn't talk back or judge you and it's there to catch your tears without complaint! It is also a lot of hard work which is good! It allows me to release some of my pent up aggression and has me so tired after that I sleep well! But even more than that I see how my own hard work is shaping something that was out of control into something that will be pleasant. There is enough of my own blood, sweat, and tears in that yard that I think we could maybe be related! LOL! My DNA runs through it! But it's taught me that I can do anything! As overwhelming as it may seem, if I take it one little piece at a time, it doesn't seem as bad. Instead of focusing on it as a whole piece, I focus on just a tiny piece, and before I know it not much is left! So it has really become a give and take, 50/50 relationship! I am manicuring and improving, it is teaching me about myself and life! I think any overwhelming task can be faced as long as I face it one tiny piece at a time, instead of the the whole damn thing at once! It's about taking things one step at a time!
I so wish I had taken before pictures! I am still not finished with the yard. With a 19 month old, it isn't exactly something that can be accomplished really fast! But already the difference is huge! It's something I can be proud of! I can stand back when it's all finished and say, I did that! I did it in spite of the thorns, the snakes, the blisters, the heat and in spite of how impossible it seemed for someone like me! And I did it all by myself!
First let me explain about where I live. I live on the back end of six acres of land. My ex's grandmother bought this land a long time ago, over 20 years ago. The main house was built in 1903 and there was another house that the hired help lived in that was built around that time as well. The property used to include a lot more land because it used to be a peanut plantation, but pieces were split and sold at some point. With exception of the front of the property, the land is surrounded by trees from one side all the way around to the other. Behind my house there is a pond and the tree line is behind that. All I'm trying to say is, I don't live in some neighborhood where over grown means the yard has weeds in it and that's as bad as it gets. All together there are five homes on the property. With exception of the rental, the other three homes are occupied by my ex in-laws! LOL! I get along with all of them! Plus the house is in my name!
During my marriage I mowed the lawn, with a riding lawn mower. I don't exactly have a small yard, my yard is apart of the six acres. And it would take a riding lawn mower to keep six acres mowed! But it wasn't like I was a lazy ass on a riding lawn mower mowing down a 6x6 area of land! I even pulled some weeds. But for the most part, my ex took care of the yard work.
There is a piece of land that my ex's grandmother had fenced off for the animals she had. She had goats and geese. And of course the pond is included in that fenced in area. That fence runs behind my house and then to the right all the way to the property line. I am so bad judging distance, I'd say there is 18 feet, probably a little more than that, between the back of my house and the fence. It's a pretty good size area!
Last summer the yard behind my house was let go! I couldn't do it because I had a baby. Cade was under a year old and it just wasn't possible to get it done with him. I want to say it was even over grown from the summer before, mainly because my ex had a bunch of stuff going on and didn't keep up with it. I was pregnant and taking it easy. I had a difficult pregnancy, swelling really bad, so I had no business out there! As it was the baby was born at 33 weeks. So the prior two summers I was just unable to do anything with the back yard.
So lets fast forward two years, back to today! Looking at the yard was just overwhelming! It made me think of that book, Where the Wild Things Are! When we first moved into the house we planted a weeping willow tree. It seemed to struggle and struggle and I didn't think it was going to make it! Well after two years of no yard work, that tree flourished and finally grew! There were trees planted along the fence line that were just out of control. Weeds were every where! I am talking tall weeds! Honey suckle grew out of control every where, as did raspberry vines. I even noticed that the entire yard was covered in vines. They crisscrossed the yard in every which direction! The flower bed that my mom and sister helped me plant was a bed of weeds! It even had oak trees growing in it! It was just insane, an insane mess! And for someone used to managing an already kept yard, it was definitely a task!
I am by no means a diva! I can hang outside and get dirty! I love to fish and camp and just be outside. But at the same time I am a girl, I like to be pretty and keep my nails filed and pretty. I am by no means a Paris Hilton, but imagine for a moment throwing Paris Hilton out in a wild jungle and her having to clean it up! Well really she probably wouldn't do it, she'd just give up the first second she was pricked by one of those damn thorny vines! But here I was outside attempting to clean up the mess, acting like I was some pro landscaper!
The first thing I learned...ok maybe I didn't learn...was that you get blisters from using yard tools for a long time! And blisters hurt! And they really hurt when you take a shower! I want to say I have never in my life had a blister on my hands. But the first day in the yard, I walked away with a couple on both of my hands! I realized, oh yeah, that's why people wear gloves! But I still haven't learned my lesson because I have a brand new pair of gloves and I still haven't worn them! And I got another blister last night! But this one was no where near as bad and really didn't bother me!
I of course started with mowing the yard. I was hoping the mower would maybe chop up the vines that ran across yard. No such luck! And really the mowing I was doing was just to mow down the weeds and what grass there was. It used to be lush and green. But I soon realized that the grass was brown and had died because of all the vines! It looked like someone played a game of Jumanji and wild vines came out and attacked!
So I had mowed the yard and cleaned out the flower beds over the last couple of weeks, it's been a process! I have a 19 month old remember! LOL! Sunday evening and last evening I mowed the yard, cause you keep having to do it! LOL! I then started the task of trying to rake up the vines that were every where! Talk about back breaking work! Some of them came up easy but some of them didn't! There were vines growing up the fence and even some that had grown up into the weeping willow tree. These vines had actually pulled the branches to the ground, so that vines grew over top the limbs, trapping them between the ground and the vines! I had to go in and clip the vines out of the tree! In doing that I saw species of insects that I have never seen before! So it was like PE and Science all rolled into one! I worked for a few hours raking and pulling at the vines. I raked up lots of dead brown grass as well! I would say that I have about 3/4ths of the yard raked up.
By the time I stopped I was so black from dirt! I am going to say I have probably never been that dirty. Maybe at some point as a child, but never as an adult!
So let me tell you about the fun parts. Trying to keep Cade with me so that I could not only watch him but accomplish my task was nearly impossible. He kept following our puppy Brownie into the woods, when I say "our", she belongs to everyone who lives there! That's a whole other story! Cade was tromping around in the woods like Survivor Man! How he wasn't covered in ticks is beyond me! Every five minutes I was having to drop what I was doing to chase him down! At one point Brownie and Duke, my sister-in-law's dog were chasing each other. They chased each other around this huge magnolia tree and finally went under it to play. They were making tons of noise as they ran through all the crisp dried leaves that had fallen from the tree. Well a noise like that is too irresistible for any child! He was all up under the tree with the dogs, trying to climb like Tarzan! This tree covers a large area and has branches all the way to the ground. So keeping him out was nearly impossible! At one point I was yelling for Cade to come back to me when I realized that my nephew Patric was home. He came outside and I looked at him, I said "Patric, come play with him so I can do some of this yard work!" He could tell I was frustrated! I usually ask, I never just tell him to do it. So Patric played with Cade while I tried to accomplish something! I kept a check on them! I didn't want a repeat of the coffee cup massacre! But Patric is really good with Cade, very responsible for his age!
But through all of the work, the yard has actually taught me some things about myself. First, yard work is relaxing, who would have thought! It allows you to think. It doesn't talk back or judge you and it's there to catch your tears without complaint! It is also a lot of hard work which is good! It allows me to release some of my pent up aggression and has me so tired after that I sleep well! But even more than that I see how my own hard work is shaping something that was out of control into something that will be pleasant. There is enough of my own blood, sweat, and tears in that yard that I think we could maybe be related! LOL! My DNA runs through it! But it's taught me that I can do anything! As overwhelming as it may seem, if I take it one little piece at a time, it doesn't seem as bad. Instead of focusing on it as a whole piece, I focus on just a tiny piece, and before I know it not much is left! So it has really become a give and take, 50/50 relationship! I am manicuring and improving, it is teaching me about myself and life! I think any overwhelming task can be faced as long as I face it one tiny piece at a time, instead of the the whole damn thing at once! It's about taking things one step at a time!
I so wish I had taken before pictures! I am still not finished with the yard. With a 19 month old, it isn't exactly something that can be accomplished really fast! But already the difference is huge! It's something I can be proud of! I can stand back when it's all finished and say, I did that! I did it in spite of the thorns, the snakes, the blisters, the heat and in spite of how impossible it seemed for someone like me! And I did it all by myself!
Monday, June 1, 2009
The North Carolina Coffee Cup Massacre!
Have you ever seen something that just didn't make sense...and your eyes are seeing it and sending the message to your brain, but your brain is like, "hey stupid, what you are seeing isn't possible!" And your eyes are like, "ummm yeah it is, haven't you heard, 'seeing is believing'!" So while your eyes and your brain fight, you have neurons or something misfiring in your head...and you stand there all confused and looking around for something that makes sense? Yeah, me too! LOL!
I was mowing the lawn...unfortunately the grass just keeps growing and doesn't realize I have a 19 month old baby I must keep up with! But we were doing pretty good! I was mowing and he was playing right in the area I was in. I had a little kiddie pool set up, so he was in and out of that. I had just a little bit of water in it, since when mowing you are going back and forth and it is nearly impossible to have your eyes on a child at every second. But the area I was mowing was a small one, just the little part in front of my house. So I was never very far from him and I kept a constant check on him.
It was just before lunch and I had just finished mowing. I was putting back the chairs to my lawn furniture and a couple of other things that I had moved in order to mow. Again, if I had my back to Cade I was constantly checking behind me to make sure was he ok.
I had just slid a chair under the table and turned to get Cade and go into the house. So as I turn and start to walk towards him, I noticed he was walking towards me and staring down curiously at his hands. He was turning his hands and looking at something that I began to realize his hands were covered in. I then noticed that his legs, chest, and arms had this same substance all over them. Then my heart bounced in my chest as I realized that it was blood.
But the situation didn't make any sense, he was quite covered in blood, but he wasn't crying. There was blood every where and yet there was no worry, panic, or tears of any kind coming from Cade. He was just staring curiously at it, as if it were finger paint or something. My eyes darted around the yard looking for anything to help me make sense of the situation. Quite frankly if someone has that much blood on them, well they should be crying! That should just be a rule! Covered in blood...ok cry! I wondered to myself if I had perhaps hit the dog with the lawn mower and she was bleeding to death. But nothing was out of place and there were no signs of anything that could explain the scene before me. The whole thought process only took a matter of seconds and my brain was just not comprehending what was going on.
I hurried to him and began checking him to see just where the blood was coming from. He had so much of it I couldn't tell where it was coming from. As much as there was I just knew there had to be a gaping hole somewhere on his body. I stripped him down to his diaper and still had no idea where he could be bleeding from. So I rushed him into the house and into the bathroom. I put him in the tub and began rinsing him off in order to find the source of the bleed. He was standing in front of the faucet and had his right hand on the side of the bath tub. His hands were so bloody that the side of the tub was smeared with blood. I used a cup to rinse his body, so there was blood splashed about the tub. Had anyone walked in at that moment, they surely would have thought it a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Never at any point did he cry, so I just couldn't figure out what he could have done. I never found the gaping wound that I was sure I would find.
I soon found the source of the bleed, it was his right thumb. He had a vertical slice on the ball of his thumb, not directly in the middle, but to the outside right. It wasn't more than a few centimeters long. Blood was coming from the slice quite fast, so I grabbed a towel and applied pressure to get it to stop, which took a few minutes. I couldn't believe so much blood had come from such a tiny wound! After the bleeding had stopped I tried to determine just how deep the incision was. I would have never taken him to the doctor for such a tiny cut, but because so much blood had come out, I kind of thought it must be deep. It wasn't gaping so I had to apply just a tiny bit of pressure on either side in order to open it. But when I did that blood would spurt out. I couldn't tell how deep it was, so I determined it was deep enough to see the doctor. I put a band-aid on him and then wrapped his thumb with medical tape in order to keep pressure on it. I also didn't want him taking the band-aid off and messing with it.
I called the doctor's office and explained the situation. They of course told me to bring him in right away because if he needed stitches that was something that needed to be done as soon as possible. I was sweaty and dirty from mowing, not to mention the smears of blood on my arms from carrying Cade inside. I wiped myself down with a wash cloth and changed clothes. Then I dressed Cade and left for the pediatrician. I have never ever left my house looking as I did. My hair was wet with sweat at the top of my forehead and the base of my neck. I appeared sweaty in general and my feet and legs were dirty. I wore flip flops while mowing, which I know is a no-no, so my feet were clearly dirty from being sprayed with the fine debris that came out from under the mower. While it wasn't a life threatening emergency, it was something I couldn't take time to shower and beautify myself for. So I looked like white trash from the sticks when I walked in. To top it off, Cade's Nike sandals were wet because he put them in the pool, so he was barefoot! We were a sight!
I checked in and was told to go sit in the chairs behind the reception office. That was good because I knew I was going to be seen pretty fast. I also wouldn't have to sit in the main waiting room with people staring at me and wondering why I came to a doctors appointment all dirty! So I sat down with Cade in my lap and for the first time actually started to relax a little. After a couple of minutes of just sitting there something really weird happened. I was suddenly over come with some serious emotion! I just had an overwhelming urge to cry my eyes out. It took everything I had to control my emotions and not break down and cry. And I couldn't understand why! I knew the cut wasn't so bad and I knew Cade was ok, it wasn't a life threatening injury. Looking back, I think I went into auto pilot when I saw Cade covered as he was with blood. I have never been in a situation where so much blood came from one person. So I think when I finally arrived at the doctors office my auto pilot shut off and my body took up where it left off. So I suppose crying would be a normal reaction if you saw your son covered in blood and didn't know where it was coming from or how bad it was!
It wasn't long before the nurse called me into a room and had me strip him down to a dry diaper. I had to take a minute and compose myself so that I wouldn't lose it when I had to explain the situation to her. She weighed him, took his temperature, and asked me a couple of questions. We were then sent back in the room to wait for the doctor. It took a little longer for the doctor to come in. She came in and of course asked what happened as she unwound the medical tape from his thumb. I explained what had happened and felt like the worst mother in the world since I really wasn't sure what he could have cut himself with. I truly was never more than a few feet from him and had a pretty constant eye on him. I just couldn't figure out how he could have cut himself and had enough time to smear blood all over his body because I was right there! But the blood was rushing from his thumb really fast!
The doctor determined it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't exactly something that could just be left to heal on it's own either! He is only one and the cut was on his thumb. The doctor went to get the PA who she told me does all of their stitching. The PA came in and determined that putting a stitch in his thumb would probably just rip him further because it was on the ball of his thumb. So she cleaned the wound really good and applied glue all around his thumb, being careful to keep it off the cut. She then applied butterfly strips to help keep it closed so it could heal. She then wrapped a little bit of gauze, the kind that sticks to itself, around his thumb. He sat there the entire time just watching her as she did it. She told me that any other kid his age would have five nurses holding them down so she could do it. She said, "he's very curious." I was thinking, I know..tell me about! That's why we are here! He is too curious for his own good!
She then wrapped his hand up so he couldn't remove anything she had just put on his thumb. He didn't like that part so much, but he still didn't have to be held down! She thought for sure he would have the gauze off in no time. But he actually adapted and moved on! He didn't allow his bound up hand to hinder him too much!
I had planned on removing the gauze on Monday. But he was very restless and had been messing with his hand in his sleep. So about 4:30 in the morning on Monday I cut the gauze off! I don't know why she thought he would be able to get the gauze off, I tried peeling it off and couldn't find an edge! So that's why it was cut off! I removed the gauze on his thumb as well as the butterfly strips because I knew he would take them off anyway! The cut on his thumb wasn't shut all the way. Actually it appeared as though it had closed but re-opened because of the moisture. His hand was sweaty when I took the bandage off. So I think all the gauze was hindering the healing process. He even had sores on the knuckle of thumb, the webbing between his thumb and hand, and the top of his wrist. I am assuming it was from his hands sweating all weekend.
We went back to sleep and by the time we woke up again his thumb had scabbed. It's hard to believe that there was so much to-do over such a tiny cut!
It was a clean cut, straight into the thumb! I later scoured the yard for signs of anything so sharp he could cut himself. I came across a coffee mug that belonged to my sister-in-law Tara, who lives right next door to me. The handle had been broken off and one of the edges pricked me as I picked it up. It didn't cut me open, but I could tell that it was sharp enough to! I found the coffee mug in the pool. So my best guess is that he picked up the mug and threw it into the pool. I can't imagine why it broke because it was a plastic pool on top of grass! But I think that he probably leaned over and tried to pick up the handle which then sliced his thumb. So we had to talk to Tara's boys about leaving cups outside that the baby could get a hold of and cut himself with.
Never a dull moment I tell ya!
The picture below is a good picture to give you an idea of just how close we were. I stopped the mower right there by the pool, which is where he was. I had planned on moving the pool and mowing the grass after I put everything back. The bush on the right is a rose bush which sits right next to Tara's house. I was on the other side of that bush putting something back, the side closest to the pool. Just to the left is where my house sits, which you can't see. So really we weren't so far apart and it didn't take me that long to put everything back. Not to mention I stopped the mower right by the pool which is where he was and I never saw him with a coffee mug or bleeding! Kids are fast!
I was mowing the lawn...unfortunately the grass just keeps growing and doesn't realize I have a 19 month old baby I must keep up with! But we were doing pretty good! I was mowing and he was playing right in the area I was in. I had a little kiddie pool set up, so he was in and out of that. I had just a little bit of water in it, since when mowing you are going back and forth and it is nearly impossible to have your eyes on a child at every second. But the area I was mowing was a small one, just the little part in front of my house. So I was never very far from him and I kept a constant check on him.
It was just before lunch and I had just finished mowing. I was putting back the chairs to my lawn furniture and a couple of other things that I had moved in order to mow. Again, if I had my back to Cade I was constantly checking behind me to make sure was he ok.
I had just slid a chair under the table and turned to get Cade and go into the house. So as I turn and start to walk towards him, I noticed he was walking towards me and staring down curiously at his hands. He was turning his hands and looking at something that I began to realize his hands were covered in. I then noticed that his legs, chest, and arms had this same substance all over them. Then my heart bounced in my chest as I realized that it was blood.
But the situation didn't make any sense, he was quite covered in blood, but he wasn't crying. There was blood every where and yet there was no worry, panic, or tears of any kind coming from Cade. He was just staring curiously at it, as if it were finger paint or something. My eyes darted around the yard looking for anything to help me make sense of the situation. Quite frankly if someone has that much blood on them, well they should be crying! That should just be a rule! Covered in blood...ok cry! I wondered to myself if I had perhaps hit the dog with the lawn mower and she was bleeding to death. But nothing was out of place and there were no signs of anything that could explain the scene before me. The whole thought process only took a matter of seconds and my brain was just not comprehending what was going on.
I hurried to him and began checking him to see just where the blood was coming from. He had so much of it I couldn't tell where it was coming from. As much as there was I just knew there had to be a gaping hole somewhere on his body. I stripped him down to his diaper and still had no idea where he could be bleeding from. So I rushed him into the house and into the bathroom. I put him in the tub and began rinsing him off in order to find the source of the bleed. He was standing in front of the faucet and had his right hand on the side of the bath tub. His hands were so bloody that the side of the tub was smeared with blood. I used a cup to rinse his body, so there was blood splashed about the tub. Had anyone walked in at that moment, they surely would have thought it a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Never at any point did he cry, so I just couldn't figure out what he could have done. I never found the gaping wound that I was sure I would find.
I soon found the source of the bleed, it was his right thumb. He had a vertical slice on the ball of his thumb, not directly in the middle, but to the outside right. It wasn't more than a few centimeters long. Blood was coming from the slice quite fast, so I grabbed a towel and applied pressure to get it to stop, which took a few minutes. I couldn't believe so much blood had come from such a tiny wound! After the bleeding had stopped I tried to determine just how deep the incision was. I would have never taken him to the doctor for such a tiny cut, but because so much blood had come out, I kind of thought it must be deep. It wasn't gaping so I had to apply just a tiny bit of pressure on either side in order to open it. But when I did that blood would spurt out. I couldn't tell how deep it was, so I determined it was deep enough to see the doctor. I put a band-aid on him and then wrapped his thumb with medical tape in order to keep pressure on it. I also didn't want him taking the band-aid off and messing with it.
I called the doctor's office and explained the situation. They of course told me to bring him in right away because if he needed stitches that was something that needed to be done as soon as possible. I was sweaty and dirty from mowing, not to mention the smears of blood on my arms from carrying Cade inside. I wiped myself down with a wash cloth and changed clothes. Then I dressed Cade and left for the pediatrician. I have never ever left my house looking as I did. My hair was wet with sweat at the top of my forehead and the base of my neck. I appeared sweaty in general and my feet and legs were dirty. I wore flip flops while mowing, which I know is a no-no, so my feet were clearly dirty from being sprayed with the fine debris that came out from under the mower. While it wasn't a life threatening emergency, it was something I couldn't take time to shower and beautify myself for. So I looked like white trash from the sticks when I walked in. To top it off, Cade's Nike sandals were wet because he put them in the pool, so he was barefoot! We were a sight!
I checked in and was told to go sit in the chairs behind the reception office. That was good because I knew I was going to be seen pretty fast. I also wouldn't have to sit in the main waiting room with people staring at me and wondering why I came to a doctors appointment all dirty! So I sat down with Cade in my lap and for the first time actually started to relax a little. After a couple of minutes of just sitting there something really weird happened. I was suddenly over come with some serious emotion! I just had an overwhelming urge to cry my eyes out. It took everything I had to control my emotions and not break down and cry. And I couldn't understand why! I knew the cut wasn't so bad and I knew Cade was ok, it wasn't a life threatening injury. Looking back, I think I went into auto pilot when I saw Cade covered as he was with blood. I have never been in a situation where so much blood came from one person. So I think when I finally arrived at the doctors office my auto pilot shut off and my body took up where it left off. So I suppose crying would be a normal reaction if you saw your son covered in blood and didn't know where it was coming from or how bad it was!
It wasn't long before the nurse called me into a room and had me strip him down to a dry diaper. I had to take a minute and compose myself so that I wouldn't lose it when I had to explain the situation to her. She weighed him, took his temperature, and asked me a couple of questions. We were then sent back in the room to wait for the doctor. It took a little longer for the doctor to come in. She came in and of course asked what happened as she unwound the medical tape from his thumb. I explained what had happened and felt like the worst mother in the world since I really wasn't sure what he could have cut himself with. I truly was never more than a few feet from him and had a pretty constant eye on him. I just couldn't figure out how he could have cut himself and had enough time to smear blood all over his body because I was right there! But the blood was rushing from his thumb really fast!
The doctor determined it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't exactly something that could just be left to heal on it's own either! He is only one and the cut was on his thumb. The doctor went to get the PA who she told me does all of their stitching. The PA came in and determined that putting a stitch in his thumb would probably just rip him further because it was on the ball of his thumb. So she cleaned the wound really good and applied glue all around his thumb, being careful to keep it off the cut. She then applied butterfly strips to help keep it closed so it could heal. She then wrapped a little bit of gauze, the kind that sticks to itself, around his thumb. He sat there the entire time just watching her as she did it. She told me that any other kid his age would have five nurses holding them down so she could do it. She said, "he's very curious." I was thinking, I know..tell me about! That's why we are here! He is too curious for his own good!
She then wrapped his hand up so he couldn't remove anything she had just put on his thumb. He didn't like that part so much, but he still didn't have to be held down! She thought for sure he would have the gauze off in no time. But he actually adapted and moved on! He didn't allow his bound up hand to hinder him too much!
I had planned on removing the gauze on Monday. But he was very restless and had been messing with his hand in his sleep. So about 4:30 in the morning on Monday I cut the gauze off! I don't know why she thought he would be able to get the gauze off, I tried peeling it off and couldn't find an edge! So that's why it was cut off! I removed the gauze on his thumb as well as the butterfly strips because I knew he would take them off anyway! The cut on his thumb wasn't shut all the way. Actually it appeared as though it had closed but re-opened because of the moisture. His hand was sweaty when I took the bandage off. So I think all the gauze was hindering the healing process. He even had sores on the knuckle of thumb, the webbing between his thumb and hand, and the top of his wrist. I am assuming it was from his hands sweating all weekend.
We went back to sleep and by the time we woke up again his thumb had scabbed. It's hard to believe that there was so much to-do over such a tiny cut!
It was a clean cut, straight into the thumb! I later scoured the yard for signs of anything so sharp he could cut himself. I came across a coffee mug that belonged to my sister-in-law Tara, who lives right next door to me. The handle had been broken off and one of the edges pricked me as I picked it up. It didn't cut me open, but I could tell that it was sharp enough to! I found the coffee mug in the pool. So my best guess is that he picked up the mug and threw it into the pool. I can't imagine why it broke because it was a plastic pool on top of grass! But I think that he probably leaned over and tried to pick up the handle which then sliced his thumb. So we had to talk to Tara's boys about leaving cups outside that the baby could get a hold of and cut himself with.
Never a dull moment I tell ya!
The picture below is a good picture to give you an idea of just how close we were. I stopped the mower right there by the pool, which is where he was. I had planned on moving the pool and mowing the grass after I put everything back. The bush on the right is a rose bush which sits right next to Tara's house. I was on the other side of that bush putting something back, the side closest to the pool. Just to the left is where my house sits, which you can't see. So really we weren't so far apart and it didn't take me that long to put everything back. Not to mention I stopped the mower right by the pool which is where he was and I never saw him with a coffee mug or bleeding! Kids are fast!
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