Can't they stay out of the ER?

Oh good grief. It's not even summer yet (though you wouldn't know that, seeing as how it's going to be in the 90s all week), and my nieces can't stop getting hurt. They're kicking off the summer with a bang, that's for sure.

Gracie broke her arm a couple of months ago. She got her cast off recently, and a couple of days later, BAM. Katie gets hurt. She was at school, and her class was walking "punishment laps" around the track because some kids were misbehaving. Don't even get me started about the stupidity of punishing an entire class for a few kids' misbehavior...not the best classroom management technique.

Anyway, she was walking along, probably talking a mile a minute to her friends, wasn't paying attention, and slammed right into a stage they'd set up on the track. I think they were having some ceremony celebrating the building of their new school, but I'm not sure.

The point is, she had to get seven stitches on her forehead!



I'm not even going to post the pic of the gash on her head before it was stitched. Holy cow. They took the stitches out just a few days later, which I thought was very soon, but the doctor said it would leave "railroad tracks" on her head if they didn't.

Audrey and I spent the day after it happened with Katie and my mom, who took off work to take care of her. She described what happened, pointing out that one of the little girls in her class was the first to get to her. I can't remember her name, so I'll call her Ashton. Actually, I think that was her name.

So Katie ran into the stage, fell down, and blacked out for a few seconds. Ashton said, "Katie, we've got to get you to the nurse." Katie asked why, and Ashton said, "Because you're bleeding." I can only imagine what the little girl was thinking, seeing that gash on her head. Katie said, "I'm not bleeding", reaching up to feel the side of her forehead. Ashton said, "The other side", and Katie reached her hand up and came back with lots of blood. Wow.

So, Katie had been jealous of all the attention Gracie was getting about her arm, and now she's got it all. I think she's realizing it's so not worth it.