I was back in my bedroom talking on the phone this afternoon when I heard my mom come back in the house from running some errands and yell "Christina!" I could tell from her voice that something was wrong. I ran into the kitchen, where she was and saw the bloody paper towels she was holding up to her forehead. I told my friend "Gotta go, bye" and hung up. My mom preceded to tell me she was getting the bags out of the back of the mini van when the hatch door fell down on her head. She made it to the door before dropping all her bags. She could feel the blood running down her face so she went to get some paper towels. I took one look at the gash on her forehead and said "We're going to the emergency room." I ran around the house grabbing her purse and glasses and our cell phones, some more paper towels, my flip flops, the van keys. My mom just laid on the floor while I was doing all this and unlocking the van and opening the doors. I then helped her up and got her in the van. I called my dad when we were on the road and told him what had happened. He made sure we were okay and told us to call him later. The whole trip I kept asking my mom all sorts of questions about what had happened and how she was feeling and to test her coherency.
We didn't have to wait long in the emergency room. When we got back in a room they had to clean out the flap with saline and then numb it and put in stitches and then clean and wrap it. I tried to hold her hand and be right by her the whole time but I started getting nauseous while they were doing the numbing and so had to sit down for a bit.
While the doctor was putting in the stitches I could tell they hadn't numbed her forehead enough because she would squeeze my hand harder. But other than that you couldn't tell that my mom was in any pain or that this whole experience wasn't pretty traumatic. My mom is a freaking rock. The doctor called her "stoic." So 8 tiny plastic surgery-type stitches later the flap was all sewed up.
The nurse had to wrap her head up like a wounded soldier. Another nurse walked in and called my mom "pretty" and we called her out on her lie and laughed.
Funny thing is that just over 6 years ago my mom fell from a ladder while getting boxes down from the attic and cut her forehead and the back of her head open. That time was way worse. She had a giant scar on her forehead before and this cut happened right over the previous one. As a family joke we have Brooksby Family Ladder Safety Awareness Day in November every year. Now the family joke will be Head Injury Awareness.
Oh and tomorrow is Brooksby Family Seatbelt Safety Awareness Day so remember your seatbelts kids!
