Wednesday, November 16

Some days are better than others...

This may be somewhat meandering, but it's been a rough day. I'm going to start by saying Junior is fine.

It didn't start out so bad. I was up early (5:30) took a shower and actually got Junior to school early. I picked up Hot Spell yesterday at the UBS/Indie bookstore, bought it new, not used, and started Meljean's Falling for Anthony, but didn't have time last night to finish it. Brought the book with me thinking I'd read while Junior was in school and decided at the last minute to do some Christmas shopping instead, I'm horribly behind, normally I'm finished, wrapped, with the Christmas cards written and ready to go out.

I barely made it back to school by 11:30, traffic was horrendous. And when I walked into the school the Assistant Director said I was to go straight into the classroom. Oh boy, somethings wrong.

Not 2 minutes before I got to school, Junior was running back to his seat after storytime and fell. He hit his jaw against his chair and fell backwards hitting his head on the floor. And, he was hysterical, which is so unusual for him, but falling in general is unusual for him (he's very coordinated and rarely falls or hits his head, he's not one of those kids covered in bruises) and he had really worked himself up. I get him settled down and we head for home. And once in the car he falls asleep.

Well, that made me nervous, so when we got home I called the pediatrician. The nurse there tells me to wake him every 1/2 hour and make sure he recognizes me and if he starts to throw up I'm to take him straight to the emergency room. At 12:30 I woke him, he gripes at me but talks to me for a minute--I know he's okay. At 1:00 I had a hard time waking him up and I couldn't get him to focus on me. So I put him back in the van and head to the emergency room. At this point I've talked to my husband twice and he's on a job site an hour and a half away.

Junior sleeps all the way to the emergency room, wakes up when we get there, wants to know "What's this place and why are we here?" Now, I'm sure he's fine, but since we're there I decided it's better to be safe than sorry. Two hours later we have a clean bill of health and directions to keep as quiet as possible for the next 72 hours. He's got a wicked scrape and bruise on his jaw, but he's none the worse for wear.

The people at the ER were amazingly nice and thankfully it wasn't too busy. It turned out the admittance clerk sent her kids to the same preschool and the ER doctor was the one who helped save my dad's life--an excellent doctor. One day I'll blog about my dad's medical miracle, I've started to a couple of times but I usually end up in tears before I can actually get anything written.

Junior is fine, but he is very upset about missing Tae Kwon Do tomorrow.

After he went to bed, I got to finish Falling for Anthony. It was very good. I really like Meljean's writing style and you can't go wrong with a paranormal that has Guardians (Angels), a demon, a newly turned vampire and a nosferatu, I don't have the book in front of me so I hope I spelled that correctly.

Meljean, if you read this, you hit the horror mark when Anthony is attacked on the battlefield--nicely done. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take Lilith and Hugh.

I'm taping Lost, so I can go to bed, have a good night and happy reading.

6 comments:

Sam said...

(((((((HUGS)))))))))
Poor you and poor Junior - it's always scary when they hit their heads and you were exactly right to take him to the emergency ward - just two months ago my friend Andrea arrived to pick up her son in school and found him crying and screaming that his head hurt. The teacher didn't even know what happened - but Andrea took him to the hosptal just to be sure, and the x-ray showed a huge bruise just inside the skull. (Not dangerous, thank heavens, but he needed trepanning anyway and it was quite scary for the mom!)
The doctor said any blow on the head should be checked out even if it seems benign - young kids and elderly people especially!!
((((more hugs!)))))

ReneeW said...

OMG, what an exhausting day! You did the right thing. Always better to play it safe with head injuries. My son knocked himself out at school and he had a seizure (which is VERY common I found out later). So when I got the call I had to be calm, drive to school and take him to the doctor. Yikes! Not fun. Then he did it again a couple years later on a Scouting trip. He was fine both times, but he gave me a heart attack. Boys are tough on their bodies until they get to be about 30.

meljean brook said...

My daughter (2 years) has taken to, I swear, TRYING to hurt herself. Luckily, there haven't been any major head injuries, though she has deliberately whacked her forehead on the edge of the table, and that freaked me out enough to do the call to the pediatrician and the hourly wake-up.

I am so glad you liked Falling for Anthony, and that battlefield scene was horror-good.

And I was just reading down in the blog, about the demons and religion -- I like demons as a type of...alien? for lack of a better term, but as the villains of the story, a religious slant just has that built-in horror that I love to play with.

Although, there was some concern when I first sent in part of the Hugh/Lilith manuscript (which I was working on before I was asked to contribute to HOT SPELL) that it might be stepping over an unspoken conservative/religious line, like trying to rewrite the Bible. Of course, with more than a couple of chapters my editor realized it's more like a Buffy-world, where some things are hinted at but not talked about ... but I do wonder if writers/publishers shy away from the Christian portrayal of demons for that reason. And the same with vampires or werewolves being 'evil' or damned -- it demands an certain religious viewpoint that might offend a good portion of readers, one way or another.

I was glad that they let me keep the origin in Falling for Anthony, but I'm also thinking that I will keep God and real angels almost completely out of it (except treating them as literary artifacts, via Milton and such).

Tara Marie said...

Sam and Renee, thanks for all the sympathy.

Meljean, I try hard to separate my faith from what I'm reading and can usually do this. I'm not so hung up on my faith that I can't see the difference, and yet I guess it will depend on how it's handled. I think because you do have the "Guardians" there is a hint of God etc. that makes the good vs. evil more believable.

The other series I'm reading has no reference whatsoever and I'm left wondering where do the demons come from. As a Christian I don't believe in vampires et al, but demons need an explanation.

CindyS said...

I'm so very glad that Junior is okay! I remember years ago (uh, yeah, YEARS) when I fell off a swing and had a huge goose egg on my forehead. My parents told me not to go to sleep or I might not wake up. Great. I was spooked to go to bed 12 hours later ;)

My best friend's kids have been to the hospital many times but we are all surprised that they have made it to 9 and 5 without any broken bones. These are the type of kids that have bruises everywhere. The youngest has asthma and the last time he was in the hospital they had to do three treatments to get him back to normal where they would normally have needed only one. Scary.

Mother's are truly undervalued!

I can't wait to get my hands on Hot Spell. So far, haven't seen it in Canada. I may order online but then I know I won't get it till Monday and then I think maybe I will find it over the weekend....dilemma.

CindyS

Bob & Muffintop said...

Add me to the chorus of thankful voices that Jr. is ok.

I must say though, that I'm dismayed to think that there are people out there completely finished w/Christmas cards & shopping & wrapping & Thanksgiving isn't here yet!!!