Last summer Adam predicted that we would take a trip to the ER before the end of the year. Well, he was off by 24 days. Last Sunday, after we loaned our only car (with the car seat) to Uncle To, Rohm fell off the couch and gashed her head open on a table. I frantically called Uncle To and then Jo hoping that one of them would answer. Meanwhile, Adam places Rohm on the kitchen counter and stops the bleeding. Through her tears she cries out “Jelly Beans.” Apparently when you’re 2 and you cut your forehead open, it’s really important to eat jelly beans. They kept her from crying so we got out the bowl of jellybeans and slowly started feeding them to her hoping they wouldn’t run out anytime soon.

Eventually, Jo calls us back and we inform her that she will have to drive Adam, Rohm, & me to the ER in her truck. So, we illegally pile into the cab of Jo’s truck and head off the hospital. This was the highlight of Rohm’s evening. Riding in Jo’s truck without a car seat leaves quite an impression on a 2 year old with a gigantic hole above her eye.

Sticking with the jellybean plan, we got more candy out of the machines in the waiting room and let Rohm carry on with her sugar high. It was, by far, the best distraction ever! Eventually, we make it to the back and wait forever. Finally, someone actually figures out that we’re there and need help. Nurse Mike comes in and explains to us what’s going to happen. They’re going to put a topical anesthetic on the wound and then they’ll wrap her up in a papoose and stitch her up. So I explain to Rohm that the nurse and doctor are going to fix her like when mom fixes things when they break.

Rohm did great. Nurse Mike wrapped her head up and then gave her a bubble gum sucker. After a while, the doctor and Nurse Barry come in with the papoose (a board with big flaps that Velcro over the child so they can’t squirm). I take one look at the papoose and think there is no way Rohm is going to get into that thing. Sure enough Nurse Barry tells her we’re going to wrap her up like a burrito and she climbs right in and starts to wrap herself up saying, “be a burrito” over and over until she is actually wrapped up like a burrito. So, I was completely wrong. Then Nurse Barry, mom, and dad pin Rohm down while Doctor Sands puts three stitches in Rohm’s forehead. She cried a little bit (and mom did too) but she was did a great job. I was a little shocked since I’m pretty sure I took the whole thing worse than she did! And Adam did a pretty good job keeping his cool the whole time too! When nurse Mike came in to discharge us, Rohm turns to him and yells “Fixed it!!” and then we got to go home And hopefully it will be a long, long time before we have to do that again!

Here’s a video of Rohm telling us about what happened: