It was after dinner. She was hanging out on her chair, drinking juice, watching tv. I was away for a split second when I hear terrified screaming. I run to her and her mouth is wide open, but silent. So you know a huge scream is about to happen. And when it does, so does the blood that pours out of her mouth. OMG. It was so scary. You are supposed to stay calm in those situations so you don't frighten them even more, but I couldn't contain it. I was all, "oh my God" over and over and over again.
She fell out of her chair and hit her mouth on something. She has minor cuts around her mouth but did a bit of damage to the inside of her mouth.
The first call I made was to my father-in-law, the dentist, to come over and examine her. The second call was to Mr. Ho, who was all curses and drove from Tysons to home in about 5 minutes in rush hour traffic.
FIL said she would be fine. And she was. The crying lasted about 5 minutes and she wanted to resume watching tv. Her lips were swollen but she was ok eating her popsicle, which I gave her to help with the swelling.
What a nightmare. They say kids are resilient and they are. But they are equally as fragile. My poor poor bebe. I just wanted to die right there. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt and was shell-shocked for about 48 hours.
You learn a lot about a person during emergency situations. How do you react? I notice I shut down verbally. I don't want to talk to anyone. It's hard for me to focus. I couldn't prioritize fast enough.
It reminded me of the time in elementary school when something happened to my dad. I'm not sure what the word for it is in English, but basically his entire body seized up and he couldn't move or speak. The ambulance had to come. I was so worried for my dad but my reaction was to turn on the television so I could block everything out. My mom yelled at me afterwards, wanting to know what the eff I was doing while my dad was in so much pain. I really couldn't explain it to her at the time. Basically, I couldn't deal with what was happening and I wanted it to go away. I shut down and shut out what was going on around me. I wanted to watch tv like it was just a normal afternoon, not an afternoon where my dad was sick and had to go to the hospital.
I don't think I would come out as a hero in any emergency/apocalyptic situation. As much as I would want to be, I don't think it's in me. Disappointing thought of the day.
The rest of the weekend was fine. Book club, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry. Mr. Ho did a lot of cooking - french toast, lobster rolls, tacos.
Off to bed now.
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