emergency room visits

Dear Grown Up Piper,

Once upon a time in kindergarten you fell down. You might remember it. You tripped over Daniel’s foot and landed on your chin. It was a gaping cut. Your poor teacher was traumatized. An ER visit later, you were the proud bearer of four stitches.

A week later you fell again. You busted open the SAME stitches. I swear it’s true. Daniel’s foot was nowhere in sight. You were running in your socks during P.E. Even though I write fiction, I can’t make stuff like this up. Again, back to the doctor. They recommended more stitches.

Here’s the part that you may now be blaming me for. I didn’t let them stitch you back up. There was no medical reason to do so. New stitches would have been purely cosmetic. I did take you to the eye doctor for a full exam. I also had your hearing and ears checked. I also took you to your pediatrician. You’re fine. You’re silly. You bounce around a lot. You fall. You seem rather resilient.

If all of your supermodel dreams have been crushed by now and if you’ve been turned away by potential suitors because of the scar underneath your chin that no one can see, it’s my fault. Blame me. When you’re a mom, you might understand.

Love,

Mom

Piper is a very brave girl. She even has a badge Sissy made her to prove it. See:

How did she earn her brave girl status? Four stitches in her chin. A trip to the ER. Again.

Piper is prone to accidents. I usually just glue her back together. I blogged about my preferred brand of kid glue here. But not even my superglue could mend this nasty gape. Her pediatrician took one look at it and shook his head. Nope. The Emergency Room.

She hardly shed a tear. I told Piper she didn’t have to be so brave. “I know,” Piper said, “I just am.”

I know what you’re thinking. What crazy thing was Piper doing to bust open her precious face? Hanging from the monkey bars? Playing with broken glass? No. Walking. She was walking across the floor in her classroom. Dangerous, right? She was so excited to show Mrs. A her work that she didn’t notice Daniel’s foot hanging out in the aisle. She hit so hard Mrs. A was convinced she wouldn’t have any teeth left. A concussion was mentioned. Poor baby. Poor teacher.

She even got a cool plastic bracelet from the hospital WITH HER NAME ON IT.

“Don’t cut off my bracelet, Mom, whatever you do,” Piper said.

“You want to keep wearing it?”

“Of course. The other kids will think it’s so cool. Then I’ll get lots of attention for my stitches. Kids love that stuff.”