Priceless Peace of Mind

After dance class my kids plus Josh and Rachel like to play in an abandoned part of that strip mall where the studio is located. Mostly they run up and down playing tag. It's really nice because they can be free to run, and there's no people or traffic on that side so we're not disturbing anyone.

Today something possessed Tessa to pick up a broken piece of glass beer bottle off the sidewalk. Shudder, cringe! I saw her right away and told her to put it down. We gave the usual parent speel...you'll cut your hand, it's very dirty, never ever...etc.

What I didn't know was that she HAD cut her hand. Apparently such a small cut that she didn't notice. When I was putting her in the car like 10 minutes later I noticed her hand was covered in blood.

At first I freaked out...you're bleeding, WHERE are you bleeding? Unaware of her own injury she freaked a little too. At first she told me it was her leg or her foot or maybe her broken nose. When I cleaned away the blood I saw the tiniest cut on her finger. From the stupid dirty beer bottle. Nice.

I tried calling our doctor but his office was already closed for the day. I tried calling my husband but he was in meetings. I asked my Mom but she wasn't sure...does she need a tetanus shot or what? Is this a big deal or no?

This is one of those moments I wish I had a smart phone and I would have just googled it. If I had done that I would have found out that Tessa got tetanus as part of her regular immunizations at age 2.

But something within me can't justify having both a smart phone AND an iPad. That just seems like a bit much. My phone can make calls and that's about it. Jeremy's been wanting to get me an iPhone, and this incident might give his arguement just the foothold it needs.

Anyway, we decided to stop by Urgent Care on the way home.

I should note that Tessa was a little upset but also mostly excited by all of this. We were ditching our plans to go to the grocery to go to a special doctor who would see Tessa right away. She kept telling Charley..."It's MY turn to be sick, the doctor wants to see ME".

I kind of wish the doctors at Urgent Care would have been kind enough to just tell me up front...if she's current on immunizations then she doesn't need tetanus and you can just go home. But no they had to put me through the whole process AND charge the $20 co-pay just for a fresh bandaid and a snow white sticker.

Tessa was all in good spirits at the office, telling the nurses outright "I hurt my fingern and I need a shot" (yes that's an N on the end of the word, that's how she pronounces it).

So when the doctor her that she did not, in fact, need a shot my little girl BURST into tears exclaiming "but I WANTED a shot for my FINGERN!".

I think the doctor was a little befuddled by that reaction, as was I. It may be a sad statement that this incident made her feels so loved and special, even if that did include sharp instruments.

Right before bed we were talking about it and she told me...'"You were right Mommy, I should not ever touch glass. Thank you for taking me to the doctors and getting a new bandaid for my fingern. I will never touch glass. God is going to heal me when I sleep."

At the end of the day I was out $20, never did get my groceries and even broke my no taco bell mandate on the way home. I'm also a little worried about Tessa's tendencies toward masochism. But, thanking the Lord that all is well.