Monday, August 6, 2012

Bumper Bikes

Do you ever have parenting moments where in your brain you react calmly and cooly under pressure and emergencies yet in real life you aren't nearly as.....collected? Ya, I have these moments more often than not. A few weeks ago we had one of those occasions which showcased just how awesome I am NOT under pressure. Now after 4 (soon to be 5) kids, you don't jump up and FREAK out over every cut, scrape, fall and so on. You just don't. You can't. If I were to fly off the couch or drop the laundry the second one of my kids said "MOM!!! Matty's hurt! " or "Mom! Cody's bleeding!" I would literally be running around like a chicken with my head cut off with a 1st aide kit 24 hours a day. With 4 sons someone is always boxing, climbing a tree, falling off a bike, rolling down a hill, or full on WWE style fighting one another in the bedroom. Some of those kids, get up and tough it out and don't need...as much attention as others. My Michael on the other hand tends to need a little more attention when he's hurt or ill. So that being said this is what happened..lol
My kids don't currently have bikes here and thus don't have helmets. We don't have a yard and we don't have a garage, we have a storage unit in the basement and would have to have the bikes go up and down flights of stairs every day to be used so we've for now opted not to buy them. As Michael went out to play for the day I told him "No bikes!" As I found out the day before that he had been seen riding another childs bike with no helmet and was lucky I was letting him out to play at all if he wasn't going to be safe. Less than 45 minutes later a small child comes to the door and says "Um Mikey got hurt on a bike, can you come?" sigh.... "Is mikey bleeding? Can he walk?" "Um, ya he can walk, he's not bleeding".."Ok tell Mikey to come here please"....."Ok!! Bye!" and runs off..lol So I think to myself.. DRAMATIC! The last time Mikey "fell off a bike" he had scraped his knee limped home and had to be bandaged as if he were dieing, the second someone else wanted to play he ripped off the bandage and walked perfectly..lol so I didn't worry too much. There was that nagging feeling though so I tossed on some shoes and pulled my hair up, and was about to walk out when I saw Cody running towards the house frantic. SHIT! lol
See thats why I had that nagging feeling. ARG. So in over drive I waddle down the stairs, Aidan on my hip, and hussle to where I see kids heading, a cul de sac behind us I see a cluster of children and adults around a prone figure on the ground. CRAPPPPP !!! Why can't pregnant women run! As soon as I get to Mikey's side I lean over and see what looks like a softball under his eyebrow and a cut to his eyelid and a ghastly white skin tone. Now here is where you think you react well....NOPE. All I could do was say "WOW!!! WOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW....ohh woowwww baby..." Thank GOD for another set of Mothers there who saw the accident and were able to tell me what happened and keep me calm. Evidently another child wanted to play "bumper bikes" (self explanitory) and Michael opted not too, the child rammed him anyways sending Michael up a curb and face 1st into a fire hydrant (no helmet of course). It knocked him unconcious for a good minute and then he seemed to go into shock some, stating he had no pain, and felt fine but was cold and tired. These Mom's called the mps and ambulance and kept him from moving until I got there. Talk about FREKAING OUT! Look at that eye!
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After a long drive to the ER he was admitted for 2 days and spent over two weeks on bed rest, broke his orbit at the eyebrow and had a severe concussion.
Day 2
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My poor kid. I really felt so bad for him. 2 weeks of bedrest usually means a lot of tv, xbox, games and books....but with the headaches and his eye needing to be rested he wasn't allowed more than 1 hour per day of reading OR tv. So he was bored to tears! Thank heavens we own 6 of the 7 Harry Potter audiobooks on my ipod! He listened to all of them! He's doing really well now, still having headaches and his pupil is still bothering him when he constricts too fast so he has to wear sun glasses outside all the time and isn't allowed to watch too much tv or xbox. All of this over a dangerous bike game I didn't even know exisited! At least my son was smart enough to say no to playing, I just wish the other child had listened and that Michael hadn't been on someones bike without a helmet! HELMETS!!! Guess I better buy new ones since it seems my kids are going to ride with or without them!