Angel had an accident ice skating today.  Which no doubt is a fairly common thing in some parts of the world but in BrisVegas where the outside temp was roughly 37degrees today… ice skating aint exactly a big sport.  I mean Brisbane has approximately 2 million residents these days and exactly 2 ice skating rinks.

I thought he’d be fine going ice skating with a bunch of Canadians who’ve been ice skating since the time they could walk, and I expected he’d come home with a wet butt and maybe a handful of bruises, but I certainly wasn’t expecting a call from Mr K saying he was following an Ambulance with MY Small Child in it to the Mater Children’s Emergency Ward.  Apparently Angel was doing great, skating well and spinning about and having a ball with relatively few falls and mishaps … relative that is for a Queensland kid that is who is more comfortable at the beach than at an ice rink.

Anyway, he was skating along with Grandpa behind him when he lost his balance… as you do – when you strap steel blades or wheels to your feet… and took a tumble.  Grandpa, who has been skating since Methuselah was a boy and has spent much of his adult life playing ice hockey in a rough-as-guts pub league up Vancouver Island way, tried to evade crashing into the Small Child while he was in the middle of the whole falling-on-your-arse process.  Somehow in the middle of all that flailing of limbs (in a way I still can’t picture in my head), Angel’s face came into contact with Grandpa’s recently sharpened ice skates slicing down the left side of his face from above his eye and down his cheek.

Well I did the predictable thing and high tailed it to the hospital (like some sort of masochist I had Big Sal drive me there…. she’s absolutely one of the worst drivers I know and certainly not the best person to be driving a currently traffic phobic and exceedingly distressed Borys to the hospital).  After a terrifying drive into town, I arrived to see one very upset little Angel with a gash above and below his eye that was about one centimeter wide.  It was so hard to not let him see how worried I was.

We had to wait quite a while to be seen which I guess is par for the course at a public hospital, but the doctors were excellent and Dr Gail who treated him had a bedside manner that was second to none – she was fantastic.  At first they thought he might need stitches but once the wound was cleaned up properly they could see it was a very clean cut so they were able to Super Glue the cut closed.  He’s going to have a scar, but hopefully it won’t be as bad as it would have been if some poor overworked sleep deprived public hospital intern had sutured his cuts.

So I feel like I’ve been put through the emotional wringer today –
Absolutely frantic with worry:
sharp ice skate… hospital… Small Child’s little face… ambulance  
Distraught in traffic: 
worst driver in Bris… also stressed… in a hurry
Back pain out the wa-hoo: 
ridiculously tense… no lunch…. too many pills… light headed…
Distressing treatment:
syringes… swabs… Small Child crying in pain clutching his Jedi figurine
Eventual relief:
no stitches… bravery stickers… gratitude for Dr Gail…  and the obligatory Happy Meal on the way home.

And now I’m positively drained and it’s rounding on 1am…..  but I am so wired I can’t even think of sleeping.  I need a hug.
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