Gotta Love Super Bowl Sunday!

At 10:06 pm last night my youngest son called. I answered, "Booyah" because I was sure he was calling in reference to the just ended Super Bowl Game. Packers won, yay! Instead I hear these ominous words.

"I'm going to tell you something you don't want to hear"

The words of doom for a mother. My heart sank. I knew that it involved either a car accident, a police officer, bodily injury, or a broken heart. It's amazing how many thoughts can go through a persons head in just a matter of seconds.

We had just talked to him earlier in the day and no reference whatsoever was mentioned in regards to a girl-interest so I immediately marked off that option.

He told us all the plans the school had for students to watch and celebrate the Super Bowl on campus so I was pretty confident I could eliminate the car accident and police options.  This left me with .....

bodily injury.

I was correct ... and totally not surprised because he is, after all, a male child. You mix boys, football, tv, food, and toss in the word party ... it's to be expected that the odds are pretty good you can also add in "injuries"

Apparently he had a suffered a pretty deep gash on his arm and everyone was in agreement he needed stitches. His friends had poured peroxide on the wound (ouch!) and wrapped it in gauze. And now they were headed to the ER at the UT Medical Center. He was just calling to tell me what was going on.

At this point I have to admit I had a very-bad-mom reaction. I didn't ask how deep is the cut? How bad is it bleeding? Do I need to jump in the car and race up there? No, this mom said "I hope you have enough money in your checking account to pay for this!"

Ack! Do you think I qualify for the Lamest Mom award?

I reminded him to make sure he had his insurance card with him and told him to keep me updated. I also reminded him to warn his friends that sometimes, faced with severe pain and/or threat thereof, he is prone to passing out (it's a family thing). I then hung up the phone, turned on the TV and to watch Hawaii 5-O.

I don't know if I was in shock or just numb from all the bad-news phone calls I've received over the last couple of days. Maybe I should just be proud of myself that I didn't get hysterical.

We did text back and forth a couple of times while he was waiting and he sent me this photo of how it  looked prior to being seen in the ER  


Around 1am I got a message they were not going to do stitches, but rather just glue and tape him back together. Even modern medicine is going all McGyver on us! Or would that be Frankenstein?

His roommate, Ben, was kind enough to post  a video on Facebook showing him being treated. Andrew's arm video  It was good to see that he appeared to be holding up quite well. And for the record, this is one of the many reasons why I love modern technology. Back when I was in school my mother would have just had to take my word for it that everything was ok. Now, I can see it for myself!

pouring the glue on

I think I counted nine or ten tape strips

 
I laughed at the part in the video where they were discussing some red marks on his arm. Apparently when they put the gauze on the gash they secured it with electrical tape. I guess when you're in college you just use whatever is handy. I'm also pretty sure ripping that tape off hurt just as much as the cleaning and dressing of the wound. 

Andrew was also quick to point out in the video, a bruise that one of his friends had given him earlier. Ah, what is life without friends to beat you up and then take you to the hospital in your time of need?

Anyway, I very thankful that everything turned out all right and it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I've also instructed all family members that I am DONE taking phone calls that contain the following words:

                    hospital, emergency, pain 

From here on out we're only talking about rainbows, and flowers, and cute cuddly kittens....and two weekends from now when my baby boy man-child comes home and I get to see the scar for myself.