How Traumatic

A couple of months ago, Jade came home from school with a wound on the end of her thumb. Over the next couple of weeks I became increasingly frustrated. Every time it wasn't bandaged and she'd bump it, it would bleed like nothing I'd ever seen. I got pretty tired of cleaning blood off of her clothes, the furniture, carpet, etc. (Hydrogen Peroxide works great for cleaning out blood by the way:) I kept watching it, and trying to be dilligent about keeping it clean and bandaged with antibiotic ointment, but it never got better. In fact, it started to grow into this painful bump. It looked like a blood blister of sorts... with many chambers, so I tried to let some of the blood out, thinking it would deflate some. It didn't. So, I finally gave in and took her to a doctor. He sent us to Primary Chidren's Dermatology Clinic. They took one look and quickly diagnosed it as a pyogenic granuloma. Apparently they are fairly common. Which is strange, since every person I've talked to or who has seen it has been baffled. I felt pretty crummy for waiting as long as I had to get it taken care of. By the time we went to have it removed it was causing her a lot of discomfort. She didn't want anyone touching it. Knowing what it was like to talk her into a flu shot, I left Logan and Aeris home with my mom so I could give her my undivided attention. Thank goodness I had planned for it to be traumatic. She fought so hard against the nurse as she tried to apply some numbing cream that when it came time for the actual procedure they brought in three doctors, a nurse, and a child therapist (whose job was to offer distractions). In the end, I had my arms wrapped completely around her upper body and got her talking about Aeris and blowing bubbles (a GREAT idea since she couldn't blow AND scream at the same time). Jade, who I have tried so hard to teach good manners, told the doctor in very clear vocabulary just how much she hated her and how she was NEVER EVER coming back again!