Christmas concussion

** WARNING: BLOODY PICTURES BELOW. CLICK AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM** ;)

The last day before winter break is usually very festive and fun at school. I rode Sherm to THS, panniers full of gifts, holiday movies and yummy treats. I sang - out loud - "Santa Claus is coming to town" as I pedaled to work early so I could change into my special holiday outfit before the staff breakfast.

It was supposed to be a very fun day. Then I got a call from Mom.

I was standing at Eryn's desk in the library, just a few yards from the food and festivities, when Mom's cell number popped up on caller ID. She told me she wasn't going to make it to the breakfast because she had an accident. Her voice was shaky, groggy and a bit slurry. She told me she'd been out on her morning run and was "in a dark place I shouldn't have been." Several very scary things ran through my head before she said she had tripped on a curb and badly cut her face. Dad was driving her to the hospital right then.

For me, family comes before anything else. So I quickly took care of some obligations at work, signed out and left to get Mom some clean, dry, warm clothes to take to the hospital. 

Aunt Vicki, the ER doc, was already in the room when I got to Providence Medical Center in Portland. Mom was bandaged and awaiting X-rays and stitches:

Mom was in fairly good spirits, though she definitely had a concussion. She was very out of it and processing slowly.

Without her glasses, Mom is legally blind. She can see some colors and shapes but not much else. With her glasses, she's corrected to 20/20. But where there are no lenses, she has no peripheral vision at all. She can't see her feet without looking down, and sometimes she trips over obstacles she never knew were there... like curbs in the dark morning.

Because of her strong correction, Mom's lenses are very thick around the edges. Apparently, she went down face first, and the lens punched right into her cheek.

Warning: bloody picture below...
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Fortunately it was a clean cut - deep, but clean - and with no gravel or asphalt to dig out. It was like she tangled with a scrapbooking paper punch!

After some numbing shots that might have hurt worse than the fall, Vicki sewed her up with two deep and seven surface stitches. Very clean:

Bruising came quickly but also disappeared quickly:

Now she's left with a clean scar that you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it. Nice work, Doctor Sands!

The concussion was the biggest worry since we didn't want permanent brain damage ;) It was hard to make her rest, especially with holiday activities around every corner. But she was a good patient and is doing much better now!

For Christmas, Santa brought her a headlamp and a running flashlight for future workouts! :)