First Blood

Today Sara bled for the first time. No, not in the sense that she had to gather her belongings and go out in the woods for 7 days. In the sense that she fell on her face.

She and Iffy were playing around on the couch and she was standing on the back and fell, her face hit the back of the couch, which is hard with very little padding to speak of. She cut the inside of her mouth, and as mouth cuts tend to do, she bled a fair bit.

Let me say here, that I do not handle seeing blood very well. Even if Iffy shows me a speck of blood from an injury the equivalent of a paper cut, I get a funny feeling in my gut. Thinking about blood, talking about it, seeing it, kinda makes me feel funny. I once had to leave the room during First Aid class when we were talking about injuries that cause nosebleeds. I started feeling cold, clammy and pasty like I was going to pass out. On another occasion I was talking with two other women about periodontal surgery wherein gums were removed from one part of the mouth and put on another part of the mouth. I started feeling faint during this conversation as well and had to go sit down and leave the room. I think it's the whole "blood from the face/head" concept that creeps me out.

So when I heard the 'thud', the crying that followed, and the expletive that came out of Iffy's mouth with a tone of concern and slight fear, I of course freaked out. I HATE that moment after the kid falls and you pick her up, bracing yourself for what condition her face might be in. I had a funny feeling like my insides were going to fall out, and I was SO glad that Iffy was there to deal with it.

Really it was not a big deal. She was totally fine, it stopped bleeding in a couple minutes, after making a bunch of paper towels all bloody, and she went on with her day. I know someday I am going to have to deal with excessive bleeding by myself because Iffy will be at work. That is why I hover like an overprotective parent. I just want to avoid that whole scene.

I can skin any animal, poke around at roadkill, boil an animals head to get their skull. But blood coming out of someone's body, especially my little munchkin, is a totally different thing.