When I saw blood, I HIT PANIC MODE

Its sad when in an Emergency type situation my toddler handles it more calmly than I do.


The hubs is on his last afternoon shift for the week, and my 7yr old is gone to her nanna's for a sleepover, so it was just me and the toddler tonight. I figured that while she played and watched tv, I would get caught up on the laundry that needed put on hangers. This part of the afternoon went off without a hitch. After many stops to refill a sippy cup or change Netflix to something else to watch, I finally got all mine and hubs laundry put away. Now, I figured I would put on a movie and sit with her while snacking on an apple. After cutting up her apple into sticks (thats how she likes them) I handed her the bowl then went to get a load of towels out of the dryer. She was sitting on the couch eating them & watching tangled, so I figured I would go fold the towels and put them away. It only took about 3 minutes to fold them, then I went into the hallway to put them up and she came up to me with her hand out saying she had a boo boo. I look down to see her hand had red stuff on it. For a moment, I thought she had played in her ketchup that was on the table from where i had fixed her french fries.  However, when the red stuff started to roll down her thumb and drip onto the floor, I felt my heart skip a beat. ~*~ PANIC MODE ~*~

What happened? Where was this blood coming from? It was all over her hand, from the top of her thumb all the way under into the palm of her hand. I picked her up and took her to the kitchen where I notice a long bladed knife laying on the floor next to a bunch of cut up apple pieces. SMDH at myself for not having KNIVES put up out of her reach. Scissors Yes, knives, NO!

I needed to see where all this blood was coming from so I took her to the sink and began to run cold water on her hand. This is when I saw the cut on her thumb. Every time I would pull it out of the water it would start pouring out again, within a second it was dripping into the sink. I grabbed a paper towel to put around her finger till I could get us back down the hall to get a wash cloth. It was bleeding so heavily that by the time I went 8 steps out of the kitchen and down the hall to the linen closet it had bled through the paper towel. THIS FREAKED ME OUT!

I knew there was no way she could ride in her car seat while I drove us to the nearest ER with her hand pouring blood that fast. I am known to go into panic mode pre-maturely so instead of calling 911 I chose to call my mother-in-law. She just happens to be a RN at Children's Hospital so I trust her judgement. She explained how traumatic it would be for a 3yr old to have to go through getting stitches and so she suggested to try to wrap it up with a band-aid and some gauze and medical tape to try to get it to clot on its own. As my luck would have it, and being in PANIC MODE, I couldn't find any thing other than a wash cloth and shipping tape. You bet your ass that's what I used! Madison was a trooper though. She never cried, never freaked out, as a matter of fact she pointed to the blood and said "what's that mommy?", as she took a finger from her other hand and touched the blood, then licked it off! Gross I know, but I was more worried about trying to get this bandaged up & She was more curious about the bright red liquid dripping than she was in me fixing her boo boo.

After getting it all taped up I finally got the call from the hubs and informed him of what was going on. He told me to keep in contact with him and that he would be home soon. I also kept contact with my mother in law. Madison kept saying her boo boo hurt so I gave her a small dosage of children's Tylenol and took her to sit on the couch to finish watching tangled to get both our minds off of the traumatic even that just took place. It worked for her, within 10 minutes she was fast asleep in my arms. For me, I kept looking at her finger just waiting for the blood to start seeping out of the bottom. To my surprise, I noticed the bottom of her thumb being a slightly pale blue color. Geez...damnit, trying to protect her I almost cut off the circulation to her thumb. So, with her sleeping I managed to get that bandage off, and get a fresh one on. It was still bleeding, just not as fast pouring out of the wound. It looked to be about a 1/4 inch long and a few centimeters deep. This time, I was at least able to find our medical tape. So the bandage does look somewhat more professional and less like some back woods redneck bandage. "There's nothing a little duct tape cant fix!" Or so I've heard! It's been 2 hours since this ordeal took place. I feel more at peace and she is still sleeping beside me. This is one more lesson learned to go in my book of  What NOT to do!

The way I see it. . . . Never underestimate the ability of a toddler to hurt themselves. I am ashamed that I kept the "dull " knives in a location within her reach.

Please, if you are reading this and you have knives in drawers too....PLEASE, Go Put Them Out OF your children's REACH!         I GOT LUCKY! This could have been MUCH worse!