Fun in the ER...

I told you yesterday that Dan and Gwen are staying with us for a few days. Well, Dan isn't really into shopping, and as you all know, I LOVE to hit the thrift stores, so today, Gwen and I left for a day of Goodwills and the like. It's Dan's birthday, so I felt a tad guilty about keeping his gal out all day, but not guilty enough to turn down a request to see the local thrift stores?

She and I hit the ground running, making our way to the Goodwill Clearance Center (the mere fact that Goodwill has a CLEARANCE is just divine!) Of course, it was a good time to talk about what we can expect in Paraguay, and how I can get prepared over these next few weeks (we're down to less than two months now....) We'd only been there about a half-hour--not long in thrift store time--when I got a call from my Mom. She was taking the girls ice skating for a couple hours, getting in some quality grandparent time. That is, until Camille fell and ran over her own thumb with the skate blade, necessitating a trip to the local emergency room.

We rushed over there (thankfully, it was less than five miles from both of our locations to the ER) and took a look at the damage. Sliced deep right across the knuckle of her thumb, bleeding like a stuck pig. Because of the location, it was really tough to get the bleeding to stop. After about 45 minutes in the waiting room, my mom took Caroline and Gwen back to the store. (Turns out that Gwen was able to find some treasures there, including several things for the folks in Paraguay. There's a new baby on the way with one of the local families involved in the ministry there, and there are 19 kids in the first children's home, so she found some things for them. I do love pay-by-the-pound!!)

Meanwhile, Camille and I hunkered down for what turned out to be a three-hour wait (similar to the "three-hour tour" of Gilligan fame). Fearing we'd never get "off the island," we left despite the promises of the staff that it'd be just a bit longer. Camille was most happy with the decision to skidaddle, as she had been dreading the numbing injection that comes before stitches. Truth is, she had been holding her thumb so tightly to stop the bleeding, that it had already begun to seal itself back up anyway. I figured I could do with that glue-stuff, the same thing they were planning to do with the stitches. So after a trek to the local drug store loaded down with first aid junk, we patched her up and she's as good as new (except for the occassional Advil and the splint that keeps her from bending that thumb.) Don't bother to send me hate mail about leaving before we saw the dr... we've always favored self-treatment when possible. I reminded Camille that my granddad used to give stitches when needed, minus anesthesia, using fishing line. She asked if I was going to try that. Lucky for her I'm not THAT brave. ;)

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