Okay... this has not been a good week for my sweet Nathan. First, his glove was stolen earlier this week, and today he was out in the backyard playing catch with his older brother and he completely missed the ball. It hit his nose and after two-and-a-half hours in the ER with x-rays included, the diagnosis is his nose is broken.

It is SO swollen, that they didn't want to do anything to it. They put in a referral to the ENT/Head & Neck department and they are supposed to call me on Monday to come in next week after the swelling has subsided to see if it needs to be reset or not. PLEASE PRAY THAT IT WON'T NEED TO BE RESET.

I do not handle this stuff well AT ALL. He came running into the house screaming, blood was everywhere. I took one look at his face and knew we needed to go to ER. My husband was napping and I just started yelling his name as I grabbed the nearest kitchen towel and ice pack. I was really concerned that he broke more than his nose, because the area under his right eye was/is extremely swollen. I mean, it swelled right away. The lady at emergency took one look at him and took him in right away -- and there was a room full of people waiting, too.

Wanna add in a little comedy? I had parked my van right in front of the ER because there wasn't any other nearby parking. It was a loading/unloading zone. So, after I got him settled a bit and the doctor came and looked at it and determined he wanted x-rays, I went to go move my van. Well, I could not find any parking in the parking lot. At this point, I finally let myself cry. I was not showing my son my concern, etc., ya know, as I was driving him to the ER and in there with him, but once I couldn't find parking, I just started bawling. So, after what felt like forever (and was probably just five minutes), I went out of the parking lot to see if I could find parking on the street. I had to park across the street near residential housing. I get out of my van and turn around to click the alarm thingy to make the doors lock and out of a nearby bush a BIRD flew right at me and started attacking my head!!!!!!!!!
I kind of ran off and the bird CHASED ME, attacking my head twice more!! I was screaming like a loonatic!!!!!!! Right now, the image of myself and what I probably looked like makes me laugh, but at the time I was so scared and freaked out and didn't know why this bird was doing this!! I finally got far enough or something and I was running with my purse over my head, and the bird left me alone finally.

So, NOW I was really a blubbering mess, running across the street to get back over the hospital. Some lady saw me and said, "Are you okay?" I have no idea if she saw the bird attacking me or not, but as I ran by her, I said I was okay. My son was scared and I hated leaving him alone and I was trying to hurry up and get back to him! I was SO out of breath when I got back to his bedside!!

When we left and walked back to my van... guess what? That bird flew out of the bushes and onto the top of my van! Nathan said, "Mom, my ice pack isn't cold anymore; I'll throw it at him." I said, "Just wait a minute..." and then the bird flew back into the bushes and my son and I raced to the van and got in!!!!!!!! What I think is that the bird must have been a momma bird protecting her nest or something. I don't know why else it would attack me like that!

So now... back to my son. Something sweet... as we were in the ER and he was lying on the bed with an ice pack on his face, he said to me, "I hope Ryan isn't worrying about me because I'm okay." Bless his heart. He felt bad that his brother was feeling bad about hitting him with the ball. He is one tough kid, my Nathan! Bless his heart. Oh, and when we were leaving he said to me, "Too bad my friends from school won't see this!" (Today was his last day at school).

When we were leaving the hospital, my son wanted to go watch his team play. When I first told him I was taking him to the ER, that was his first question, "You mean I can't play tonight?!?" Uh.......... NO! His team is undefeated so far and in the playoffs, and he was so upset that he was going to miss his game. So, when we were leaving he wanted to go watch the rest of the game. I called my dh and he said to go ahead and take him because it'd be no different sitting there with an ice pack than it'd be sitting on our couch with an ice pack. So, we went to the game. It was so neat... normally before the game, the kids huddle up and put their hands together and say, "Go Team!" or "Get some hits!" Or whatever. But tonight, my husband said that they did that and said, "Nathan!" My son got a kick out of that. So, he sat in the dugout with his team for the last hour of their game. And they won.

Now... here is the difficult part... this is my most active child. And doctor's instructions are that he is not to do anything active for 10-14 days! No sports (we have a basketball hoop in our backyard). His next playoff game is in nine days. I've already told him that he is going to miss that game... but my goodness... I don't know how I am going to keep him not-so-active in the next couple of weeks!! He's not a "sit-down" child, KWIM?

So, anyway..... that was my afternoon/evening. I'm tired.

And since I'm a avid scrapbooker... you know that I took a picture, right?   You can see the imprint of the baseball seam on his nose.  Bless his sweet heart.  Please pray for him if you think of it over the next few weeks.

~LISA