Melissa and I are still processing Friday’s events. Not to mention, Caleb. I’m not the kind to view a freak accident as simply a random event to put behind us as quickly as possible. I tend to look for some meaning. Some lesson.About 4:45 late Friday afternoon, Caleb (14) grabbed a bag of trash to carry to the burn pile down the path behind our house. Melissa warned him to be careful because there was a large, broken mason jar in the bottom of the bag. Halfway to the burn pile, Caleb jumped over a mud puddle and the bag swung against his right leg at knee level with enough force to tear through the flesh, When he looked down to see his leg bloodied and a bit of his knee cap visible, Caleb dropped the bag and came running home in a panic.The culprit:
(When I examined the jar later, I could find no trace of blood on it – the slice had been swift and the edge razor-sharp.)While Melissa sought to stop the blood flow, Johnny caught me in my classroom a couple of blocks’ distance from the house as my last English student was leaving. “You have a problem,” he said. “Caleb hurt his knee.” As a parent, I typically hear “hurt knee” as “bad scrape”, but when I picked up on the urgency in Johnny’s voice, I grabbed my bag and ran to the house.Caleb was sitting on the front sidewalk with his leg extended, a blood-soaked washcloth covered his right knee. A small crowd of friends, neighbors and siblings had gathered around him by the time I arrived and Dr. Rodney was walking away from Caleb, heading to the clinic. There was no need to discuss whether or not stitches were required!Johnny helped me lift Caleb into the back of the pickup and I drove as gently as possible down the path to the clinic where Dr. Rodney and a couple of assistants were already waiting with a wheelchair. They rolled Caleb to an empty room and lifted him onto an exam table and immediately got to work.Johnny cradled Caleb’s head since the table was so short. And Melissa took her post where she could offer words of encouragement – without having to witness exactly what was happening with the knee. I was holding Caleb’s right foot against my stomach to keep it steady as Dr. Rodney worked. I must say, Caleb handled the whole episode with a great deal of courage and calmness, but I think in this picture he is smiling only at the sight of me with my camera out.
As Dr. Rodney examined the wound, we were relieved to hear that no tendons seemed to have been severed. Caleb flinched a bit as the four shots of anesthetic were injected, but otherwise only requested that we find something to talk about in order to distract him. We made small talk about Star Wars Episode 7, which at that moment was downloading to his brother’s computer. It was the first day the movie was available on Itunes and all the kids, but especially Caleb, were looking forward to FINALLY seeing it later that evening.As for me, I couldn’t take my eyes off Dr. Rodney’s project. The cut was easily over four inches long and at least an inch deep. Muscle had to be stitched before the skin could be closed up. (You know I took pictures, so scroll down quickly through the next two pics if these sorts of things make you squeamish!)
Caleb told me not to post the following picture on Facebook, but he didn’t say anything about the blog. It cracked me up because all the worst was over – the knee has seven stitches and is freshly bandaged – but the last step was a tetanus shot and THIS is the face he makes.
Dr. Rodney personally wheeled Caleb back to the pickup, all patched up and ready to head home. No basketball or soccer for this kid for a while.
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