Welcome to 30 days with autism, the Halloween edition. (OK.. you got me. It's not Halloween anymore... but, what the heck, this is my life. I am somehow late for everything.) People looked at me kinda funny when my kids went to to their doors today asking for candy. :P Just kidding. So many people were anxious to get rid of their leftover candy. :) OK. Just kidding again. No one opened their doors. ;)
In all seriousness, I partly didn't write until now because I didn't want to jinx what I was going to write about. Not sure I'm quite free and clear yet either, but the stitches are out, so I am breathing a little easier. Also, I am so tired of feeling so sad. So I am warning you that I may try to make a few stupid little jokes, but it was no joking matter when it happened. At all. With that being said, are you ready for a frightening Halloween story... full of blood and gore, a white as a ghost mummy, and a scary situation?
Here it goes. My beautiful pumpkin Vicki loves holidays. So much. She loves everything about them: the decorations, the food, the fun, and of course, the Charlie Brown specials. (Just as an aside, she loves 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and one night, my husband and I asked her what character she liked from it the best. We named a few characters and when we got to PigPen, she stopped us and said, 'PigPen. Yes' Now, Vicki can remember lines from movies very well, and she does tend to repeat phrases she likes from them quite often, and sometimes I like to see how she associates the phrases to a particular situation. So she said, 'PigPen. Yes'. And then she said, in the most perfect little imitation voice, 'How'd ya know it was me?' The cutest thing ever. :)
So, where was I. Oh, yeah. My pumpkin loves holidays, and she especially loves Halloween (and Christmas and Easter...). My kids get really excited when it is time to carve the pumpkins. But Vicki is the only one of the 3 that really, really likes to help. Joey and Ally theoretically like doing the jack-o-lanterns, but they are very content to draw their faces out on paper as their contribution to the process. But not Vicki. Maybe it's the sensory aspect of the pumpkin goo, but she loves, loves, loves to help. I'll get most of the stuff scraped off the inside of the pumpkin and then she loves putting her hands in there and pulling out all of the stringy, icky pumpkin guts. She is so good at it too, and it is a job that I don't mind giving up. :)
Everything was going so well. And then you have that split second, that split second you wish you could have back. As soon as I saw that she had a knife, I screamed. She wasn't trying to do anything, she just saw my husband carving the pumpkin and a pumpkin piece of the carving had fallen into the sink. She just wanted to help. One thing about Vicki, she's fast. Another thing about Vicki is that she loves helping. And she copies what other people are doing, which in learning and acquisition is a plus. But in this instant it was not. Mummy turned white as a ghost. Vicki grabbed her hand. In general, I don't like blood. Especially my kids blood. It wreaks havoc with me. Another reason I love my husband and think we work so well together. He can handle blood. I cannot. I can handle poop and vomit. He cannot. That bodes well for us.
We decided to take Vicki to urgent care instead of the emergency room. I am so glad we did. The staff was amazing there. It took 4-5 of us to help Vicki while the doctor stitched her hand. I don't want to go into the nitty gritty... but I just want to make a few points. 1. The doctor was amazing. I'm sure it was not the most ideal situations to be put in, but he took the situation in stride and got on his knees in front of Vicki, pulled a light over and went to work. As hard as we all worked to calm Vicki and hold her so he could stitch her hand... I would have been shaking. Well, I was shaking. And sweating. He was so calm. 2. The nursing staff was amazing. They all talked to Vicki and told her what was going to happen, even as she was screaming and thrashing around. They talked her through it. 3. My husband is amazing. He holds Vicki and calms her so well. And she is 5' 1 and 1/2 inches tall and almost 130 pounds now. It's not an easy task. 4. I am thankful for my phone and data plan and You Tube and the 'Barbie Girl' video. We were all singing it, Vicki, Daddy, Mommy, the nurses and the doctors. Come on you know you want to too... 'I'm a Barbie Girl in the Barbie World. Life in plastic, it's fantastic.' Thankfully Vicki doesn't get all the lyrics. :) In fact, as an aside... Vicki sings: 'Come on Barbie, let's go potty... oh, oh, oh...' It's cute. 5. Vicki is amazing. That should have been #1. Now, I'm sure no one enjoys getting stitches. This was Vicki's first experience. 4 stitches in her left hand and another less severe cut that required 6 steri-strips to close. She did not enjoy it. I don't know of anyone who does. But once she started processing what was happening and she got the numbing shot... she settled down a little bit. She even wanted to watch the doctor stitch her up.
We learned a lot of things through this ordeal as well. Vicki is so, so very strong. Both physically and emotionally. I can't say enough about her. It's little things that we had to do... that I didn't have preset on her visual schedule. How can you preset these things. Life happens. Accidents happen. You can't plan for everything although I certainly try. The little things... like unwrapping her bandages for the first time and getting bacitracin on her cut. First time, not so good. Second time, much better. Third time, she just about wanted to do it herself. Vicki liked her hand wrapped, which I am so very thankful for. I could fill up pages and pages of things that have happened in the past that were so very, very hard. Even just leaving a band-aid on her body was immensely difficult. If she would get a mosquito bite, she would pick at it and pick at it. Vicki knows her body, and if there was something- some cut or scratch- that didn't belong, she didn't want it. But this time, I think she took comfort in the bandages. So we made them very pretty and colorful for her. And that third night, she said, 'Boo-boo band-aid' and held her hand out for us. And she didn't get upset when I wrapped her hand in a garbage bag when she would get a bath. I would demonstrate it and hold my arm up in the air. No wet. Keep it dry. Arm up. She was amazing. Oh, and strawberry ice cream has magical powers. :)
After the 10 days were up, we were sweating again thinking about taking her to get her stitches out. My husband took off work and by some miracle, the same doctor was working. And it was just myself and my husband and the doctor for the most part. Oh, and Barbie Girl. And a promise of strawberry ice cream. Vicki did very well, all things considered. And the poor little girl had to endure the doctor picking her stitch that had laid down in her cut out... :( So a little more blood and soreness. :( But nothing that a Charlie Brown band-aid and ice cream couldn't fix. We are still wrapping her hand even though the stitches are out. Until there is nothing there she can pick at, I think it's best. I'm a wee bit nervous that Vicki won't want to not have it bandaged, but I'm sure she'll handle it just fine. There will be a scar. On Vicki's hand. And on mommy's heart... I wish I was quicker or anticipated her move. I wish, I wish... As a parent, I just want to take all of my kids hurt and owies away. I am so very thankful though, that it wasn't worse. When I think about how bad it could have been, I get sick to my stomach.
So as I said before, I was hestitant to write too soon... If you recall, Vicki has had some potty issues at bedtime on and off, for the last few years and especially the last few months. And like I said, it could have ben so much worse. I don't think I slept much while her stitches were in. I watched her monitor at night like a hawk. Even though she was on antibiotics, I couldn't imagine Vicki smearing at night and getting it around her stitches. I don't even want to go there, and am so glad I didn't have to.
So there you have it. My frightening Halloween story. It all ended well. We came home after Vicki got her stitches and finished our jack-o-lanters. Vicki dressed up like Annie for Halloween the next day - red hair and all - and went trick-or-treating. She got lots of treats. And, of course, watched Charlie Brown again.
Just wanted to leave you with a few lines from Annie that I thought were appropriate for this post...
I don't need anything but you!
You've wrapped me around
That cute little finger. (get it... she cut her finger)
You've made life a song .....
You've made me the singer!
And what's the bathtub tune
You always "Bu-Bu-Boo?" (reminds me of her saying boo-boo bandaid)
Bu-Bu-Bu
Anything but you
Yesterday was plain awful (umm, yep..)
You can say that again
Yesterday was plain awful
But that's
Not now
That's then.
xoxo... until next time...
