Road Rash...and Other Viruses

So, my husband leaves for a trip to Latin America on Sunday afternoon. All is quiet on the home front until I hear the backdoor open and turn to see my son, covered in blood from the knees down. He caught a terrible road rash, it would seem, while playing football....in the street....while wearing shorts. Hmmmm, funny how those viruses can sneak up on you in the midst of playing. So, instead of a nice quiet dinner together, I spent the next hour discovering and bathing and bandaging his wounds. His knees took the brunt of it, but his elbow was nicely skinned as well. He was being very brave about it, while I was trying hard not to hyperventilate at all the blood and missing skin.

So, Monday morning, which is typically a difficult morning with the three of us sleepily bumping into each other and tripping on cats, was made even more interesting by the subtraction of one adult to deal with breakfast, etc, and with the additional need to remove sterile pads (ouch! Don't do it so fast, Mom!) slooooooowly, cleanse wounds, reassure child that the antiseptic states in clear red letters on the bottle that it is a "no-sting" formula while he is whimpering in pain, replace sterile pads, try to find an area where there is actual skin onto which I can put tape, then wrapping it all in Ace bandages to prevent the sterile pads from falling off during the day at school.

He made it through the day with Ace bandages intact, but arrived home with another virus: a cold. Tuesday morning, the ritual was repeated, sans help from far-away hubby, and, looking from the pulpy knees to the dripping nose, I decided to keep him home. Wednesday morning, his knees had swelled up like balloons, but I said he should go to school anyway (after all, high school counts, I told him). He slowly limped toward the door, saying it hurt to put weight on one leg, came back to blow his nose, looking so miserable that I relented and kept him home again. Took him to the doctor as well, as my husband and I didn't believe him when he came in that same back door, almost a year ago now, and said he thought he broke his leg....playing football....in the dark....on Friday the 13th....which happened to be his 13th birthday. Lucky for us that, this time, the doctor thought the swelling was just due to the extensive bruising and subsequent swelling, exacerbated, perhaps, by the cold virus which causes joints to ache.

Long story short: I've been working on a necklace I love, featuring a handforged sterling silver chain and another one of those gorgeous facetted whiskey quartz nuggets, but... well, viruses have intervened and I haven't had a chance to finish it. Maybe I should develop a taste for whiskey after all: I heard it has marvelous antiseptic properties!