1 bag of Shockers Sweetarts - $ .50

6 hour trip to the ER - $50+

Lesson learned from climbing the lockers at Tae Kwon Do - PRICELESS

So, 6 hours and 2 stitches later, the Prato family was finally able to climb in bed and go to sleep. Apparently, our little Hannah was injured climbing the lockers to retreive candy that Luis bought her before class started. I might add that we have just recently spent $300 on 1/4 of Hannah's mouth due to her rotten teeth from all the candy this child consumes (we're having to make 4 trips to the dentist total for all the work that needs to be done!). I have never seen a child eat so much sugar before. Both Tae Kwon Do and candy are 2 HUGE issues with Luis and I ... we always fight over these 2 issues so you can imagine the things that we argued about while waiting to have her wrist sown up. Anyway, the locker that Hannah chose to hide her candy in was apparently at the top and no one is really sure how she climbed up them. As she was retrieving her candy, there must have been something sharp exposed that she cut herself on. I have a friend that works in the ER so I called Andrew to see if he was working. I really thought that since he was there, we would be in and out in a jiffy. Boy, was I wrong!! We got there at 640pm, weren't seen until 1045pm and then discharged and on our way home at 1230am. And we were considered VIPs!! We hadn't eaten supper either so we just about bought Taco Bell out of food. Carrie - I'm not really sure I've eaten much Taco Bell since Ridgecrest days! If I haven't mentioned in previous blogs, Hannah is quite the DRAMA QUEEN!! As soon as we left the house, when she started asking what would happen at the hospital, I turned from mommy into child life specialist. We told her truthfully what was going to happen ... needles and all. We even prepared her for a Tetanus shot because we figured she'd get one of those too. I even had Hannah grab her favorite stuffed animal and her DS Lite for distraction while the stitches were going in. Everything was going great until the RN came in for the Tetanus shot. Hannah FREAKED OUT! I have NEVER in all my 6 years of Child Life seen such a fit. She was hitting the RN and screaming for her to "get away from me!". Luis and I had to finally hold her down while the RN gave the shot. Luis and I were shocked. I'm telling you, this came out of no where! So then the doctor comes in to start the stitches. And again, Hannah freaked out. This from the girl who had just commented about the c-shaped needle being "cool". So we finally get home, and of course, neither one of Hannah's arms work. She threw a fit when Luis tried to help her undress ... she couldn't raise up her arms to get her shirt off (injury to left wrist and tetanus in right arm). By the time that we got her in bed and got into bed ourselves, it was about 2am. Luis got mad at me when we finally got settled in bed and I got the giggles just thinking about how dramatic Hannah was being. He thinks that I wasn't being very sympathetic but when the crying comes with no tears, I'm a little skeptical about her being in that much pain.

This afternoon, we went to the Tae Kwon Do studio to get their insurance information and OF COURSE, they don't have insurance! Seriously! Master Kim reminded me of the release that we signed releasing him of all responsibility should injuries occur. I kindly reminded him that Luis' mother is the one that did that without mine or Luis' knowledge. She signed Hannah up without talking to either one of us ... that's why this issue is a big problem for us. She and Hannah showed up at the house one afternoon with Hannah in her fighting suit and my MIL yelling "SURPRISE" when I answered the door! Needless to say, I was not very happy. Anyway, I told Luis tonight that I am not comfortable with Hannah being at this studio if there is no responsibility on their part for injuries. He thinks I'm overreacting but what happens when Hannah kicks or hits something wrong and ends up with a broken bone. I don't know if it's normal for places like this to be a "play at your own risk" or not. Master Kim told me he would carry insurance, but it's too expensive. I guess we'll see what happens!