Naomi's Thanksgiving adventure

True to form, Naomi was ready for our guests and all the fun it would involve on Saturday. After a huge lunch, a bunch of us headed down to the corniche (the walkway by the sea) to let the kids run off energy, and to let the adults walk off lunch so we could get ready for dinner. We hadn't been there five minutes when Naomi took a face dive into the concrete (trying to keep up with the big kids playing football..) and came up with a bloody chin. Jason and I scrambled leaving Abbey and Maddie with the rest of the crew who played for another hour at least, and we headed to the ER with Naomi. Strangely it wasn't bleeding a whole lot but I could tell right away it was going to need stitches. So, with Naomi waling the whole time, "I don't want to see Dr. Mounla. I don't want to fall down! (too late...)" we took the five minute drive up to the hospital. All things considered, it could have been a lot more of an ordeal. We actually got in and out in just over an hour. Oh, and Papa- you will be glad to know that throughout the whole process, I came nowhere near fainting (although I did have one minor incident of giving myself a little mental pep talk when they were giving her lidocaine to numb her chin). But I'm getting ahead of myself! One of our biggest frustrations with the hospital here is that they absolutely will not give you any care until you have paid, period. You have to pay for each thing as it comes up. So, for example, I walk in holding my bloody child (while Jason is parking), they look at her, give me a slip of paper and send me to the cashier. I told them Jason was coming and could I please sit down in a room and let him pay. So that was acceptable, and Jason paid when he came in. So then we were clear for the real doctor to come in to examine her and he verifed that, yes, she would need stitches. Here's another bill sir. Please go pay this and we can proceed... Anyway, through this whole process, Naomi has about worn herself out screaming. She actually started falling asleep. I'm sitting there singing "Jesus Loves Me" to her, and this Lebanese man (probably in his 70s) sticks his head in our room, and says, "I love that song, I used to sing that when I was three years old and went to church in America in Oklahome". Unfortunately, I was only able to smile at him and not expound anymore on the conversation because Naomi woke up enough to realized someone else had come in the room and started waling again "I not see the Dr. Mommy, I not fall down. They not touch my chin." etc. etc. Well now for the fun part. In comes the doctor and his entourage (we are at American University Hospital which is a teaching hospital). One of the guys had a sheet folded longways which I quickly realized they were going to use to papoose Naomi. I laid her down on the bed and he quickly wrapped her up so that only her head was showing (and her little red crocks on her feet). Well, at this point the waling changed a little bit, "Mommy, where are my arms? ". Talk about traumatic! Not only did they tie her down with a sheet, they then wrapped tape around her fastening her little body even tighter to the bed. Then they put the drapes over her head and around her chin so that all that was showing was her little face (and her crocks). The worse part was the lidocaine shot to deaden her chin to get ready for the stitches. After that was done, she actually pretty much fell asleep for the rest of the procedure. She would occasionally open her eyes to make sure she could still see my face (they let me stay in thank goodness) and then she would drift back to la la land. THe whole thing took about 10 minutes once they got started- two stitches on the inside and three on the outside. Unfortunately after they finished (while she was still taped down to the bed) she started throwing up. Good grief. That was a mess but minor compared to everything else once we got her untaped and upright. Afterwards, she looked at me and said, "mommy, I spilled up". As we left she actually smiled and waved at the doctors. In the car on the way home, I asked her what happened and she said, "UMMMM, I broke my mouth"