"May you live in interesting times"

Eventful night in the Gaia household tonight.

Oceanus and Hyperion take showers together. It saves water, time and, frankly, energy. There has, of course, been horsing around in the shower which leads to mom and dad stomping in to the bathroom yelling at them to calm down. There have been slips and falls which have not been a big deal and not sufficiently scary enough for them.

Tonight it was a big deal and I think (hope) sufficiently scary enough for them.

Oceanus slipped and banged the back of his head really hard. Hyperion was already out of the shower and drying off. Mr. Gaia, his mom and I were all sitting out in the living room talking. We heard the fall but, like I said, he's fallen before and it's never been a big deal. For the first time tonight we didn't say "are you okay" we sighed and said "quit horsing around".

Hyperion came out of the bathroom hysterical. We go in to find Oceanus curled in the fetal position in a swirling pool of blood. I certainly freaked out. I gathered myself together realized Gaga could comfort Oceanus better than I could (it's a good thing I'm not a jealous woman, the bond between those two is extremely strong) left Mr. Gaia and Gaga in charge of Oceanus and took Hyperion into his room to dry off and get some clothes on.

Hyperion was really freaked. He kept saying "he's losing all his blood" and "I'm not ready to be an only child". I kept reassuring him that it really wasn't that much blood - the running shower water made it look like a lot and that head wounds just bleed a lot, but that there's a lot of blood in the body. It was somewhat easier to reassure him because Oceanus did not lose consciousness and was crying.

I settled into my forced, unnatural calm, called the insurance company to make sure where I could go and what kind of preauthorization I needed. And then leaving Hyperion with Gaga, Mr. Gaia and I took Oceanus to the ER (using the term "ER" so that they didn't freak out more at "emergency room" or "hospital").

We got there at 8:13 and checked in at 8:18 (really, they should be signed better, there were a bunch of signs telling us what not to do, but not what to do and there was way too few staff to direct patients). We were finally seen at 8:53 (yes, 35 minutes with a head wound) by which time Oceanus had thrown up in the waiting room (luckily we brought a bucket).

One CT scan (normal) and 4 staples later, we're home and mostly calm. We were finished at about 10:30. It took a little longer than it had to because Oceanus opted for the numbing gel over the numbing shot (30 minutes v 3 minutes). Oceanus won't be playing in the soccer game on Saturday, but other than that we expect a full recovery.