Paging Doctor Mom

I was just finishing up a conference call when I heard my kids come back in with my sister from walking her chocolate lab one last time before she headed on the road back home to LA. I heard the sound of the front door flying open and then... the sound of the "death cry"! Every parent knows the "death cry". It's distinctly different from the sound of the "I'm upset because someone took my toy cry" or the "I'm grumpy because I'm tired or hungry cry" or the "my brother or sister is picking on me cry". It's the cry that sounds like the world as we know it is going to end! ;-p

From upstairs, I could already tell that it's my 3 year old sobbing (and not her brother). So I head down to investigate and discover that she somehow managed to get a large (1/2 inch or so) splinter wedged deep into her hand. Although the splinter was rather large and rather deep into her skin, there was no bleeding and it really didn't look so bad. However, my poor 3 year old was sobbing hysterically as if the sky had just fallen. This was not the first time that I, Doctor Mom, have had to surgically excise a large and deep splinter from a tiny little hand so I felt well prepared for the task. ;-)

Step 1: A big hug to calm her down and a slow and careful explanation of what I'm going to do to make everything all better again.

Step 2: The surgery - careful removal of the splinter using a needle to dislodge the splinter from the skin and then a tweezer to remove it, all while wiping up tears, convincing her that she needs to stop crying so that she can stay still and allow me to "fix her ouchy", and reassuring her that everything will be just fine.

Step 3: The application of the Bactine/Neosporin etc. and the colorful cartoon character band-aid that always brings a big smile.

Step 4: Another big hug and lots of praise to the little one for being so brave followed by washing the little face clean of all the tears and slobber.

And all of this was finished just in time for us all to send my sister and her dog off on their drive back home, get my son started on finishing his summer homework (due on the first day of school, this Thursday), and put on Sesame Street for my newly bandaged up daughter. I even managed to take my next scheduled call right on time.

Another typical day in the life of a modern, working mom..... :-)