And Now, Time for a Quick Lesson.

Isn't it funny

how, as parents, we find it 

so damn hard to let teachable moments slide by?

As Chris and I were following the ambulance, 

he was on the verge of freaking out.

"Mom, the recess monitors were saying 

some kid broke his head and then I saw you

and I saw Trey and

I was so SCARED and is Trey going to be okay??"

"Chris," I reassured him, "Trey is going to be just fine.

He just bumped his head hard and it has made him sleepy.

We just need to be sure he is all right."

"BUT!", I went on, "let's talk about what happened on the playground.

Trey had hurt his head, right?"

"Yes," agreed Chris.

"But was there blood?" I asked. "Was there any evidence of a broken head?"

"No," Chris agreed.

"This is how rumors happen. There was a little nugget of truth in there.

Trey did hurt his head. But he didn't break it open, there was no blood

and he is going to be fine. But what happened is someone took the small bit of information and added something to it to make it more exciting to tell."

Chris nodded.

"So then when they tell someone, THAT person might change or thing or two,

just to increase the drama. And so it goes. 

So when you hear something at school about a kid or about a teacher,

always try to remember that only a small part of it is probably true

and give them the benefit of the doubt until you collect the facts yourself."

---

I can hardly believe I delivered that little speech

while trailing an ambulance with my youngest child in it.

I guess it just gave me something to concentrate on.

Plus, I really believed that Trey would be fine.

---

When we arrived at the hospital,

we went through the double doors to Room Five.

Trey was just being wheeled in on a stretcher.

I was once again alarmed at the sight of him.

My busy, curious, silly clown of a boy

was just laying there with his eyes closed.

He wasn't craning his head to see what was going on

or thinking how cool or exciting his was.

Right when I could have panicked,

something awesome happened. It was just what I needed.

Chris tapped my shoulder and pointed to the hall

and standing there in her nursing scrubs, with her back to us,

was my friend Debbie.

I have never been so relieved.

Debbie has been a dear friend of our family's

for nearly nine years now. 

She has known Trey since he was born.

I was so grateful to see her.

I called her name and she came in immediately.

She ran her eyes over Trey and asked me what happened

but was calm and steady.

I knew she would keep an especially close eye on him

and I felt my shoulders relax.

Debbie asked some basic questions

and a nurse came in to assess Trey's pupils.

He wasn't keeping his eyes open any more 

at this point so she lifted the lids

and checked his eyes.

Chris was freaking because Trey's eyes 

were rolling around and back.

However, he would still answer questions when roused.

While we were waiting for a CT scan,

Trey fell asleep.

I panicked a bit but Debbie reassured me

that it was all right, that is was probably stress related

or just from the trauma of the whole event.

Since his eyes were fine and he was answering questions when pressed,

she said just to let him take a rest.

And I tell you what,

I wouldn't have believed this had I not seen it with my own two eyes,

but when he awoke about 45 minutes later,

he was my little Trey again!

Twinkling eyes, 

mischievous smile, 

silliness radiating.

At that moment, I knew he was just fine.