blood and stitches

I fell asleep that night enveloped in thoughts of the next day. Every year at ECA we would go to a beautiful forest which had a river that would practically be frozen solid if the water didn’t move so fast. We would all jump in, and then jump out of it, barely able to walk for the cold. I dreamed of the river, the gorgeous river, and all the people shouting and jumping in.

The next day we arrived at school, I got in the Dehons car, and we were off to Pedriza! When we got there, a huge line greeted us. Me and my friends got out and walked around a bit and ate chips while waiting to get in. Finally we got in, and, after finding a parking place, walked along the river. The magnificent trees surrounded us as we made our way on the trodden dirt path

When we found a swimming hole, the water looked up and dared me to jump into it. I jumped. The water crashed over my head and quickly enveloped my body in a swirling confusion of white and blue. I dared to open my eyes, and in that brief fantastic moment, I saw a little family of fish suddenly scurry out from under me. The moss covered rocks shined green under the swirling water. Then the moment ended, and the lack of air forced me to rise.

Hurriedly I got out and did it again and again, Intel the cold forced me to get out. Rapping into the inviting warmth of a soft towel, my shivering gradually left me. After that adventure I climbed on the rocks in the woods, playing amusing games like tag and hide-and-seek. Slowly we made our way back to the river, and when we arrived, we found everyone picnicking on all sorts of good food.

An hour later some other people arrived, and they hopped in the frigid river. I got on top of the small water fall were some people were lying on some dry rocks in the middle of the river. Excited, I climbed around a bit, exploring. Then I slipped.

For a moment I didn’t feel anything, and then the pain washed through me like a huge breaker landing on a rock.

Mr. Steffens looked up; worry in his vivid blue eyes “are you all right Justin?”.

The blood dripping down my lip gave him a cheerless answer. Piercing pain made a tear slip out of my eye, run down my cheek, and join the gushing water running under my throbbing head. Gradually I lifted my head, and my body fallowed. Before I knew it I could feel a wet towel pressing my injured lip and someone shouting something about finding my mom.

“That looks pretty deep, probably it needs stitches” Mr. Steffens said.

They hurried me along the trail back to my car. Tiny droplets of blood landed on the trail, leaving a story of pain to tell. My worried mom met us half way through the trail, and I got handed over. When we got there someone suggested that we try the local hospital first…we did.

After asking for directions 2 times we got to the hospital. They looked at the wound, but to our disappointment told us they didn’t want leave a scar, so they couldn’t do it. They gave me a cloth to put over the wound and told us where to find a hospital called “la paz” (the peace) that had a plastic surgeon in it who could do the stitches right. We prayed that we would be able to get their without getting lost (though we have never made it to an unfamiliar place without getting lost, or very rarely). And, we didn’t get lost!

After waiting for about 15 minutes with a cloth pressed to my lip a doctor came out and summoned me. He brought me into the operation room, but told mom ‘we don’t allow parents to be in the operating room with their kids’ his philosophy sounded something like this: ‘right when the parents leave, the kid usually immediately relaxes’. I can tell you, I didn’t feel very relaxed. They told me to lie down on a white mattress. Assuring me with smiles, they said that I would only feel a pulling at my lip. Bright light burned my eyes, shutting them; I hoped it would not hurt as bad as I thought it would. Stinging iron pierced through my lip, and then pulled out again. Opening my eyes once more I saw that they were injecting medicine into my lip to numb it. 3 more shots came after that, but each one began to hurt less than the one before it. Soon all the pain receded and they began stitching. 4 people were looking over me at once, only one of them stitching. It is a mystery to me what the rest of the doctors were doing there, maybe just in case the plastic surgeon needed any assistance. All I felt was a pulling at my lip, the medicine took care of the throbbing ache. Before I knew it they had accomplished to place 8 stitches in my lip, and they let my mom in again.

The doctor said that I couldn’t dunk my head in water for a hole weak- which was pretty hard, considering that there is a pool right next to the house we were staying at. I also wasn’t aloud to open my mouth very wide, but that wasn’t such a big problem as swimming.

You might automatically think: ‘oh, well this kid wishes this didn’t happen to him’, but I’m glad it happened. Why? Well, it’s a good experience to remember for one thing, and the bible says: “all things work together for those who love the Lord” (Romans 8:28) so I presume it was a good thing in some way. even though you don’t like something while its happening (like discipline, or studying all day), it still might be good for you… If you love the lord.

wow! I think this is the longest post I’ve ever written! When I began this post I was actually planing on putting it in a book that would be called: ‘the Nichols travels’, but I couldn’t seem to make it story-like enough, so I put it on justnichols.