Why Do They Call It Softball?

So last night we made our second trip to the emergency room with our daughter.

Our first was about a year ago when her finger was slammed in her brother's bedroom door.

Last night, my daughter had her last softball game to be followed by an awards ceremony.  My son was at another field in town with his own baseball game.

We had decided that since this season has been so scattered with the rain, my husband and I would both attend our daughter's event since my son still has baseball for awhile.

My parents came to join in the fun and I had the video camera ready to go.

She was really having an amazing game, a couple of nice hits and she was able to play 1st base (her favorite).  She was so happy we were all there to see it.

Then sadly, a throw came to first base and we all thought she may have actually caught it, but soon realized she got hit. 

I saw her coaches go running, I turned to my husband and said, "Go."  This is because he is faster than me and I needed someone there fast.

As she walked across the field, her face just began to swell, then I saw dark blue almost immediately.  I really thought we'd throw some ice on it and she'd be back out there, but the more I looked at it, the more concerned I was getting, it was so huge!

I told my husband I was ready to panic and take her somewhere and that he needed to talk me down.  Another parent showed concern at how fast it was swelling and my husband looked at me and said, "Go, I'll pack up the stuff and meet you there."

I am a little ashamed to say that it took my mother saying, " We'll go to J's game and meet you at home later" for me to even remember I had a son!  I was panicking like no body's business.

I was a storm of emotion on the inside, but held it together until I hit a particularly long red light, where I did a little bargaining for my daughter's health.

When we arrived at the emergency room, it occurred to me I had never been there before by myself  and I wasn't quite sure what to do with my car.  I am very thankful for the valet attendant who took care of it all, for a $5.00 charge of course, but it was so worth it as I fumbled with locks and windows and general confusion.

Everyone at the emergency room was amazing.  The hospital closest to us is a teaching hospital and I am always a little nervous, but both doctors we dealt with were spot on.

The concern was of course, a broken cheek bone.  Nothing about her injury indicated that was the case, but the only way to be sure was to do a CT scan, and that brought up a whole host of other worries, like radiating my child's developing brain and such.

We decided, as the kindly Dr. Murphy assured us this is exactly what he would do with his own grandchild, to wait and see if it got worse before we proceeded with the scan.

We finally arrived home, where I was so touched by receiving a call from her coach, a teammate's mom (whose daughter threw the ball and is my daughter's friend and was very upset about it.  I felt awful, I hadn't even realized who threw it and I assured her that my daughter was fine, and it was of course, and accident, they were sweet enough to grab my daughter's trophy and are headed over this afternoon so they can see her) and the commissioner of the softball league.

In all of this, the thing she is most delighted about is that she was supposed to get her palette expander put in tomorrow morning, but we are postponing that until she is cleared by the doctor and healed up.  Love that she found the silver (literally!) lining.