I've been waiting for weeks to tell my story about Jaren "Crash" Hartbecke. Many of you may know that Jaren has had a rough week or so recently and is starting to recover. There is only one band-aid left and hair is starting to grow back. Good luck to Rhonda to fix that next hair cutting time!
A couple of Sunday's ago, the Jones side of the family went to Manchester to get family pictures. It had been raining all day and in the afternoon it paused for a bit. After a light dinner, Seth, his parents, Jaren and I decided to go for a walk around the block. It looked like it was going to start raining again.
Jaren pushed his digger most of the way around the block. He drove like a madman. I don't know how many times he fell because he was going to fast for himself. But he always got back up and started running again.
After a while, about three-quarters of the way home, Jaren decided he wanted to be pushed. Because I was the shortest, I decided to push Jaren the rest of the way home. In fact, I pushed him all the way up the driveway and almost to the front door.
I turned around to speak to the parents and to Seth. That is when Jaren decided that
he had a really Great idea. He decided to push his digger to the top of the driveway and ride the darn thing down the hill.
Of course, I could see that this was not nearly the good idea he thought it was. I moved to intercept the child and the digger. I intercepted the digger about halfway down the driveway but for all my efforts, the child's momentum was not completely absorbed and his head crashed into the driveway.
I scooped him up and took him inside to the kitchen for some damage assessment. This time I was certain we needed to go to the ER. The first time, almost a year ago, I wasn't so sure, but this time it was obvious, the kid was going to need stitches.
We took Jaren to Dyersville because it was closer. Within 15 to 20 minutes he was checked into the ER and the nurses were asking their normal questions. By that time Jaren had already calmed down and the cut was hardly bleeding at all.
When the doctor came in, we expected similar treatment. The nurses warned us that the doctor was "abrasive." That was an understatement.
We described to the doctor what had happened. After we said out piece, the doctor looked at us sternly and said something along the lines of, "In most states, laws require that children be w
earing helmets if the wheels are bigger than 10 inches (or something)"
Excuse me?!
Please let me show you the offending "Digger" Jaren got it for his first birthday last June. It was the first time that he had ever tried to ride down a hill on it.
It looks pretty harmless to me.
However, I guess the doctor was right. The toy did come with a helmet.
It sure would have done a world of good.
All sarcasm aside, I'm glad I do not remember the doctor's name because I do not have one good thing to say about him. After insulting us as parents, he demanded that all of us, myself, Seth, and Seth's parents leave the room. He made us all wait in the hall listening to Jaren scream and cry for Mommy and Daddy for twenty minutes while we paced and cried and pulled out out hair listening to that while they cleaned and stitched the wound.
Jaren fought so hard that they weren't able to stitch it cleanly. To this day a few weeks later, his wound splits open just a bit when he rams his head into things. This happens often and he is going to have quite a scar. In any case, we will not be going back to that hospital and we won't allow that doctor to touch our children.
We all were able to go home that night. Jaren was especially cuddly and we all watched Monsters Inc. together on the bed until we fell asleep.
Unfortunately, this isn't then end of the story. Jaren quickly returned to his normal habits. Just two days later on Tuesday, Jaren had another accident. Tuesday afternoon Jaren got a tad bit too excited while watching Thomas the Tank. He must have started jumping up and down on the wooden folding chair he was sitting on, lost his balance, and hit his head on the window sill on the way down.
I was on my way home from work when I got the call from Seth. We hooked up together at the Farm and took Jaren into the Dubuque Acute Care facility. There the doctor was much kinder, "Oh my Jaren, looks like you are having a rough week" We stayed and helped the nurse hold Jaren down while the doctor stitched up the back of Jaren's head.
The very next day, Jaren fell and scraped the other side of his forehead at Daycare. I think at that point, Seth wanted to lock Jaren in a plushly padded room until he turned six!
It has been a couple of weeks now. All the stitches have been removed. I'm not convinced Jaren actually learned anything from the experience other than that Doctors are AWFUL and that he never wants the door closed in the examining room. After two fairly harmless stitch removal sessions, I hope that Jaren's fear and distrust of doctors will subside.
How does a Seth and a Michelle make a Daredevil?
But hey, chicks dig scars, right? :)
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