Much quick but not too quick healing ~ma to Emmett and much peace~ma to his parental units. I'm sorry things are so scary right now.

(Steph, you didn't get a tamarind ball because I got your tamarind ball! Mwahahahaha)

I'm wondering how the heck you put a cast on a nose

I'm getting an image of Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou link .

Should make Emmett the envy of his peers.

But, oh, I hope it doesn't hurt much. For any of you!

eta: sucky posting skilz today. sheesh.

I had my appendix out when I was 13, and the hospital experience ended up being a good one. Subsequently, I don't have a big fear of going under the knife when it's necessary.

Yup. I was in and out of the hospital constantly as a child, had my first major surgery at age 8 (a bilateral uretal reimplantation), and my second major surgery two days later (correcting inflammation from the first). As a result, I'm very zen about medical procedures.

Emmett will be fine. (But here's some anti-anxiety-ma for his parents. ~~~)

healing ~ma to Emmett and much calming~ma to all the parents. That has to be stressful.

Also, I keep wondering about a nose cast, too!

Hec, I know it's especially tough on the parents. Just got an email from a friend whose two-year-old broke his arm on Saturday. These were her words:

Thanks for checking in on him -- he's fine, I'M THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO GO TO BED FOR A WEEK.

My first surgery was at age 5. The anesthesiologist came in to the children's ward and told all of us going into surgery the next day that he would come by in the morning and take us off to play astronaut. He showed us the face mask we would have to wear in space and the helmet he would wear (he actually had one of those big bubble helmets!).

After I woke up from surgery, the first thing I asked my mom was when could I go play astronaut. I had completely forgotten the whole thing. Don't remember it to this day.

In completely random news, last night I dreamed I was Aeryn Sun. I wasn't me playing Aeryn, I was Aeryn. And, it was pretty cool. In the dream, I was getting ready to go out and fight the Bad Guy. I was getting into my prowler when Crichton stopped me. He didn't say a word. He just gabbed me by the hair on the back of my head and kissed me well and proper (much like a certain someone has done in real life). Of course, being Aeryn, while he kissed me, I was feeling my thigh to make sure I had my gun in its holster. Then I went off and shot up the Bad Guy.

Much ease and calm ~ma for Hec, JZ and EM. I'm sure Emmett will need a fair dose of it as surgery time nears.

Cashmere, so sorry.

A cousin of mine broke her wrist playing soccer. The doctor set it, and gave her a drug that both dulled the pain and wiped her memory of the last ten or so minutes (they needed her feeling pain to tell if the setting was working).

She sailed out of it happy as a clam. Her mother (a psychiatrist, ironically) was so traumatised she kept telling the story of how horrible it was, that my cousin's peace didn't last too long, and in the end she was more freaked out than she probably would have been without losing the memory in the first place.

Moral: Keeping calm isn't just good for your blood pressure, it's good for the kid too.

Cindy, these tests actually count towards the student's grades? If so, in what way? I ask because I've done a lot of research on standardized tests for school and all the experts, including the test makers, say that these tests should NOT be used to determine student achievement and should only be used for assessing a teacher/school/district.

No ChiKat, I'm sorry I wasn't clear. They don't count toward their report card grades. The state requires they pass them, if they are going to graduate with a diploma (later on, not at Ben's age). They may be used in determining promotion to the next grade (again, later on), but I'm not clear on that. Re-testing is required if they get less than whatever the minimum acceptable score, and I want to avoid that, and I want Ben to do well for his own sake. I don't think he knows how smart he is.

Cindy-I mostly skipped today, but I did see your request. Best thing for him to do is to not stress. Get sleep, read directions, and do the best he can. He'll be fine.

Thanks, Kristin.