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Health & Fitness

That Red Stuff

It was quiet in the house; the kind where it's the middle of the day and the dishwasher and washing machine had ceased and desisted. I was in the home office, writing, and one of my sons was downstairs listening to music with his headphones on. This peacefulness was suddenly broken with one word, yelled by my music-listening son: "Blood!"

My pulse quickened and my stomach roiled as I clutched the wall, making my way unsteadily down the stairs. My son sported a puncture wound from an errant nail in the couch, and he had the presence of mind to bleed all over the place. But he knew his mother; he knew he needed to fend for himself and get the bandage. Inadvertently I taught him well.

If there is one word that can make me queasy, it's "blood." No sooner is that word said than I'm reaching for something or someone to lean on. And of course once I see that red stuff, I'm a goner.

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A few years ago, one of my relatives hit his head on the basement ceiling. He came upstairs and said, "I'm bleeding." Quite calmly too. Since I began to hyperventilate, I sounded very calm too, only it was because I was about to faint dead away. I told him to sit down and I promptly sat next to him, with a bath towel in hand, the largest I could find. It was more so that I didn't have to see the wound and the blood than for it to soak up any messy stuff.

When I was a child, I briefly considered becoming a doctor when I grew up. It lasted about two days. A friend skinned her knee and I made my decision to pursue another profession right then and there.

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The years flew by and I became a teacher. Bruises and cuts abounded but I was in luck--the school nurse occupied the space next to my classroom. Then came marriage and motherhood. Well, I was perfectly aware that with babies came all kinds of "stuff," blood included. And again, as luck would have it, my mother (who had been a nurse) lived only a mile away and had retired by then. She was loaded with bandages and cookies and love for her grandchildren.

And a comfortable couch for me to pass out on.

 

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