On Wednesday evening as I was cooking dinner I heard Edie, my 5 year old daughter, screaming in a fire engine way that only young children seem to be able to do... very loud and high pitched, in a loop. I could tell that she was in pain and that the situation required immediate attention.
I found her in the shed in a fetal position cradling her arm. In an effort to calm her down I stroked her gently as I said, "Baby, mommy is here. Look at mommy... look at me right in the eyes." She glanced at me with very clouded eyes and quickly glanced away. I tried a couple more times to get her to hold my gaze with no success. The pain was too much, her mind needed to escape to anywhere but NOW. I could tell that she had completely withdrawn out of her body and into her head. Turns out, she broke her arm which was the culprit of all the pain.
Throughout the hospital visit I kept checking on her eyes... it took about 24 hours until she could hold my gaze and another 12 until her eyes were bright and shining... and when I saw that I said, "There you are!" And she grinned from ear to ear because she knew exactly what I meant.
