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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Cosmetic Surgery


The Patient


Prepped for Surgery


Surgeon's Tools
Mmmm, minty fresh breath!

For redrahde - Aaargh Designs 2000


The Story:

About five years ago my family went on a ski trip to New Hampshire (I think). I'm not much of a skier, I went shopping and saw this crazy looking thing. It reminded me of my childhood as I sat for hours every Friday and watched my Mom get her hair piled up high on her head at the local beauty parlor. Even though I couldn't figure out if this was supposed to be a bird house or a feeder I just had to buy it for my garden.

The reason I'm not sure where we were when I bought this is that during that trip my daughter (in the fourth grade then) was struck in the back by a young man on a snowboard. The impact of the board to her small body lifted her out of her ski's and landed her head first many feet away. Her kidney was shattered into multiple pieces, the first hospital she was rushed to had to turn her away as they did not have the facilities needed to treat her. We finally ended up at Dartmouth Children's Hospital in the hands of a bunch of miracle workers. So to keep this story short, I just don't remember where we were at the beginning of that trip.

For those of you who read the comments on posts, redrahde has been looking for another one of these thingies. I went out yesterday to see if there was something printed on the bottom but I saw nothing there. Since it was so dirty, I decided to bring it in for a face lift. I was shocked to find an inscription on the bottom but so far I've had no luck getting a hit on-line. If anybody can help, please post a comment here!

Today is Thursday and tonight is our second Adult Education Gardening program. We are going to be doing Basic Design so I will be putting many of those concepts on-line here in the next days.

Off we go...

10 comments:

kjohnson said...

What a story. No wonder you could not remember where you got your birdhouse. My son was born in 1978 at Mary Hitchcock Hosp. (later Dartmouth medical center)in Hanover. Even then they were miricle workers. You were lucky to be there.

BTW the "old gal" cleaned up beautifully!

Frances, said...

In the beginning this looked to be another humor type post then you dropped the bombshell! How very frightening for your family and daughter. Thank goodness for the happy ?? ending. We have had child injuries while away from home and know what it feels like, the helpless panic. Thanks for sharing this.

Frances at Faire Garden

garden girl said...

She looks like QUITE a character. I understand why you simply had to have her!

Oh my gosh! What an absolutely awful experience. How frightening that must have been.

Unknown said...

Melanie,
I knew about your daughter's accident and am glad she recovered so well.

Thanks for checking on the birdhouse. I, too, have Googled Aaargh Designs and only found a couple of hits--no birdhouses. I almost get the impression that they are a French company. And, yes, she did clean up pretty well. Lots of us "old gals" do.

Gail said...

Everyone else has said it all...

just glad that you can tell this story and laugh.

Now I know I have seen her someplace besides your blog, hmm? Where was it?

Gail

CanadianGardenJoy said...

I too thought this was one heck of a funny post in the beginning .. and then that horrendous accident with your daughter .. melanie .. good grief !
It is something you can look back on with this very weird object and KNOW things turned out OK .. and that is what counts .. it is like a reminder .. life is very precarious .. we never know what will happen next .. so we better make a point of appreciating it more often .. phew !
Joy

Robin's Nesting Place said...

I'm so glad your daughter recovered. I'm sure that was a frightening time for you all.

We too have been at the mercy of strangers while traveling. It wasn't one of our children but an elderly parent that fell and shattered a hip. Definitely a helpless feeling.

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

I am so glad your girl is okay. Great story cool garden artsy thingy.

Anonymous said...

Your little one getting struck like that nearly caused me to panic. I've never had but one panic attack and it was over my son being hit similarly like that but the consequences ended much better. He was in one of those tube type water park shutes. He got stuck inside cause he's so skinny. They sent the next person and she slammed into him and knocked them both out inside the tube. They were about to send another person to pile on top of that accident when I screamed out that my son had not come out yet. Good thing I was paying attention cause the next man weighed about 300lbs. It would have killed them all. Now I got to go eat some chocolate to recouperate!! Mom stories are always going to tug at our heartstrings!! Maybe that is an appropriate figurine for this post--she looks haggard.

Janet Lee said...

My husband sells these bird feeders at his store here in Cincinnati. outsideinthecity.com
Phone: (513)744-9344.