Why Doors are as Dangerous as Knives #nightmarecametrue

One of our house rules is that no one slams the doors and children are not allowed to play with and near doors. Our nightmare came true on Friday night (not a bad night for accidents to happen since there is no work nor school the next day) when the kids decided to play wild.

Aidan locked Ally out, in return, she tried to lock him out but Anya was wearing her shoes while holding on to the side of the door for support - despite my warning to stop playing with the door. Everything happened in split seconds, a regular routine of sending the older two to TKD resulted into a yelp from Anya for her twin to stop closing the door, and the sister slammed the door shut immediately, after seeing me leap towards her (to stop her from closing it) as she had thought that I was part of the game....

It was gruesome, gruesome, gruesome. Nail and some blood got stuck onto the door, and nail probably came off due to the force of me pushing the door open. The older kids rushed over and all were fussing over Anya, while Ally went into shock and burst into tears immediately.

This is the elder sister offering her Koala pillow to the patient. Ally was quick to fetch new clothes for Anya and bring tissues for her. My Mom put healing powder onto the two fingers but the bleeding came on again around an hour and a half later. So we decided to bring her to the hospital.

And here are the key learnings:

1. Always bring the injured to a hospital or similar level of medical attention because the first thing the Doctor wanted to check was if there were fractures after an accident like a crush injury or a fall. We were whisked into X-ray after the initial registration and true enough, there were 'tuft' fractures which meant that they are small cracks that do not require surgery and will heal within 6-8 weeks. See if the straight lines across the two bone tips on the left, compare it to the index finger on the right.

 2. Buy accidental insurance for your loved ones. Accidents are unpredictable, despite all the precautions that you can take, it only takes a split second for shit to happen. KKH is our preferred choice because the A&E section caters solely for children. Anya had been there two years ago when she stuffed a lego piece into her nose and Aidan was there for a head injury after splitting his head on a school bus bench when he fell down from his seat.

3. Bring along the essentials - birth certificate (if the number isn't store in your head already), a shawl (has proven to be handy all the time because hospitals are freezing cold) which doubled up as socks because Anya was weak, couldn't walk and we didn't bring along her socks/shoes and lastly, handphone charger. Yes, unfortunately I have fallen into the category where I need my phone more than my purse - so that I can provide updates and take photos to remind myself of such incidents and how brave our little Anya was! And soon, hopefully we can all make payments using our phone, who needs the purse then?!

4. Salvage everything: After Anya was attended to, I went to take a photo of the nail and placed it one side. Hubby made another trip home to pick up the nail because the nurse told us that it could be re-attached. So, in short, regardless if it is a nail or a tooth or something more gruesome which was a former part of your body, bring them along and be sure to not contaminate it! Best to have some ziploc bags around the house and we were glad we still had the nail and it didn't touch the floor nor too many surfaces hence the Dr could trim it and glue it back to the ring finger.

So $98 paid for the X-ray, cleaning of the wound as well as removing the middle fingernail to check for cuts and re-attaching the fingernails, in order to protect the nail-beds and act as a guide for the new nails to grow and 4 bottles of antibiotics and 4 more bottles of paracetamol and ibuprofen.

After a day of adjustment, we have gotten used to the 'new' lifestyle - no more swimming or water play for a while because of our little baby's injury. She sits with Mummy in the car to prevent her siblings from bumping her left hand. She puts her hand in a ziploc bag during bath times and eats with one hand and using her left forearm to support the plate. Heart aches like hell to see the little one with her left fingers bundled up but she is one tenacious survivor, and of course, enjoying the extra attention she is getting showered with.

May your fingers heal beautifully, my Darling. It's going to be tough - Mummy had my middle finger crushed by the door before too, but we will help you get through it. After this incident, we learnt of two more horror stories where friends of friends' have lost their fingers after doors slammed and got beyond the stage of saving the severed tips. So beware and keep a good watch on those doors, they can be deadly!

The World According to Anya (11)

It is Hari Raya Haji together, and 2nd day of the long weekend but things haven't gone smoothly for the family.

Mummy fell sick before the long weekend so we can't do much and she isn't willing to share her food with us because of the germs. So we received less snacks from her  - she told Korkor and Jie jie to feed us but they are selfish people who ate even faster before we could scream and grab any bits from their bowls.

There is Jie Jie below eating her candy cane and she scrambled up the stairs and locked the safety gate so we can't get to her.

The reason why she got a candy cane was because she fell badly after her swimming class yesterday. She scraped her calf on the curb and when she reached home, she was all drama-mama. She opened the door and cried out loud, and we all rushed to the door to check what happened to her.

Accident #1

It was quite quiet yesterday because Korkor went to a birthday party and then to his classmate's place for dinner and played Wii until we came. These are the 2 boys we see most often, J&J, because they are in the same class as Korkor and also take the same school bus home everyday.

I get to blog first because something happened to me this morning. We were all dressed to go check Ikea out, when I fell and hit my eye on the corner of the toy cupboard. Naturally, I screamed my head off and only stopped crying after 4 jelly beans, 1 marshmallow and some yogurt drink.

When we walked around Ikea, there was such a big crowd that we had to wait for everything. We waited for KorKor and JieJie to register for the indoor playground, and in the end Papa said it's full and so we went to walk around. I had fun trying the different chairs.

We found out there was a long queue at the cafeteria so we decided to do lunch elsewhere. I was wheeled in the pram and it was so comfortable that I fell asleep. Daddy went off to pack hot dogs while Mummy paid for the purchases.

Accident #2

After Korkor and Jiejie took their hot dogs, they went to add the sauces on their own. Then as we walked back to the car, Ammi Jiejie said she needed water urgently, and we found out she had added chilli sauce onto her hot dog instead of ketchup! Mummy was mad because she had added chilli sauce to the rest of the hot dogs as they were for the adults. In the end, Mummy gave my share of lunch to Jiejie.

The best part came when we all got into the car and the car couldn't start. Mummy pulled me out from the pram, and I cried, and she let me sleep on her shoulder again. The car still won't start and in the end, she took us and Kakak into a cab home, while Papa stayed back to wait for the mechanic.

In the cab, Ally and Korkor fell asleep. Mummy had to hand the gate remote control to Ammi Jiejie so that she can open the gate while Mummy pay, and wake Korkor up because his job was to carry the water bottles and the hotdogs into the house.

 I decided to take a second nap and Mummy told me the 3 older ones had a party time. They had canned chicken soup, with chicken biscuits and Ally had her milk downstairs instead of in her bedroom.

Just now, we went cycling to the reservoir near us. Daddy had Ally and Ammi, Mummy had me and KorKor cycled on his own. On the way back, Ammi Jiejie shouted "Look, a group of birds!" and Korkor turned to look. He veered off the path and fell off. Accident #3 for the weekend.

Mummy says she hopes this luck won't continue tomorrow. We are going to take it slow and easy. Only planned for a breakfast at the market, and maybe some shopping later on. Nice, I love it when Papa and Mummy don't have to work.

April - No Car Karma

Would things have been different if I have joined the long queue for the waffles, instead of purchasing a box of donuts?

What if I have stayed back at work to send out that one email which I had decided that I could send after I reached home?

Perhaps I would have been only 2 minutes later if I had decided to put the box of donuts onto the floor of the car, instead of beside me on the passenger car seat?

These were the questions I asked myself after a car rammed into mine on the way back home. I am sure I would have missed being hit if I was a few minutes late.

The brake lights were all on, for the cars in front of me. I hit the brakes too, and managed to keep a distance from the car in front. Just as I let go of the brakes and about to move forward, I heard a screech way behind. LOUD one and a spilt second later, I flew forward in the car after hearing that dreaded crushing sound on the back of my car.

I do not like to drive. And moments like these make me dread even more of having to deal with a stationery 1.69 ton of moulded metal. I always say, if I could reach a destination and fold up the car or make it shrink, I will love it. I totally detest parking. Finding a parking stresses me up, and I would totally curse if it turns out to be a parallel parking lot. After parking, comes car break-down (3rd incident for us in this month, by the way)

Well, back to the accident. It was sort of expected because so many cars had to brake so close to each other. Plus the warning screech came out first. When I flew forward, I did not utter a scream. Only word uttered in my head was: "Donuts! Donuts!" I was worried the box will topple over the car seat, onto the floor!

What wasn't funny was the moment I got out of the car, I was hassled by the Mazda driver who hit me and some stranger man who appeared mysteriously at the scene. The driver wanted me to know it was the last car who hit him, and then his car flew forward to hit mine. The other man wanted me to drive my car to the shoulder to settle with the rest, and to convince me to send my car to his workshop.

It was all very confusing and frustrating. I literally couldn't hear my thoughts because the Uncle from the workshop was telling me at his top of the voice in Mandarin: "Don't worry, don't worry. You are 1st car, can claim all on insurance! Just follow me, follow me!". I rang Hubby and can't hear him over the din too.

After exchanging phone numbers and taking photos of each other's cars, I was asked by Mazda what do I plan to do? Of course, I had no answer for him then except: "I need to call my Husband 1st because he is very fussy with the type of workshop and I only want to go home now!" I didn't say that out loud of course.

Mazda insisted that we should go to the same workshop and have the same story so that we can claim insurance on little Kia Picanto. Kia on the other hand, was insisting that Mazda rammed into me and caused him to brake. What can I say? Little Kia has to pay for a new Mazda 6 and a Mit Grandis. He is definitely more unlucky than me. But goddamn it, it was obvious he was speeding and couldn't stop in time.

While I tried to ring Hubby, Workshop Uncle was again talking to my right ear. "来来，I talk to your husband, let me talk to your husband!" I gave up eventually, and let the 2 men talk.

Decision after that? Go to Uncle's workshop. But before I got in the car to drive, I asked him: "Uncle, you don't bluff me ah? Your workshop safe, or not? Original parts, or not?" then followed by, "How come you are around here, so coincidental? Just when the accident happen?" After I got satisfactory answers, I went with him to the workshop at the other side of the island... Eunos.

Good thing was I got a replacement car which is a 3 seater again. The new Honda Stream is such a wonderful car to drive. The car feels light, picks up speed really fast and has an ergonomic steering wheel. Best feature (or maybe it's just missing from our car) - seat belt reminder that beeps until you wear the belt. Good for someone in my family who drives a car as if he's driving a slow speed golf buddy with no windscreen to crack his skull on, in the event of a crash.