September 20, 2007

I love music. All kinds. I am still the person who will sit in her car while parked in the driveway to finish the song on the radio. Even though chances are I have the CD. I listen to music every day. I am probably one of the few Mom's whose children complain and say, "Do you have to listen to it so loud Mom?" Needless to say, my children have grown up listening to music and have acquired their own love of it. One of the local radio stations has a rock festival every year at the fairgrounds. Ten bands for $20. I started taking my kids a few years ago. They liked the bands that were going to be there but I was afraid of all the people and since we do things together all the time I figured I'd go so they could too. We all loved it. Although I listen to all types of music depending on my mood, I must admit rock is my favorite. They sell out every year which means there are 25,000 people there. We make sure we stay back far enough that we won't get stuck in a mosh pit, but the occasional crowd surfer usually manages to get flung overhead! This year's concert was last Sunday, so we packed two car loads of people and headed off to the fairgrounds. I was pretty excited because a few of the bands that were going to be there I really liked - Three Days Grace, Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, and Finger Eleven. Big enough to have a couple Cd's out, but not big enough to make tickets difficult to get. My daughter met up with a ton of friends there. She is 18 now and a lot of her friends are older. I did not make her stay right with me this year as I am really trying to let her have some freedom to make SOME of her own choices! It is so hard! I must admit it made me more than a little nervous. She was with more than a few big boys though so that helped calm me. Actually, most of the time she and her gang hung with me anyway. It was during Chevelle, the next to last band, and one of my absolute favorites, that the text came. "Mommy I just got kicked in the head by this big guy! It hurts really bad! Jason took me to the Medics tent! Get here!" My son and I made our way through the crowd to the tent where she was. As we walked in I saw her sitting in the back. She had a couple scrapes down the left side of her face and it was already swollen. As a parent you tend to think if you are with them you can protect them. After all, isn't that a parents job? To protect their children from harm? I felt terrible. The "if I had only's" started running through my mind. As I got to her I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big hug. The Dr. came over and asked was I her Mother. I told him yes, and he told me he thought she needed to be seen in the ER. I told him OK and asked her what had happened. She said they were standing pretty much to the side of the crowd when out of the blue came a crowd surfer. She said there were only a couple of them standing there and they weren't standing close together. So when someone threw this guy(crowd surfer) in their direction, there were not a bunch of people there to keep him going. The guy basically was thrown on L. He came at her, feet first, kicked her in the temple, she went down and so did he, practically on top of her. She blacked out for a second or so and then they were lifting her up asking her if she was OK. She said her head hurt, her neck and shoulders hurt, and it scared her. She was also shaking. Luckily one of the hospitals here is right across the street from where we were. She tried to stand up because she said it was silly for her to ride the ambulance across the street, she would just walk. She stood up, swayed a little, took one stumbling step, and I caught her. The Dr. and I looked at each other and told her at the same time she was going to have to ride over there. We got her on the golf cart type thing they had to take her across the fairgrounds to where the ambulances were parked. I told her I would walk across the street and be there waiting for her. She wanted me to ride in the ambulance but they have a strict policy against that. I told her I would probably beat her over there. When she realized I was not going to be right next to her in the ambulance she finally broke down. The tears came and she just kept saying "Mommy don't leave me." I looked down at her and all I saw was my little girl. It really sucked. I just kept telling her that I would be there when she got there and not to worry. I could tell the medics were getting pissed and wanted to leave but I didn't care. I hate it when one of my children are scared. I calmed her down and they took off. By this time the rest of the 9 people who had rode there with us where standing there trying to find out what had happened. I explained it all to them and told them I thought she was OK but we were going to check just to make sure. Chevelle was still playing and after them Three Days Grace was coming on and it would be at least an hour and a half before the concert was over. I told them they could all just stay and watch the show. I knew it would take a long time in the ER. I was explaining all of this to them as I walked across the fairgrounds heading to the front entrance. I heard one of them say they were going with us. I said OK or whatever you want to do or something. I'm not sure, I was focused on getting to the hospital before L did. While I was standing at the corner waiting for the walk signal to change I noticed that there were more than just me and my son standing there. By the time I had walked across the street and up the drive at the hospital's front entrance I had looked around me. Every single person that had rode with us had left the concert! I thought that was really sweet. Especially considering they save the best bands for last. I met L over there and we went in. I was really surprised at how fast things went. Within a half an hour they had her back getting a cat scan of her head and shoulders and spine. I went out in the waiting room to tell them what was going on and I was shocked. Not only had the ones who rode with us left the concert, most all of L's friends she had met up with had left and were now taking over the waiting area. Over two dozen kids ran up to me shouting Mom how is she?! It made my heart just melt. I told them she was getting a cat scan and we would know soon. When she got back in her room I told her everyone that was there. It made her feel very good. About a half hour later, the Dr. and the radiologist came in her room. She had suffered a concussion, but no bones were fractured. Thank God. They were a little concerned with what they saw on her cat scan though. L had surgery when she was younger - which is a story for another time - and they had seen evidence of it on her scan. I assured them everything was fine and went into the details of the surgery. It was at this point, while I was standing in that little room, talking to these Dr.'s about L's history that it hit me. I hate hospitals and ever since I had been sitting there I kept smelling something that was making my stomach turn. I finally identified the smell. It was the smell of pot and it was emanating from me! I had stood in that crowd all day and half the night while people all around me were getting high. I didn't think anything about it at the time. I am used to it from all the concerts I go to. I do not particularly like the smell and I like it even less when it is coming from my hair and clothes. If I could smell it after being around it all day I'm sure the Dr.'s could! For some reason, that embarrassed me. I'm not sure why. I don't smoke it. I tried it a couple times when I was young, but I didn't like it so I never did it again. But here I was in my daughters room of the ER reeking of it. I bet they thought I smoke it. Oh well, you can't help what people think! They gave her some pain meds and told me to watch her and follow up with our regular Dr. We did and she checked out fine. She has some abrasions on her face still, and she's a little sore, but all is well.