One Tough Cookie

It ain't braggin' if it's true, is it? Well, my 5 year old, middle Granddaughter is just plain tough in more ways than one. First, she was born with a holey heart, an atrial septal defect. She didn't feel good and was a very grumpy baby. When she was 15 months old she had to have a device implanted in her heart to fill in the largest hole. It is called an AMPLATZER® Septal Occluder, a wire disc shaped device made from an alloy of nickel and titanium. She came through the procedure like the trooper she is.

Next came the dog attack at two and a half years old. She had several puncture wounds on cheek, jaw and around her left eye. Her bottom eye lid had a chunk missing and was split open. She was cool, calm and sang Christmas songs on the long trip to the Hospital. She remained composed for all of the stitches, she was sedated but didn't like being held down. She was very brave for the removal of the stitches as well.

Then there are the splinters that you naturally get on a farm. I have removed two splinters from her fingers so far. She doesn't squirm, whine or cry when I poke, prod and squeeze, she even watches.

So that brings me up to Saturday. Somehow she managed to cut the tip of her little toe nearly off on Thursday. The entire top skin of the tip of her toe was cut loose and was only being held on by a small piece that was still intact. It looked bad and painful.

She had complained about it only after she noticed the blood, her Mom asked what happened and she said that she couldn't remember. I guess it didn't make much of an impression on her. Sometime later the toe started throbbing and she did do some crying.

Friday night the girls spent the night with us and we soaked her foot in Epsom Salts a couple of time. I was afraid that it might get infected because she was running around my house barefooted and we couldn't get a band-aid on it. After one soak on Saturday afternoon my DH looked closely at it and declared that the excess skin needed to be removed. Her Mother had talked about doing this herself. So I called her Mom for approval after our Granddaughter gave her approval.

I stuck a Banana Popsicle in her mouth, read her a funny story holding the book so that it blocked her view of what Papaw was doing and he did surgery. She never flinched, jerked or made a sound accept for laughing at the story.

My DH held out his open palm with the thick cap of skin in it and she said: "I didn't even feel it!". She did have a hard time putting it back in the Epsom Salt water because it burned but after about five attempts she finally got the nerve and stuck it in without pulling it back out.

Now bandaging it was another story, she griped, moaned and argued about having to wear a stupid band-aid on it. My DH applied ointment and wrapped it with gauze and tape, she was not happy about this but her arguments and non-stop griping was so funny that we just kept chuckling. She can be quite dramatic. She didn't want a big old ugly bandage on it and thought she could talk her way out of it.

She is tough in other ways too, like arguing. It is hard to win an argument with her and she can be pretty tough in protecting her sisters and brother. She is also quite the scrapper, her Dad has taught her to fight and she plays a little too rough sometimes.

She is the comedian of the family, is outgoing, friendly and never shuts up. Even when she is trying to be tough and serious she cracks us all up. She can also make you very nervous because you never know what she might say to strangers or even to friends and family.