Law Students

I'm a lawyer, but I play a doctor on TV

By Anonymous

As most of my blog readers know, from the age of 10(ish) to 21, my life's dream was to be a doctor. I was pre-med in college and took all the required classes, including the dreaded organic chemistry which forever ruined my 4.0 GPA (and for which I will forever be bitter). I ended up in law school and am happy with the decision, but I remain fascinated by all things medical. My newest case involves a cutting edge biotechnology company that recently patented a new way to sequence human DNA. It is full of awesome and I love that I know what many of the technical terms mean.

Anyway, the point is that even though I am a lawyer who specializes in organizing paper stacks on my desk, blood and medical terms don't phase me. When JP's lung collapsed in college (a rather fantastic story I should really share sometime, though it highlights what a terrible girlfriend and fake-doctor I was) I watched the surgery and wanted to know everything about his treatments. It's been a while since I've had any medical drama in my own life now that Landon only goes to the doctor for check-ups and JP and I generally stay out of the emergency room. While Landon is a very active little boy, he had yet to really hurt himself -- until last night.

For reasons only he understands, Landon was standing on his cozy coupe, which was lying on its side, and trying to jump off it. Not the best idea. He slipped and hit his head on the pointy corner of our TV unit. He was sobbing, blood started pouring down his face, and he kept trying to put both his hands on the cut to make the pain stop- soon his hands and face were smeared with blood and I was trying to hold him and figure out how bad the injury really was.

It was the saddest thing. He looked shocked that he was hurting and he was clinging to my shoulder sobbing "no mama no" and shaking his head. I had to wipe away the blood with a towel and put pressure on the cut so I could see if the bleeding would slow down on its own. And because I had to do that, I couldn't let him bury his head into my neck like he wanted to and he just looked so bewildered that he hurt and mommy was being mean and not immediately making it better. Once I could actually see the cut I decided it would be fine- the bleeding was slowing and it wasn't nearly as big as I originally feared. We cuddled on the couch while I held the towel to his head and pretty soon he forgot about the injury and was jabbering excitedly about the Spiderman band-aid I promised to put on his forehead.

There's a lot of things that make you a mom. The sacrifices, the constant need to worry about one thing or another- the fact that your life is no longer just your own. But one of the most gratifying is the power you have to make things better. Even with blood pouring down his face, Landon just wanted to be held by mama and he had complete faith that I would make everything ok. Me and the Spiderman band-aid. It's an honor and awesome responsibility, and one of my favorite perks of the job.

Full post as published by Lag Liv on November 19, 2009 (boomark / email).