Trampoline Incident

Thanks to our very gracious uncle/brother/brother-in-law we have had a trampoline in our backyard for almost three years. I have heard horror stories regarding accidents on trampolines but we have been very fortunate that is until yesterday. The trampoline we have in our backyard has a protective screen on the outside so the children will not fall out of it and this is a very good safety feature. However; there is nothing which can prevent children from colliding into one another as the jump on the trampoline. This is what happened yesterday; my daughter's chin met my son's head and much to my surprise my daughter's chin won.

My daughter was jumping and her brother (my son) was jumping close to her as my daughter was coming down my son was going up. My daughter's chin slammed into the top of my son's head and actually put a gash into the top of his head. There was no damage to my daughter's chin other than a minor scratch. This is very surprising because my son has a very hard head and had other collisions in the past with his head and he always came out fine. Not today; my daughter really gave it to him because she put a minor gash into his head and blood came squirting out.

All of this happened when I was in therapy and my wife came running out to the backyard to find the two children crying. My wife instantly went to my daughter because she was crying more hysterically than my son but as my wife went to comfort my daughter she instantly told her mother to go to her brother because he was bleeding and she was not hurt. My daughter was crying because she was so upset to hurt her brother and she instantly blamed herself even though it really was an accident. She is so hard on herself and she was devastated to see any pain/blood she had caused on her brother.

My wife stopped the bleeding but as a precaution she took my son to the doctor's office. Normally we would go to the emergency room but in our area healthcare is a bit frightening and visit to the emergency ward is a seven or eight hour ordeal but our doctor takes all walk-ins and if it were life threatening she would have admitted my son to the hospital promptly. Fortunately it was not life threatening and he didn't even require stitches. He does have a gash on his head and he did wear a hat all day at school to protect himself but he will be fine and it appears there has been no damage done to his brain because he was bouncing off the walls being his typical self today.

I guess it was bound to happen and even though the children really do enjoy the trampoline they must be as careful as possible of one another. I know they will be back on the trampoline in a few days but my daughter decided not to join her friends as they jumped on the trampoline later that day when my wife took my son to the doctor's office. My wife had a friend come over and this is a truly wonderful friend to watch my daughter and the little boy my wife watches during the week on such short notice. She came over quickly and we are truly blessed to have such friends who are remarkable people.

All of this happened when I was in therapy and my wife did call me as the events happened but she seemed to have the situation handled very well. I asked her if she wanted me to come home or come to the doctor's but she assured me everything would be fine and if it weren't she would call me. Thank God all went well and it was a minor incident but it does make me appreciate all that I do have in my family and in our friends.

Yes, I was in therapy yesterday with my friend and he had me speak to a group about my particular situation. This group was not filled with compulsive gamblers rather they had other types of addictions. As I recited my battle with my addiction I could see a genuine interest in most people's faces. My friend and I were trying to get the point across that although they are dealing with other addictions to be careful NOT to cross over and substitute gambling because it can lead to very bad consequences and who better to tell them these consequences then me.

Even though the group's age was much younger than mine I could see the fidgeting stop as I told my story. I was a little nervous telling my story but as I got into it and saw the interest I could tell I was making some sense to some of the people in the group. I will say it again yes, I have learned and continue to learn how to deal with my addiction the hard way but if my story can help one person to NOT do the things I have done then I have turned a negative into a positive and God truly does have a plan for me. I am very interested in this plan but I know this plan will be carried out one day a time.