My daughter tripped yesterday while running down the driveway; she scraped up her knee really badly, ripped open a big flap of skin on her foot, and scraped her elbows and hip.

I figured we'd be heading to the after-hours clinic, and I was right. They referred us directly to the emergency room, saying they weren't confident in stitching up the flap because it wasn't straight, and they didn't want to check for tendon damage.

I don't know why we even have an after-hours clinic.

The emergency room was empty, so we were admitted immediately. It took an hour or so to get to us, though. Since it was too painful to stand on, they x-rayed the knee and foot.

Nothing. In fact, when the doctor came to look at it, she asked, "Did they see something I'm not seeing?" We should've cleaned it out ourselves; nothing was done that we couldn't have done just as well at home.

Except the x-ray. It is nice to know that there are no internal injuries.

Unfortunately, the gauze pad they put on the knee had a very low thread count. The next afternoon, it was embedded in the scab. Erica tried to remove it, but Melissa wouldn't let her. Melissa tried to remove it thread by thread, but it hurt so much she couldn't do it.

Eventually I gave it a shot. We had already tried laying a soaked towel on the scab to soften it up, but the gauze either repelled it or took all the water itself. I actually dripped water onto the edges of the scab. It made Melissa giggle.

Soon the scab was dissolved, and the gauze came out easily.

We let the scab dry in the air as long as possible, then applied a high-thread-count gauze pad with antibiotic smeared on it. The next morning, it wasn't stuck at all.

Of course, getting to school was a pain. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.