Kimmie's Good Will Tour

It all began with a carrot poked into the bunny cage.

Except it was not a carrot, it was Kimberly's finger. Sweet, smart Amelia saw that Kimberly's finger was bleeding and immediately put a cloth on it, but one look at the wound and it was clear that a trip to the Emergency Room was suddenly on the agenda.

I was supposed to be at work in an hour, so my call out went like this, "Bart, bear with me even though this will sound weird, but the rabbit bit off the top of my 2 year olds finger and we are going to the ER, so I will not be at work".  Later he admitted to me that visions of a certain rabbit from Monty Python immediately popped into his head.

Thankfully our wee bunny does not have a vicious streak a mile wide nor does he have a cave to guard, but he might be far sighted, seeing fingers as carrots.

Kimberly did not cry from the bite.  She clearly felt some discomfort though, as she walked around the waiting room at Harrington Hospital holding it aloft ET phone home style, greeting every person also there waiting.

The cutest little candy striper ever.

No one could resist smiling when she walked up, gave a long drawn out "hi", and patted each person on the knee or arm.  She left no person ungreeted.

The visit was long, the nurses were upset that she did not have all her immunizations (more on that later), but in the end her finger tip was glued back together and we were sent on our way with a prescription for antibiotics.

Unfortunately, it broke open the next morning, and after much discussion Jamie and I decided that I would take her to the Children's Emergency Room at a different hospital.

Once again she greeted everyone, finger in the air and sweet smile on her face.

I was asked FOUR times if her immunizations are up to date.  And apparently saying "no" means that I have given her no vaccinations and condemned her to every disease known.  I explained to one particular nurse that we only do one vaccine at a time.  "Does a doctor oversee this?"

Jamie was horrified when I told him that I replied, "No, I buy them on the black market and administer them myself".   He is so gullible.  "Of course a doctor oversees it!" is what I actually said.

But Kimberly was completely unaware of this controversy, and went about her business of greeting everyone.  This is a teaching hospital, so every time I am there with one of my special kids, the doctors take advantage of the opportunity to learn about Down syndrome and the related medical issues.

I am pretty sure Kimberly's heart defects have nothing to do with the skin hanging off the top of her finger.  But this nice young man actually knows her cardiologist so we had a nice discussion.

When he squatted down to get eye level with Kimberly, she squatted down too. He caught on quickly, stood up and put his hands in the air.  She did too.  Then she puckered up and clearly wanted to kiss him.

Somehow it did not come out right when I said, "Kimberly, we don't kiss strange doctors".  "Um, I mean strangers who happen to be doctors..."

So it turns out the animal bites are not supposed to be stitched or glued, because that just traps in the animal bacteria.  She is fine, the huge flap of skin will eventually fall off but she will not lose the tip of her finger.

Kimber hugged the child life specialist who promptly declared Kimber the best person ever, she charmed both doctors... one offered her a popsicle and the other a lollipop... and as she strutted out to leave she waved and said "bye bye" to everyone we passed.

My little two year old daughter who has Down syndrome ministered to more people in one weekend than most people do in a life time.