No Fear

“Have no fear, Underdog is here!”

Many of us of a ‘certain age' vividly remember this line from a popular Saturday morning cartoon show. Many Aspies or their loved ones can also relate.

Early one morning a few years ago, Manlet & Daughterlet were picking Kidlet and myself up to head off to the hospital to check me in for some surgery. The Hubster had taken two weeks off from work to be home during my recuperation.

Since I would be staying overnight, Steve was able to work on his own car projects the entire day. The older kids would watch their younger bro, and be with me at the hospital. It all seemed to be the perfect plan, ensuring happiness for all.

LOL. “Seemed to be” being the operative phrase.

Manlet had just loaded my overnight bag into Daughterlet’s trunk (she was chosen to drive as her car had heated seats and it was winter), and the rest of us were climbing in and buckling up when we heard a tremendous crash and a yelp from the shop area across the yard.

Manlet slammed the trunk closed and ran. Daughterlet jumped out, as did Kidlet and followed. I had just started to climb out myself when the kids came running with their dad. He was mumbling that he just needed a bandaid while blood poured from his forehead and down his shirt. One of the kids ran for paper towels, another stuffed Steve into the car, and Daughterlet took off like Mario Andretti from a start line.

The entire way to the hospital Steve kept insisting he just needed to wash off his face and get ‘a bandaid or two’. Turns out he was working on the exhaust system under his full sized Blazer, and instead of blocking the system up while he loosened the bolts, he thought he could just hold it up himself.

Wrong! It all came crashing down on him, splitting open his forehead. Manlet figures the whole system weighed over a hundred pounds. Oh my dear husband and his ideas!

At the hospital we dropped the Hubster off with Manlet at the Emergency Room entrance, and then we went around to the main entrance and checked me in. After my surgery the kids told me that their dad required seventeen stitches to close up his gash.

Ouch! Manlet said that Steve never once complainted of pain, and refused any pain medication. When they ran him home after his stitching, he went straight out to the shop to make sure he hadn’t bled on any of the exhaust system that walloped him. It certainly wouldn’t do to have blood baked onto the pipes!

Steve often hurts himself because of poor planning, rigid thinking, denial of realities, or just plain clumsiness. One time he stuck a pocket knife into his kneecap while cutting some wires because he didn’t want to stand up to go get a pair of wire cutters. He could have used some simple Boy Scout training in knife use!

I know we are in for a trip to the emergency room whenever my Hubby comes running to the house asking for a big bandaid. What amazes me is that he seems impervious to pain. I am honestly not sure if it’s that he doesn’t feel it, or he won’t express it.

But he definitely has no fear….