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Spiderman to the rescue….again

8th June 2009 by Helena 2 Comments  

I tried not to think about the fact that things normally happen in threes when Olivia and Bea ended up in hospital a couple of weeks ago. But this evening when my friend Harriett (mother of Leo’s best friend Oscar) called I just knew.

“He’ll be fine,” she said. “But he definitely needs stitches.” I turned the car from the direction of the manicurist (where I was planning to get my nails done for the Emirati wedding I was invited to) towards the hospital.
We met at the A & E, Leo’s wounded chin covered with a white dressing. After a wait we were shown in to the doctor. Leo started screaming before the man even laid hands on him. He remembers only too well how painful that needle with anaesthetic into an open wound is. He has split his chin open twice before.

It was horrible. We tried to calm him, we even got him to let the doctor inject him (the nurse, Rupert and me) but as soon as the needle hit his flesh (even though it had already been made slightly numb by a topical anaesthetic) he went totally hysterical. He was practically hyper-ventilating, wailing and screaming.
The doctor, clearly used to seeing children in far worse situations was not sympathetic. After three goes, he said we had one more chance, otherwise they would have to put him out. That would have meant staying the night and even more needles.
spiderman-suit.jpg

I figured there was only one thing for it…..Spiderman.

I held Leo’s head and started to talk to him about all the Spiderman things I would buy him at Hamley’s in London; the mask, the top, and how we would dress Bea as the Green Goblin and he would vanquish her with his flashing shoes. The injections went in followed rapidly by three stitches.

“It hurt until I started to think about Spiderman,” Leo told the doctor. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”

As we waited for his medicine five minutes he talked to the girls on the phone.

“Yes, I had three stitches,” he was saying. “No, it didn’t hurt.”

That’s the good thing about pain, you forget about it very quickly……

He is fast asleep, already looking forward to going back to Oscar’s house tomorrow where he is staying for the week we are away. In two hours Rupert and I fly…..to London and Hamley’s. Oh, and as you can imagine, I never made it to the wedding.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: again, rescue, spiderman

2 thoughts on Spiderman to the rescue....again

  • mimi says:
    8th June 2009 at 11:21 pm

    I’m sure you could have done without that, what with the fear of flying etc.! What a good idea to talk about Spiderman and take his mind off the pain.
    Well done, and have a good trip to London, just don’t forget to make those purchases!

  • ruth says:
    9th June 2009 at 9:58 am

    Helena:
    You just need someone to sit beside you, telling you of all the lovely shops you are going to visit, the shoes, the handbags, the pretty frocks…
    the flight will be over in no time!

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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