The Dallas Stars hockey team usually hold private practice sessions. However, every now and then they announce when and where they are practicing and invite the public to watch. Of course, Nicholas and Stuart just HAD to go check it out. Nicholas got a fun foam goalie helmet.
And he got to sit on top of the Frito-Lay Fan Zam.
The Fan Zam doesn't actually clean the ice like a Zamboni. It's just for riding fans around on the ice and for hauling around people who like to throw t-shirts and stuff into the crowd.
The guys had fun watching the Stars and they even met Brad Richards, #91 and got his autograph on a Stars game program!
After the Stars practice time was over, Stuart and Nicholas decided to take to the ice for their public skate session. They each worked on practicing skills they had learned in their classes. Stuart was practicing skating backwards and as he turned his head back to look behind him he must have put too much weight forward because the next thing he knew he was lying on the ice. The rim of his glasses cut into his eyebrow. It was surprisingly deep and he ended up having to ride in an ambulance to the ER for stitches and CT scan to check for a concussion.
I was home with Rachel when this happened. The manager from the Dr. Pepper Stars Center used Stuart's cell phone to call me to let me know what had happened. It's never a good feeling when you see on caller ID that your husband is calling but when you answer it isn't him on the phone. That was a scary feeling.
Stuart and some other skaters were able to talk to Nicholas some to keep him calm. He gets worried over medical issues so I'm sure seeing his Daddy bleeding as bad as he was got him shook up a little. But the ambulance guys were great with him too and even gave him this cute teddy bear in doctor scrubs. Nicholas thought the ambulance ride was really cool.
Rachel and I had rushed to the hospital and got there just after the ambulance guys had wheeled Stuart in to the ER. I knew it was the right ambulance because I saw one of the guys holding Stuart's bag. He was so helpful to load the guys' gear into the van for me while I went in to check on Stuart.
Stuart has a four inch cut through this eyebrow.
He got some injections of lidocaine to help numb the area for the stitches. However, even after lots of injections, he was still feeling pain in several areas. The doctor had to give him more injections but they were as painful as the needle for the stitches. It was really hard watching this because Stuart was in pain for much of the time.
He ended up with eight stitches and some really strong pain medicine. Poor guy!
Stuart commented to me that at least we won't have to worry about Nicholas whining about not wanting to wear a helmet in hockey class now.
I thought this was going to be about a post where Nicholas got hurt. Oh wow! Poor Stuart!!
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