Nashville Adventures // Part One // The Drive and Hospital

So my brother and his wife decided to move to Nashville for an internship. It was a huge decision for them but they know it's the right place for them to be right now. He got an internship there and they asked if we wanted to come along with them to help them move and to just explore. When we found out it was about an hour and a half from Tanner's mission, we knew we for sure wanted to go. We've been wanting to visit Tanner's mission for years, but we've haven't had the money to spend. 

Day one started with 16 hours of driving. Surprisingly the day flew! Sheridan, Kaydence and I drove the Corolla and the boys drove the moving truck. It was fun to spend the entire day talking with Sheridan and even though I thought I knew her well, I got to know her even better. It was a fun day and Kaydence was AMAZING. I was so proud of her. She didn't complain much at all and she actually had fun with us in the car. That night we made it all the way to Oklohoma and camped out in my cousin's house. Unfortunately they were out of town so we didn't get to see them, but it was fun to see where they live. 

  The next morning we woke up and got some quick breakfast at Sonic and then headed toward Nashville. We drove about 10 hours. We made it almost to Nashville, but decided to get a hotel in Memphis, which is about 3 hours or so from Nashville. We were going to have to get a hotel in Nashville either way because their apartment office was closed to they couldn't get the key until the next morning, so we stopped in Memphis. First thing Kaydence wanted to do when we got to the hotel was take a bath. Right as she got out, I put her town on her and she took one step and slipped face first on the corner of the tile. She hit the threshold where the tile meets the carpet. I picked her up and tried to sooth her on the bed. She was holding her chin. As soon as she lifted her hands off, blood started gushing. I tried not to react, but I didn't do a very good job. I was not expecting there to be a huge cut. I held a rag on it as Tanner called our insurance company to try to find an urgent care or hospital that was covered. All the numbers they gave him didn't answer because they were all closed! We just searched hospitals around the area and found a Children's Hospital and headed there as fast as we could. Kaydence was terrified to go to a hospital because she has heard everything that I have gone through in a hospital. I told her it's a Kids Hospital and it made her feel a lot better. We checked in and asked how long the wait was. She said she could not give me a timeline, but that 48 people checked in the past hour! We waited about 2 hours and finally got in a room. By this time Kaydence was being so brave and calm. I was amazed because that's not her normal self when it comes to doctors because she's terrified of shots. The staff came in and talked to her and made her feel so comfortable. They even brought her tons of stickers and a coloring book. She was having a lot of fun. Then they came in to explain to her what they needed to do. THe language they used was genius. All the medical terms did not sound scary at all. They called the stitches, "string bandaids". They explained they are going to put some silly stuff in her nose that will make her feel silly. She laughed. Then she was so relieved to find out that she didn't need any shots at all! They put numbing creme on her whole chin and we had to wait 45 minutes for it to go into full effect. We watched the Disney channel for the next hour and she was doing so good. The nurses then came in and started getting the stitches ready. They they got the anti-anxiety medicine ready. They were in injectors that go up her nose, but Kaydence thought they were shots, so she started crying. They let her touch them to show her they are soft and not pokey. She was ok, until they shot the liquid up her nostrils. They had to do 2 in each nostril. She cried and then threw up. As soon as Kaydence saw the scissors for the string she got all scared again. The nurse handled it so well and helped her see that she wasn't going to touch her skin with the scissors, just cut the string bandaid with it. She also helped her realize that she can't even feel her chin. We had to cover her eyes and the nurse started the stitches. She was doing so good. I started telling her a story, one of her favorites, The Bear in the Candy House. It nearly put her to sleep. The nurse finished up and she was wide awake when she finished. She got 6 stitches. By this time it was 3:00am. She got a popsicle for being so good. I seriously was so proud of her. She did very good considering. Her owie is named Memphis. 

The rest of our adventures get better. See Part Two.