I've always been calm in the face of an emergency...
yesterday, I almost lost Steven to an early death of blood
loss. fortunately he calmly listened to my concerns, acting
upon them almost imediately, because he knows through
experience, I am not an alarmist. I don't faint at the
sight of a lot of blood. and I have never become hysterical,
(not since my mother and sister's tried to get me to sign
commitment papers on my father. then I was thirteen, so I
figure it was pardonable.)

It started out as a medical procedure, the removal of a cyst.
underneath it was an infected abscess(the size of a baseball)
it wasn't bleeding when they sent him home. but when I changed
the bandage it started bleeding profusely from the incision which
was about an inch and a half long and packed with puss. I tried to
staunch the bleeding, with gauze pads. but it was too much blood.
the pads were quickly soaked. the blood ran from the wound on his
back, down into his waistband.I sent him to the Emergency Room,
which is about seven minutes away.

the first thing they did was put enough bandages on it to control
the bleeding. then the surgeon took him to the OR where they had
better equipment and lighting. she found a blood vessel deep in the
muscle, that was bleeding. she sutured the vessel and repacked it.
sending him home, with a bandage that wasn't going to leak. he goes
back in today to have the wound rechecked and the bandage changed. this
morning, he is a bit light-headed from the blood loss. and slightly
rumpled of spirit. that did not stop him from logging into work this
early morning. I asked him to take a sick day, but he wouldn't do so.
(damned electrical engineer!) he says he is tougher than I think.