Kathy was standing outside the nurse’s office at summer camp waiting for Nurse Diane to look at her knee.
Just then Bobby walked by with some of the other campers. Bobby noticed the big red spot on Kathy’s knee .
“That thing on your knee really looks yucky, Kathy,” said Bobby.
Kathy started to sniffle and answered, “I fell while jumping rope. I don’t understand. I never fall. I’m really good at jumping rope.”
Just then the door opened and Nurse Diane came out and said, “Why Kathy, what’s wrong? Did you fall and scrape your knee? Come inside and I will take a look at it and clean it up for you.”
Kathy followed Nurse Diane into the nurse’s office. Nurse Diane got some medicine out of the closet. She cleaned off the scrape and got ready to put the medicine on it when Kathy asked, “How come my knee isn’t bleeding like when I cut my finger? Bobby’s right, it looks yucky. What does it have on it?”
Nurse Diane smiled and said, “Your knee probably bled some when you fell, but not the way it would if you fell on a sharp edge and cut yourself. You didn’t cut your knee, you scraped your knee and now a scab is forming on it.”
Kathy looked confused and asked, “What’s a scab?” Nurse Diane answered saying, “A scab is how our body protects our skin after we get a scrape by forming a hard crust over the area that is hurt and bleeding. The scab lets the skin underneath heal.”
Kathy asked Nurse Diane how long the scab would stay on her knee. Nurse Diane told her it would fall off in a week or so and her knee would look as good as new.
