{stitches}

It was a normal weekday morning at our house. I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast, and the kids were playing in the family room. All of a sudden, Henry started crying, and I heard Kate cry out "there's blood!"

I ran over, and saw him in front of our stone hearth, blood gushing out of his forehead. I know the head tends to bleed fairly profusely, so it wasn't the amount of blood that scared me--it was the size and depth of his cut. It was deep, and I knew he would need to have stitches.

Of course I was still in my pajamas, and I knew that I couldn't take four little kids with me to the Emergency Room. I quickly called Rick, praying he would answer the phone, and he did--after the first ring. I knew I had friends I could absolutely call, but knowing it would probably take hours, I was glad that he was able to come straight home.

I wrapped Henry up in an old towel and carried him upstairs to my closet, so I could get dressed. He had actually stopped crying by this time, which I took as a good sign. Rick was home in about 8 minutes, and off we went.

When we arrived, they wrapped his head in gauze and tape to keep pressure on the wound until he could be seen. It happened to be a very busy day in the ER, which I didn't expect for a Tuesday morning, and we ended up waiting for several hours. The nurses were so kind, and really helped keep him calm. Gratefully, he fell asleep after they put some numbing cream on the whole area to prep him for the stitches and numbing shots, and I held him while I watched a movie on TV.

Then the hard part began.

The doctor came in, and assessed the wound, and said that it was so deep, it went clear to the galea, a tendon on the scalp, that covers the upper part of the cranium. Fortunately, it had not been cut, and we could proceed with the stitches.

Because he was so young, they needed to put him in a straight jacket made out of a pillowcase and bedsheets. This was by far the most difficult for me. I'm a tough girl, and really calm in emergencies, but this was achingly hard to watch. He was hysterical, and it took the doctor stepping in to help in order to keep him from wriggling out of it. His arms were pinned back by the pillowcase, and the bedsheets were wrapped tightly around his body--from his feet up to his neck. He was so little, I knew they had no other choice, but it was something I didn't expect.

The next part went quickly--giving him numbing shots, and irrigating out the wound with salt water. Everyone was working as fast as possible, as not to stretch it out any longer than it needed to be. The stitches went in, they cleaned him up, and I was able to hold him and take off all the sheets holding him in place. He calmed down quickly, and I have to say, he was quite a trooper through the whole thing. He has a nasty bruise to along with it, but within a few hours he was my happy boy once again.

.....

Before

All bandaged, and waiting for the doctor


All done!



Sweet boy.

Through five kids, this was my first experience with stitches.

I hope it was the last.