Stitches

Wow, what had been an incredible day with my kids, sister and niece came to a screeching halt Friday night. We were getting ready to leave the science centre and the kids were playing in the blocks. My husband called me to ask what I was making for dinner, my very favourite question from him. grr. I told him I thought I might pick up a rotisserie chicken and we would have salad and stuff. He was really not impressed and was whining a bit, then my girly fell down and starts screaming. I was that good mother talking on her cell as her kids gets hurt-nice. I told dh I had crying kid and hung up the phone. As she was just calming down, dh calls again, thinking I hung up on him and my Juju-bear trips over his big brother. His fall was broken by his head hitting the radiator cover. He cried out so loud, I put down my girly and picked him up as he just sobbed. Then I looked at him. Blood everywhere. He kept putting his hands up to his face and of course they were covered in blood. He kept looking at them and crying even harder, because the blood was so scary to him.

I told my sister that I was taking him to first aid and I would meet her after. I carried my little guy in my arms like a baby, calmly over the bridge that is above the lobby. I kept looking down at the girls manning the desk, knowing they could hear my screaming boy and hoping they would take some sort of helpful action. They studiously ignored me til I had come down the stairs and came and stood directly in front of one of them at the desk. After a second she looked up and her face instantly looked panicked and disgusted as she got the first aid lady. The two women who took me to the first aid room seemed pretty flustered and not sure exactly what they should be doing, but I was talking to my boy all this time and telling him that these ladies were gonna help mommy clean off some of the blood and put a bandage on so that I could take him to the hospital where the doctor would suture his wound. And that is exactly what happened. They were a bit shocked when they looked at his cut and saw how large it was, an inch long and gaping a good half centimeter.

I got everyone buckled in the van and headed for home, by now my Juju had calmed down and by the time I dropped everyone off at home he was sleeping. He really didn't want me to take him to the doctor, kept telling me he was fine. I felt terrible because I knew he needed stitches and how awful that was gonna be.

I actually got lost on my way to the hospital. By now the adrenaline had worn off and I felt really tired and slow. I made a wrong turn and kept going for like 10 minutes the wrong way, ugh. By the time we finally reached the hospital, my little sweetie was his happy little self, chatting away with the nurses at triage and the people in the waiting room. We coloured and read stories and they took us in quite quickly, cleaned him and put on the freezing gunk that had to sit for 20 minutes. When it was time for the suturing the doc came in, but the suture kit wasn't set out yet so she told us that she would be right back to sew up his cut. Well, my poor little guy got scared then. He didn't quite realize that suturing meant they were going to sew his already very ouchie cut. He now wanted to escape, "I am ready to go home now Mommy." He got a bit panicky and then here comes the doctor and she is cleaning up the goop and he is trying to get away. So the nurse and I are holding him. Then the doctor, who is very unsure of herself and keeps asking the nurse for advice, starts the first stitch. Juju starts screaming and the crying makes his eyebrow move and I can see inside his flesh, watch it all moving around-ew. The nurse assures me and the doctor that he is crying cuz he can feel the pulling as his skin is grabbed and pulled. I have to lay on him and hold his hands tightly in mine while he cries for me to let go. The first stitch takes forever cuz JuJu is crying and moving and the doc keeps stopping to wait for us to calm him a bit. After all that the stitch ends up kinda loose. The nurse talks to Ju and the 2 of us calm him down a bit while the doctor gets another needle, cuz she dropped the first one.
He is a bit calmer now and I don't have to hold so tightly. The doctor starts the second stitch and it becomes apparent that yes, he can feel that needle going in. My poor, poor baby. The doc now stops mid-stitch as the nurse explains to me that they can give him the lidocaine needle, but it burns like an S.O.B. and is sometimes actually worse, and it is of course another needle going in. I don't know what to do, but decide to let them finish. The doctor ends up doing only 3 stitches, I think she is a bit afraid to do anymore-he probably needed at least 4, but the wound is closed so we leave it. As soon as the nurse is done putting on the steri-strips, my Juju is fine and ready to go home.
He chatters away to me the whole way home, and we are almost there when my tears start. I just sob quietly to myself, he was such a brave little guy and now he says he is fine-doesn't hurt anymore. The hardest part for me was letting them hurt him to help him. I hate that. I have such respect and empathy for parents of sick children, children who have to go through sometimes terrible treatments in the hopes of being well. I am so thankful for healthy kids who can run around and even get small injuries.
I ended my Friday by going out with my sis and her friend to a pub and visiting and having a bit of liquid stress relief, just letting off some steam. It was just what I needed.

Comments

  1. That's horrible! I'm not sure how we have so far managed not to have any stitches, though we have had black eyes.
    I agree though, about it being tough having to help out when your child is being fixed up.
    We went through that with ear infections (to the point I would drive and hour to go to the only doctor Matt would let touch his ears). And then once he had to have a chest x-ray and they put him in the tube thing. Brutal.

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