First Stitches

I know that little boys will get injured and little boys will get hurt, but when it happens to YOUR little boy it just breaks your heart!

Today, we took Alex to the Bridgestreet.  They have a fountain area where little kids can run around and and play in the water.  Good idea, right?!  It started out great.  Alex was having fun, playing in the water and being silly.  In an instant it turned out not so great.  Larry and I looked down at Jaxon's stroller to move it and the next thing we know is Alex runs up to us, telling us he has fallen down and with blood gushing from his chin.  Larry, being the quick thinker, grabs a diaper and holds it to Alex's chin so the blood doesn't get everywhere.  Eventually, we calmed Alex down enough and we were able to look at his chin and realized that it was cut a little more than what a simple band-aid could handle.  We quickly left Bridgestreet and headed to the ER.

At the ER, they numbed him up and stitched him up.  He got 2 stitches on the inside and 6 stitches on the outside.  The nurses and doctor kept commenting on how well behaved he was and how brave he was being.  He just laid there and let them stitch him up like it was something that he has done everyday.

A little funny story about the whole incident:

While we were waiting to be seen by the doctor, another lady came into the room.  I forget what exactly her title was, but ti was one that I didn't recognize.  She told us that she wanted to ask Alex a few questions and explain to him the procedure that he was about to have done.  This is how the conversation went:

Lady:  Hi Alex, I work here at the hospital.  Can you tell me what you did today?!
Alex:  Mommy, what did I do?
Me:  Alex, tell her what happened.
Alex:  I fell down and hurt my chin, right Mommy?
Me:  Yes, Alex.
Lady:  Alex, where did you fall down?
Alex: Where did I fall down, Mommy?
Me:  Alex, where were we?
Alex:  At the fountains.  Right, Mommy?
Me: Yes.

You get the picture.  I was so afraid this lady was from child protective services checking up on us.  All the while, Alex was asking was asking me for reassurance.  I was hoping she didn't think he was being coached in any way.  Fun times.

Turns out the lady works with the hospital and explains to kids what is going on - in ways the child can understand.  She told Alex he would be getting blue strings in his chin to help heal him and showed him a doll that had blue strings in it.  He was able to touch and feel the strings - which helped calm him down a little bit about it.  She also told him that he needed to stay very still so the doctor could put the strings in.

All in all, Alex was such a trooper during the whole ordeal.  He only cried for a few minutes - I was so proud of him!

Here are a few pictures of our time at the fountains, before he fell down and a few pictures while we were at the ER:

At the ER:

First Trip to the ER

Today was our first trip to the ER.  I'm sure with a daredevil for a child, this is only the first of many!

Alex and I were playing in the playroom upstairs, throwing a ball back and forth.  I threw the ball to him, he stumbled backwards and hit the side of his head on a chair.  Normally, if Alex falls down or gets hurt he cries a little and then stops and continues to do whatever he was doing.  This time, he let out an ear piercing scream and clung to me harder than he ever has.  He was crying so hard and holding on to me, that he wouldn't let me look at him to see what was wrong.  I took him into his room and saw that he was bleeding, both on me and on himself.  In one of my not-so-bright mom moments, I wiped off the cut behind his ear with a baby wipe, hoping to clean some of it off and to be able to get a better look.  He screamed louder!  After that I decided to call our neighbor Jess to take a look at his ear.  Since it was in the crease behind his ear, I made the decision to take him into the ER.

Larry (and Sheena since she was working at the hospital) met us at the ER.  He was so calm in the nurse triage area and the waiting room (completely unlike Alex).  He let the doctor look at his ear and told her "ear hurts".  It was so pitiful!  

Once the doctor looked at it, she told us that it wasn't as bad as it seemed and told us they would put a little numbing medicine on it, clean it up and put some skin glue on it.  About 5 minutes after they put the numbing medicine on it, he was back to normal and telling me that he was "hungy".  He fell 15 minutes before lunch, so we left the house without eating...the poor kid was starving!  I gave him a few snacks, some juice and waited for the doctor to come in a clean up his ear.  After cleaning it up, they put a little skin glue on his cut and we were out of the ER.  

All in all, we had a pretty good scare, we were at the ER for about 2 hours and we probably spent $100 on a bottle of super glue!  Not the best way to spend a Tuesday afternoon, but I am so glad that it was nothing more serious and hope that any future ER visits go this smoothly :)

Here is a picture of our little trooper all bandaged up: