Parker's Stitches

7/8/08
Today we made a trip into the emergency room for Parker. Poor little guy was getting out of a chair in our computer room and hit his head (just above his eye) on the corner of the desk. I knew the first time I looked at it that we were going to the hospital. I was amazed at how I was able to stay calm, it was like someone was there holding my hand and telling me it was going to be alright. I was so thankful he had missed his eye!

It the midst of chaos I was calming Parker down applying pressure with a wet rag, instructing Oscar to call his dad and his grandmother, and trying to reassure Zachary that his brother would be okay. Zachary was really upset and Mason was so enthralled he just sat in the bathroom and watched everything.

By the time Parker had calmed down and stopped bleeding, I changed out of my pj's, got Parker in the car, hugged Zachary a couple more times, my mother-in-law Leonie had arrived, and Oscar pulled up in the driveway. We were off to the emergency room. Oscar thought they might just glue it, but it looked pretty deep so I was letting the doctor make that call. Good thing we did because he said the cute was just a little bit jagged and because it was his face he didn't want an ugly scar.

Here we are watching TV waiting to be admitted. Thankfully we were next on the list. When we got there they put this bandage on his head.



This is when the nurse was taking off a bandage that was holding in the gooping stuff to numb his head. They didn't want the stuff to get into his eye. He really didn't like them taking it off, it hurt bad. The poor nurse, I could tell she didn't like making him cry.



Here he is getting sewn up. I couldn't watch or I'd pass out so I held his leg and watched the TV. He whimpered a couple of times which made me flip my head around, but I quickly turned back to the TV when he was calm again.



The doctor told me to keep an antiobotic ointment on it so it wouldn't dry up and scab to much. I asked about neosporin and he said he didn't want us using it because it could make the scar worse!! WHAT! I had never heard of that. So I asked for some samples because I knew I didn't have any at home. It is called "Bacitracin Zinc Ointment". I'm still not sure where to get it. We also have to put sunscreen on it everytime he is in the sun for the next two summers to make the scar less visible. Apparently sun makes scars worse. I didn't know that either. He got 4 stitches and we have to go back in 5 days to have them taken out.

Here we are at home. He was so brave at the hospital he did awesome. He was pretty bummed that he couldn't go swimming for 5 days. He had been looking forward to swim that night with his brothers at the Lakeview Pool Scout BBQ/Swim party. We told him we would go back after his stitches were out, that made him happy.





Parker has been counting down the days looking forward to go swimming. He hasn't complained once about his head hurting since we got home. We put a bandaid on it so he doesn't accidently bump it, scratch it, or rub it.

The next day Mason apparently hadn't forgotten about this. He came out of the office the next morning holding his head saying "I beedin. I go to docor" Translation "I'm bleeding, I need to go to the Doctors". We reassured him that he was not bleeding and we weren't going to the doctors. We had to hold him up to the mirror to convince him he wasn't bleeding. Very cute, but I didn't want to repeat the episode from last night. Looking back I know Parker had been watched over and I was given help and strength to help him and my other three boys. I don't do well with blood stuff but I had to in this situation. I know I was guided and I am very grateful for it.